nature
grapevine
At a glance
In short
Gefen is the plain word: grapevine. Sorek, by most readings, is a choice vine, the best stock; Rabbi Klein suggests that perhaps all the different explanations of sorek are somehow describing the same thing. Sarig is the tendril. Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino (Ohel Moed) lists gefen, sorek and shdeimah together as "grapevines", but not everybody agrees that shdeimah refers to a grapevine. Rashi makes it a grain field, Rabbeinu Bachya and the grammarians a vine, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim simply rich, nourishing ground, and Ohalei Yehuda and Shoresh Yesha a poor field.
Distinctions
Gefen (גפן) and sorek (שורק)
Gefen is the default: its cognates appear 55 times in Tanach, against six for shdeimah (Devarim 32:32; Yeshayahu 37:27, 16:8; Chavakuk 3:17; Yirmiyahu 31:39; Melachim II 23:4) and three for sorek and sorekah (Bereishis 49:11, Yeshayahu 5:2, Yirmiyahu 2:21), making it the most common of the three. While gefen plainly means a grapevine, the meaning of sorek is somewhat unclear (see the dispute above). Ibn Saruk also defines shdeimah as a sorek. Sorek is also taken as a type of high-quality red grape (Bereishis 49:11, Yeshayahu 5:2, 16:8, Yirmiyahu 2:21), as serukim is used of the red horses of Zecharyah 1:8; it seems to be cognate with the Arabic sharaqa, "shining brightly," and the Persian sorkh, "red" or "scarlet." It appears twice as a place-name: Nachal Sorek, Delilah's valley between Ashkelon and Gaza (Shoftim 16:4), and seemingly Masreikah, the town of Samlah king of Edom (Bereishis 36:36, Divrei HaYamim I 1:47).
Sechel Tov (to Bereishis 49:11): gefen is any vine, laden with grapes or not, while a soreikah is a vine without grapes (ve'anochi netaticha sorek, Yirmiyahu 2:21), since vines are planted bare and not laden. Arugas HaBosem rejects Dunash's view that kanah, netzer and sorek are one, since sorek is a kind of vine. The Rokeach (on the Hoshanos, p. 50): the kanah of Tehillim 80:16 is the wood by the root; Rashi and Ibn Ezra there take it as the firmly set vine. The Rokeach (Eikev, p. 193): gefen is named for stopping the wine in a magufah, a sealed jar, to keep its taste and strength. Rashi (to Yirmiyahu 2:21): sorek is shoots of a good vine.
Rabbeinu Bachya (to Devarim 32:14): enav is the single grape; the grapes hanging together are an eshkol in the Torah's language and a parkil in the language of Chazal (Sukkah 10a); what the clusters hang from is a gefen while attached and a zemorah once cut, as in vayichresu misham zemorah ve'eshkol anavim echad (Bamidbar 13:23). At Bamidbar 13:23 he brings a Midrash (Zohar, Shelach 160b) that it is a zemorah while attached and a mot once cut.
Shdeimah (שדמה)
See the dispute above. Pappenheim's route to it runs through the biliteral ש-ד, whose core sense he gives as abnormality: shoded (commandeering), sheid (a demon, said to disrupt the natural order), shidah and shidos (Koheles 2:8, women who danced as swiftly as sheidim), and shad (the gland whose secreting of nourishment departs from what other body parts do). From that last sense he derives shod (Yeshayahu 16:4, 60:16) and leshad (Tehillim 32:4) for mother's milk, borrowed for the mann (Bamidbar 11:8); eshed (Bamidbar 21:15), where streams converge as the fluids of milk converge; and shdeimah, a field juicy enough to nourish growth.
Sarig (שריג) and srak (סרק)
Sarig appears twice in Chumash, in the butler's dream of a gefen with three sarigim (Bereishis 40:10, 40:12), and once in Yoel 1:7; it seems to belong with ש-ר-ג, entangling (Iyov 40:17, Eichah 1:14). Srak in Mishnaic Hebrew is a non-fruit-bearing tree (Kilayim 6:3 and 6:5, Shevi'is 1:3, Sotah 8:3, Bava Basra 2:7, Bechoros 4:8). Describing the abundance of the Holy Land in Messianic times, Kesubos 111b expounds sorekah of Bereishis 49:11, spelled with a sin, as though it were srak with a samech; read literally as it appears before us, the passage says that even trees that bear no fruit will yet bear fruit. That reading has seemingly nothing to do with grapevines, so why is it tied to sorekah?
