nature
rain
גשם · מטר · יורה · מלקוש
Bottom line
Geshem and matar both mean rain, and the authorities split on which is the general word and which the specific one; render both "rain" and let the context carry any distinction. Yoreh and malkosh are not kinds of rain but seasons of it: yoreh is the first rain, at the start of the rainy season, and malkosh the last rain, in early spring before the harvest. Never render yoreh and malkosh as "early rain and late rain" without saying what they are early and late to; the pasuk in Shema (Devarim 11:14) is promising a full year's cycle.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| גשם | geshem | rain | the commonest word; general rain, or specifically the heavy or blessed rain (the views differ) |
| מטר | matar | rain | rain sent at its time; the word used when what falls is judgment (Bereishis 19:24) |
| יורה | yoreh | the first rain | opens the season; "teaches" people to secure roofs and store produce (Taanis 6a) |
| מלקוש | malkosh | the last rain | falls near Pesach, before the reaping, from mekoshesh (Taanis 6a) |
Where the authorities disagree
Which of geshem and matar is the general term. The article gives three positions without naming their holders, so they are recorded here as views, not attributed rulings.
- Geshem is the general term for rain of every sort, and matar the specific one, the "rains of blessing"; a variant of this reads matar as heavy rain, which fits its use for the fire and brimstone on Sedom (Bereishis 19:24) and for the hail in Mitzrayim (Shemos 9:18).
- The reverse: matar is the general term, and geshem the specific one, hard rain or rain of blessing.
- The two differ not in intensity but in origin. Geshem is rain by the natural order, vapors held in the clouds until the winds release them, bound to no fixed time; this is why later sources borrowed the word for physical matter, gashmiyus. Matar is rain that Hashem brings directly at set times, and the times are the yoreh and the malkosh of Devarim 11:14.
The Bottom line does not choose, because no rendering follows from the choice: the third view is the most useful to a translator, since it explains the pasuk's sequence, but the first two are equally represented and English has one word.
Distinctions
geshem (גשם) and matar (מטר)
The two are near enough that every account of them has to be argued from usage rather than from form. What is agreed: geshem is the more frequent word, and matar is what the pasuk uses in Devarim 11:14 for rain given "in its time," with yoreh and malkosh named as those times. The derivative gashmiyus, materiality, belongs to geshem alone, and grows out of the third view above, that geshem is rain by the ordinary running of the world.
yoreh (יורה) and malkosh (מלקוש)
Both are seasonal markers, and Taanis 6a explains each from its own root. Yoreh (or moreh) carries the senses of shooting and of teaching; it is the season's first rain, and it teaches people to reinforce their roofs and bring the produce indoors before the heavier rains come. Malkosh is tied to mekoshesh, one who reaps; it falls at the onset of spring, around Pesach, just before the harvest.
Rendering guidance
- Trap: English "rain" swallows geshem and matar whole. Where a passage sets them against each other, mark the contrast in the prose ("the ordinary rains, and the rain He gives in its season") rather than hunting for two English nouns.
- Devarim 11:14: "the rain of your land in its time, the first rain and the last rain." "Early rain and latter rain" is the older English and is defensible, but a note should say that these are the opening and closing rains of one season.
- Matar in Bereishis 19:24 and Shemos 9:18 is "rained down," a verb of sending; do not soften it to weather.
- Gashmiyus in a mussar sefer is "materiality" or "the physical"; it is a derivative of geshem, not a word about rain, and should not be glossed as though it were.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Rain, Rain Come Again," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 17 Tammuz 5776 (2016-07-23): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/6861-rain-rain-come-again.md. Primary loci cited: Devarim 11:14 (the second parashah of Shema); Bereishis 19:24; Shemos 9:18; Taanis 6a. This is one of the column's short pieces: it names no lexicographers, gives the geshem/matar views anonymously, and rests its one firm distinction, yoreh against malkosh, on the Gemara. Nothing has been supplied here beyond what it says.