nature
red
אדום · שני · תולעת שני · חמוץ · אמוץ · שרוק
Bottom line
Adom is plain red and the deepest of the shades. Shani (tola'as shani) is crimson, the worm-dye of the Mishkan, never flattened to "red" where the ritual color matters. Chamutz and amutz are a weaker red: red-stained in Yeshayahu, chestnut in Zechariah. Seruk is pink, chum brown, chachlilei a drinker's bloodshot eye; in Aramaic sumak is everyday red.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| אדום | adom | red | the general word, and the deepest red (Radak to Zechariah 6:2-3) |
| שני | shani | crimson | worm-dyed wool; deep red with a blue cast (Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Ibn Ezra, Radak) |
| חמוץ | chamutz | red-stained | blood- or wine-stained garments (Ibn Janach, Radak); hapax, Yeshayahu 63:1 |
| אמוץ | amutz | chestnut, burgundy | chamutz with aleph; a weaker red than adom (Radak) |
| חכלילי | chachlilei | bloodshot | the reddened white of a drinker's eye (Tedeschi-Ashkenazi) |
| סומק | sumak | red (Aramaic) | the plain Talmudic word (Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur) |
Where the authorities disagree
What seruk means. Radak (to Zechariah 1:8 and Sefer HaShorashim) takes serukim as "colorful," naming no shade; Malbim (there) says pink or light red. Follow Malbim: the pasuk already has adumim beside it, and "colorful" leaves the pair saying nothing.
Whether chachlilei is red. Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi makes it the reddened white of the eye, from kalil, "crown"; Ramban (to Bereishis 49:12) ties it to kachol, blue. Follow the red reading, which the Peshitta supports.
Distinctions
adom (אדום)
Root א-ד-ם. Nine occurrences as an adjective (Esav's lentil stew, Bereishis 25:30; the beloved's complexion, Shir HaShirim 5:10; parah adumah, Bamidbar 19:2), with admoni, "ruddy," of Esav and David (Bereishis 25:25; Shmuel I 16:12) and adamdam, "reddish," six times of tzaraas in Vayikra 13-14. The verb "to dye red" is mostly the Mishkan's reddened hides; the nouns include odem, the choshen's red stone, and Edom.
shani (שני) and tola'as shani (תולעת שני)
The dyed wool of the parah adumah (Bamidbar 19:6), of the metzora's taharah (Vayikra 14:4, 14:49-52), and of the Mishkan throughout Shemos; also bare shani (Bereishis 38:30; Yehoshua 2:18) or bare tola. That the shade is crimson, deep red carrying blue or purple, is stated by Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Ibn Ezra, and Rabbi Avraham Maimuni (to Shemos 25:4), Raavad and Rash M'Shantz (to Toras Kohanim), Radak, and Meiri. The dye comes from a worm, tola'as.
chamutz (חמוץ) and amutz (אמוץ)
Chamutz is a hapax: "why are your garments red (adom), your clothes like one who treads a winepress" (Yeshayahu 63:1-2). Menachem Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak gloss it "red," Radak from context, the color of blood or wine stains; it has nothing to do with ח-מ-ץ, "leavened, vinegar, anger." Zechariah's amutzim horses (6:3) are the same word (Ibn Janach, Radak), and since that vision also has adumim horses (6:2), Radak makes chamutz/amutz the weaker red.
The remaining terms
Seruk: susim adumim serukim (Zechariah 1:8), with sorek the fine red grape (Bereishis 49:11) and Mishnaic sarak, red rouge (Kesubos 17a). Chum and shachum, Lavan's flocks, a red near black, named for a heating oven, chom. Chamar describes wine at Tehillim 75:9; Ibn Janach and Radak say it means red there, since "winey wine" says nothing. Rashbam and Chizkuni (to Bereishis 38:30) read the name Zerach as "red," and Shadal (to Shemos 20:5) finds a buried sense of red in kana, "jealous." Yemenite exegetes (Midrash Chefetz to Shemos 25:4), with Shadal, read argaman as a yellowish-red against the deeper crimson of tola'as shani, though it usually reads "purple." Zehoris renders shani in Targum and names the Mishnah's thread on the sa'ir hamishtaleach (Yoma 4:2, 6:6), a shining red (Rabbi Tanchum HaYerushalmi). Gichor, a blemish disqualifying a kohen but not a korban (Bechoros 7:6), is "very red" (Rashi).
Rendering guidance
- תולעת שני is "crimson wool," not "red wool": the parah adumah is red, the wool tied with it crimson.
- Trap: English "red" swallows adom, shani, chamutz, chum, and sumak. Zechariah 1:8 and 6:2-3 test this, each setting two side by side; "red and pink horses," "red horses ... chestnut horses" keep what Radak and Malbim read.
- Yeshayahu 63:1-2 pairs chamutz and adom in adjacent phrases: render chamutz "stained red" and adom "red," so the second is not a repetition.
- חכלילי is never plain "red." "Bloodshot," or "dark from wine," keeps the idiom.
- In a Gemara, סומק is simply "red"; זהורית is "crimson," or transliterated.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Seeing Red," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, in three installments (2025-03-22, 2025-03-29, 2025-04-05); raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11742-vayakhelparah-seeing-red-part-12.md, 11743-pekudai-seeing-red-part-23.md, 11763-vayikra-seeing-red-part-33.md. The published header numbers Part 1 as "1/2"; the series runs to three. Part 1 is largely about adam and adamah rather than the color (Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 1:26; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim on the biliteral ד-ם, "resemblance"); see the entries on adam and on adamah. Further loci: Radak to Yeshayahu 63:1 and Zechariah 1:8; Meturgaman; Rashi to Berachos 31b, 58b, 59b and Bechoros 45b; Rema, Yoreh Deah 178:1. Comparative etymologies in the articles are omitted.