- Maharsha (Rabbi Shmuel Eidels, 1555 to 1631): the rabbis expounded the word as though it were spelled with a samech, in an allusion to a srak tree, and he concedes that the plain sense of the pasuk they expound is about grapevines, not other trees.
- Alternatively Rivan there, Rashi's son-in-law (see also Shitah Mekubetzes there in Rashi's name): even grapevines that would otherwise count as barren will still yield a plentitude of grapes.
Where the authorities disagree
What shdeimah means. Four views.
- Grain field: Rashi (to Devarim 32:32, Yeshayahu 16:8, Chavakuk 3:17), consistently.
- Grapevine, a true synonym of gefen: Rabbeinu Bachya (to Devarim 32:32), who reads the pasuk as deliberate doubled verbiage, with Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim), Ibn Ezra and Radak (to Yeshayahu 16:8).
- Any nourishing ground: Pappenheim: land juicy enough to feed what grows in it, neither a vine nor Rashi's grain field.
- A poor field: Ohalei Yehuda and Shoresh Yesha, a portmanteau of sadeh, field, and mah, what, seemingly invoking the shin and sin interchange, with mem interchanging with peh to link ש-ד-ם to ש-ד-ף, wind-blasted (Ibn Janach and Radak make a similar point at Yeshayahu 37:27, though not for every instance).
What sorek is.
- Targum Yonasan (to Yeshayahu 5:2, Yirmiyahu 2:21), Ibn Janach and Radak: the choicest grapevine, and per Ibn Ghiyyat in Radak's name one whose grapes have no pits.
- Rashi: shoots good for planting as trunks in their own right (Yeshayahu 5:2), or the vine's especially long tendrils (Bereishis 49:11), while at Yirmiyahu 2:21 he seems to follow the choice-vine approach, explaining sorek as shoots from a good gefen.
- Earlier, Rabbi Shmuel ben Chofni Gaon (998 to 1034, to Bereishis 49:11): the softest branches of the vineyard, which he notes is the sense of al-sarik in Syrian Arabic; Rabbi Klein adds that the word possibly refers to the Sirac or Syrac grapes now known as Syrah or Shiraz.
- Ibn Saruk: simply sarig, a tendril.
Rabbi Klein suggests that perhaps all these readings are somehow describing the same thing.
The root of gefen.
- The early grammarians (Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, Radak) hold the triliteral ג-פ-ן.
- Pappenheim derives it from the biliteral ג-ף, outward protrusion, with gaf (side, Mishlei 9:3), a bird's wing, guf (the body as the outward projection of the person), mageifah (a plague spreading by contact), and agaf (a flank of troops spread like wings; in Modern Hebrew a department within a larger body).
- Shoresh Yesha, implicitly invoking the gimmel and kaf interchange, relates ג-פ-ן to כ-פ-ן, famine, since wine makes a man hungry (Pesachim 107b to 108a).
In Ugaritic and Canaanite mythological texts the gefen is deified as an idolatrous god named Gapnu, understood there to be a messenger of Baal.
Also discussed in
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ג-פ-ן
גֶּפֶן, the vine; and גֶּפֶן שָׂדֶה, a vine of the field, which some take for a tree like a vine that the gourds grow on.
The vine
וְהִנֵּה־ גֶפֶן לְפָנָֽי, and behold a vine before me; לְגֶפֶן אַדָּֽרֶת (Yechezkel 17:8), a splendid vine; גֶּפֶן בּוֹקֵק יִשְׂרָאֵל (Hoshea 10:1), Yisrael is an emptied vine; and the plural, וְהַגְּפָנִים סְמָדַר (Shir HaShirim 2:13), the vines are in blossom.
The vine of the field
וַיִּמְצָא גֶּפֶן שָׂדֶה (Melachim II 4:39), and he found a vine of the field, from which he gathered wild gourds. Some explain גפן שדה as a particular tree on which the gourds grow; it is like a vine, and is called a vine of the field.
וְהִנֵּה־גֶפֶן לְפָנָֽי (בראשית ט, ט), כשש נקדות, להיות לְגֶפֶן אַדָּֽרֶת (יחזקאל יז, ח), גֶּפֶן בּוֹקֵק יִשְׂרָאֵל (הושע י, א), וַיִּמְצָא גֶּפֶן שָׂדֶה וַיְלַקֵּט מִמֶּנּוּ פַּקֻּעֹת שָׂדֶה (מלכים ב' ד, לט) וְהַגְּפָנִים סְמָדַר (שיר השירים ב, יג). ויש מפרשים גפן שדה עץ אחד שגדלים בו הפקועות והוא כמו גפן ונקרא גפן שדה.
ש-ד-ם
Vines, as he glosses it, and in Chavakuk perhaps a sown field; by Kidron the Targum makes it a plain; and once it is like שְׁדֵפָה, blighted.
Vines
וּמִשַּׁדְמֹת עֲמֹרָה (Devarim 32:32), and of the vines of Amorah, which he glosses as vines; and so כִּי שַׁדְמוֹת חֶשְׁבּוֹן אֻמְלָל (Yeshayahu 16:8), for the vines of Cheshbon are withered, and וּשְׁדֵמוֹת לֹא־עָשָׂה אֹכֶל (Chavakuk 3:17), the vines have yielded no food.
Or a sown field
In Chavakuk the sense may be a field of seed, since the pasuk has already said וְאֵין יְבוּל בַּגְּפָנִים, and there is no yield in the vines.
The Kidron pesukim
For בְּשַׁדְמוֹת קִדְרוֹן (Melachim II 23:4), in the plains of Kidron, the Targum renders נַחְלָא בְמֵישַׁר קִדְרוֹן, the wadi in the plain of Kidron; and Radak reads הַשְּׁדֵמוֹת עַד־נַחַל קִדְרוֹן (Yirmiyahu 31:39 in his edition), the plains as far as the wadi of Kidron, the same way, though the Targum renders that pasuk otherwise.
Blighted before it stands
But וּשְׁדֵמָה לִפְנֵי קָמָֽה (Yeshayahu 37:27), blighted before it stands grown, is like וּשְׁדֵפָה, from שִׁדָּפוֹן, blight, the mem and the peh coming from one place in the mouth; and so the pasuk in Melachim II 19:26 reads וּשְׁדֵפָה לִפְנֵי קָמָֽה.
וּמִשַּׁדְמֹת עֲמֹרָה (דברים לב, לב), כמו גפנים. וכן כִּי שַׁדְמוֹת חֶשְׁבּוֹן אֻמְלָל (ישעיה טז, ח), וּשְׁדֵמוֹת לֹא־עָשָׂה אֹכֶל (חבקוק ג, יז). ואפשר שיהיה הענין שדה זרע, כי כבר זכר (שם) וְאֵין יְבוּל בַּגְּפָנִים, אבל בְּשַׁדְמוֹת קִדְרוֹן (מלכים ב' כג, ד), אמר בו התרגום נַחְלָא בְמֵישַׁר קִדְרוֹן. וכן יהיה פירוש וְכָֽל־הַשְּׁרֵמוֹת [הַשְּׁדֵמוֹת] עַד־נַחַל קִדְרוֹן (ירמיה לא, לט), אף על פי שיש בו תרגום אחר. אך וּשְׁדֵמָה לִפְנֵי קָמָֽה (ישעיה לז, כז), כמו וּשְׁדֵפָה מענין שִׁדָּפוֹן, והמ"ם והפ"א ממוצא אחד. וכן אמר במלכים מקומו (ב' יט, כו) וּשְׁדֵפָה לִפְנֵי קָמָֽה.
ש-ר-ג
שָׂרִיגִם, branches of the vine; as a verb, to become entangled; and the Targum and the Mishnah use the word of lattice work and interlacing.
Branches of the vine
וּבַגֶּפֶן שְׁלֹשָׁה שָֽׂרִיגִם (Bereishis 40:10), and on the vine were three branches, which he glosses שעפים, branches; and הִלְבִּינוּ שָֽׂרִיגֶֽיהָ (Yoel 1:7), its branches have turned white.
Entangled
The reflexive form יִשְׂתָּרְגוּ עָלוּ עַל־צַוָּארִי (Eichah 1:14), they are entangled, they have come up upon my neck, he explains as יסתבכו, they become entangled; and so, in the passive of the heavy form, גִּידֵי פַֽחֲדָו [פַֽחֲדָיו] יְשׂרָֽגוּ (Iyov 40:17), the sinews of his thighs are entangled.
Lattice work
The Targum renders שְׂבָכִים מַֽעֲשֵׂה שְׂבָכָה (Melachim I 7:17), nets of lattice work, as סְרִיגַן עוֹבַד סְרִיגָא, lattices of lattice work; and the Mishnah has ומסרגין את המטות (Moed Katan 1:8, 8b), and one may interlace the beds.
וּבַגֶּפֶן שְׁלֹשָׁה שָֽׂרִיגִם (בראשית מ, י), שעפים. הִלְבִּינוּ שָֽׂרִיגֶֽיהָ (יואל א, ו). והתתפעל ממנו יִשְׂתָּרְגוּ עָלוּ עַל־צַוָּארִי (איכה א, יד), כלומר יסתבכו. וכן שלא נזכר פועלו מהדגוש [פֻּעַל] גִּידֵי פַֽחֲדָו [פַֽחֲדָיו] יְשׂרָֽגוּ (איוב מ, יז), ותרגום שְׂבָכִים מַֽעֲשֵׂה שְׂבָכָה (מלכים א' ז, יז) סְרִיגַן עוֹבַד סְרִיגָא. ובמשנה (מועד קטן פרק ראשון משנה ח. דף ח, ע"ב) ומסרגין את המטות.
ש-ר-קhis headword שׂרק
שׂוֹרֵק, the choicest of the kinds of vine; and שְׂרֻקִּים, patterned in colours, or, as some explain, groomed with a comb.
The vine
נְטַעְתִּיךְ שׂוֹרֵק (Yirmiyahu 2:21), I planted you a choice vine, and וְלַשֹּׂרֵקָה בְּנִי אֲתֹנוֹ (Bereishis 49:11), and to the choice vine his donkey's foal. It is the choicest of the kinds of vine. Rav Ibn Giat writes that it is the good kind whose grapes have no stone in them, and Targum Yonasan (Yeshayahu 5:2) renders it כְּמַצַב גֶפֶן בְּחִירָא, like the planting of a choice vine. Some explain עֹבְדֵי פִשְׁתִּים שְׂרִיקוֹת (Yeshayahu 19:9) the same way, workers of flax of the choicest kind, and so, it is said, in Arabic א"ל שר"ק is the name for the fine sort in silk.
What שְׂרֻקִּים means
שְׂרֻקִּים וּלְבָנִים (Zecharyah 1:8), שְׂרֻקִּים and white, Radak explains as patterned: their colour red and white and black, as though they were speckled or patched. So עֹבְדֵי פִשְׁתִּים שְׂרִיקוֹת (Yeshayahu 19:9), on this reading, is workers of flax dotted with colours, and Chazal speak of לובשי סריקין של זהב (Kiddushin 31a), wearers of סריקין of gold, which Radak explains as a garment figured with gold. Some explain שְׂרֻקִּים as groomed with a comb, and so Chazal (Moed Katan 10b), רבא שרא לסרוקי סוסיא, Rava permitted combing a horse, which Radak explains as combing it with a comb of iron. And so Chazal (Keilim 12:2) say קנה מאזנים של שריקות טמא, the beam of the scales of the שריקות is tamei, where the שריקות, Radak explains, are מוכרי פשתן שרוק, sellers of combed flax.
Radak’s root שׂרק
נְטַעְתִּיךְ שׂוֹרֵק (ירמיה ב, כא), וַיִּטָּעֵהוּ שֹׂרֵק (ישעיה ה, ב), וְלַשּֽׂרֵקָה בְּנִי אֲתֹנוֹ (בראשית מט, יא). הָלְמוּ שְׂרוּקֶּיהָ (ישעיה טז, ח), נכתב בו הנח עם הדגש. והוא המשובח ממיני הגפן. וכתב הרב אבן גיאת שהוא מין הטוב מן הגפנים שהענבים לא ימצא בהם חרצן. ותרגום יונתן(ישעיה ה, ב) כְּמַצַב גֶפֶן בְּחִירָא. ויש מפרשים כן עֹֽבְדֵי פִשְׁתִּים שְׂרִיקוֹת (ישעיה יט, ט), המשובח ממין הפשתן וכן יקרא בלשון ערבי א"ל שר"ק הטור שבמשי. שְׂרֻקִּים וּלְבָנִֽים (זכריה א, ח), מצויירים כלומר שעינם אדום ולבן ושחור כאילו הם נקודים או טלואים. וכן עובדי פשתים שריקות, כלומר מנקדים בצבעים. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (קידושין לא, סוף ע"א) לובשי סריקין של זהב, כלומר מלבוש מצוייר של זהב. ויש מפרשים שְֹרֻקִּים מתוקנים במסרק. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (מועד קטן י, ע"ב) רבא שרא לסרוקי סוסיא, כלומר להסריק הסוס במסרק של ברזל. וכן בדברי רבותינו (כלים פרק שנים עשר. משנה ב, דף כא, ע"א) קנה מאזנים של שריקות טמא פירוש מוכרי פשתן שרוק.
To whistle or hiss: the moving of the lips with a sound.
Whistling
וְשָׁרַק לוֹ מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ (Yeshayahu 5:26), He will whistle to him from the end of the earth, and אֶשְׁרְקָה לָהֶם וַאֲקַבְּצֵם (Zecharyah 10:8), I will whistle to them and gather them.
Hissing, and the nouns
שָׁרְקוּ וַיָּנִעוּ רֹאשָׁם (Eichah 2:15), they hissed and wagged their head. The nouns are שְׁרִקוֹת עֲדָרִים (Shoftim 5:16), the whistlings of the flocks, and וְיֹשְׁבֶיהָ לִשְׁרֵקָה (Michah 6:16), and her inhabitants for a hissing.
Radak’s root שׁרק
וְשָׁרַק לוֹ מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ (ישעיה ה, כו), שָֽׁרְקוּ וַיָּנִעוּ רֹאשָׁם (איכה ב, טו), יִשְׁרֹק י"י לַזְּבוּב (ישעיה ז, יח), יִשֹּׁם וְיִשְׁרֹק (ירמיה יט, ח), אֶשְׁרְקָה לָהֶם וַֽאֲקַבְּצֵם (זכריה י, ח). שְׁרִקוֹת עֲדָרִים (שופטים ה, טז), וְיֹֽשְׁבֶיהָ לִשְׁרֵקָה (מיכה ו, טז). ענין השריקה הנעות השפתים בקול.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Through the Grapevine," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 18 December 2021.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pekudai: Seeing Red (Part 2/3)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 29 March 2025.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Through the Grapevine," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 49:11 and 40:10 to 40:12; Devarim 32:32; Yeshayahu 5:2, 16:4, 16:8, 37:27, 60:16; Yirmiyahu 2:21, 31:39; Chavakuk 3:17; Melachim II 23:4; Yoel 1:7; Tehillim 32:4; Mishlei 9:3; Koheles 2:8; Bamidbar 11:8 and 21:15; Iyov 40:17; Eichah 1:14; Kilayim 6:3 and 6:5, Shevi'is 1:3, Sotah 8:3, Bava Basra 2:7, Bechoros 4:8; Pesachim 107b to 108a; Kesubos 111b with Maharsha, Rivan, and Shitah Mekubetzes; Ohel Moed, Machberes Menachem, and the Sifrei HaShorashim; Zecharyah 1:8; Shoftim 16:4; Bereishis 36:36; Divrei HaYamim I 1:47; Sechel Tov to Bereishis 49:11; Yirmiyahu 2:21 with Rashi; Arugas HaBosem vol. 1 p. 41; Rokeach on the Hoshanos p. 50; Tehillim 80:16 with Rashi and Ibn Ezra; Rokeach, Eikev p. 193; Rabbeinu Bachya to Devarim 32:14 and Bamidbar 13:23; Sukkah 10a; Zohar, Shelach 160b.