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wine
יין · תירוש · חמר · חמרא · שכר · עסיס
Bottom line
Yayin is wine, the default word. Tirosh is new wine, on the weight of the authorities unfermented or barely fermented juice; do not render it "wine" where a pasuk pairs it with dagan or sets it against yayin. Chemer is wine as well, the ordinary Aramaic word, read by most as "the red one." Shechar is strong drink, though the Targumim narrow it for the Nazir.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| יין | yayin | wine | the default; aged wine on the older tradition (Rashi, Ramban, Radak) |
| תירוש | tirosh | new wine, grape juice | at its beginning, sweet and weak (Pappenheim); pre-fermentation juice (Rav Hirsch) |
| חמר | chemer | wine, red wine | "red" turned noun (Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra, Radak); standard in Aramaic |
| שכר | shechar | strong drink | any intoxicant (Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra); beer or mead in Chazal (Bedersi) |
| עסיס | assis | pressed juice | named from the pressing (Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra) |
Where the authorities disagree
Whether yayin and tirosh differ at all. Machberes Menachem defines yayin as tirosh; Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (Sefer HaGalui) objects that this adds nothing and is wrong, and Yoma 76b treats them as two words naming two properties.
How they differ. (1) Age: Ramban (to Devarim 14:22), Radak (Sefer HaShorashim), Tosafos Rid to Yoma 76b, and Rashi (to Yoma 76b, Menachos 86b), that yayin is old wine and tirosh new, wine earning the name yayin only forty days in; Rav Hirsch (to Devarim 32:14) and Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Felix make tirosh juice before fermentation. (2) Sweetness and hour: the Vilna Gaon (to Hoshea 4:11), that yayin was drunk in the morning and tirosh was the sweet wine taken after lunch, the navi's rebuke being that they sinned around the clock. The Bottom line follows the first, the majority and older tradition. Radak adds that excess tirosh is the worse of the two, intoxicating faster.
What shechar is. Targum Onkelos and Targum Yonasan render yayin v'shechar (Bamidbar 6:3) as new and old wine, and the Sifrei (Naso §23) makes both one drink; Rabbeinu Bachaya reverses the assignment. Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra holds it literally means any intoxicating drink, as the Targumim render it for the kohen in Vayikra 10:9, the Rabbis narrowing it for the Nazir only because Tanach restricts him to grape products (Bamidbar 6:4). Ibn Ezra keeps the wide sense even for the Nazir; Rambam (Hilchos Nezirus 5:1) has it as a drink with wine mixed in. Bedersi: in rabbinic usage it is a drink of figs, pomegranates, raisins or dates, not wine (Pesachim 42b).
What chemer means. Some grammarians, per Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra, held it a word known only by tradition. He, Rabbi Yehuda Ibn Balaam, and Radak (to Yeshayahu 27:2, Tehillim 75:9) argue it means "red," an adjective that became a noun; Rabbi Aharon Marcus shifts the color to brown. Others, Rav Hirsch among them, read ח-מ-ר as fermentation, which yields chamirah, sourdough, as well.
Distinctions
yayin (יין)
Yoma 76b: yayin alludes to yelalah, the wailing wine brings to the world; Rashi there links it to taaniyah va'aniyah (Yeshayahu 29:2). Menachem Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach and Radak take the root as י-י-ן; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim takes it as the biliteral י-נ, deception, the root of onaah, since wine is sweet at the start and robs the drinker of his thinking after.
tirosh (תירוש)
Under forty appearances, usually paired with dagan. Yoma 76b expounds it from rosh and rash: one who merits becomes a head, one who does not a pauper (Rabbeinu Elyakim, he drinks away his money; Rabbi Yaakov Emden, his body grows weak). Rabbi Pappenheim derives it from ר-ש, head and so beginning, hence wine at its start; Ibn Janach and Radak class it under י-ר-ש while conceding it has nothing to do with inheriting, and Rav Hirsch reads it as wine driven out of the grape by force.
chemer (חמר, חמרא)
Devarim 32:14; Yeshayahu 27:2; Tehillim 75:9. Rashi to Devarim 32:14: chemer is the Aramaic for yayin, standard in the Gemara, the Targumim and biblical Aramaic (Daniel 5:1-23); chamar medinah is whatever drink holds that place locally. The same letters spell chamor, donkey, which Eruvin 53b turns into a joke on a Galilean's blurred gutturals; the Maharal ties it to chomer.
Rendering guidance
- יין: "wine," always. Do not upgrade it to "old wine" unless the passage contrasts it with tirosh; put the forty-day tradition in a note.
- תירוש: "new wine" is safe on both readings; "grape juice" only where the sefer follows Rav Hirsch, and say so.
- Trap: "wine" for both words destroys Hoshea 4:11 and every dagan v'tirosh pairing. Where both stand together, render "wine and new wine."
- שכר: "strong drink" in a pasuk (Vayikra 10:9); "beer" only in Chazal.
- עסיס is "pressed juice"; mel'ayah (Shemos 22:28) is wine for Targum Yonasan and Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino, grain for Rashbam and Bechor Shor, so follow the meforshim the sefer is quoting rather than defaulting to "wine."
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Words for Wine (Part 1)," 9 Adar Bes 5782 (2022-03-12), and "Words for Wine (Part 2)," 23 Adar Bes 5782 (2022-03-26), What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach; raw texts in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9616-words-for-wine-part-1.md and .../9632-words-for-wine-part-2.md. Primary loci: Shemos 22:28; Vayikra 10:9; Bamidbar 6:3-4; Devarim 14:22, 32:14; Yeshayahu 27:2, 29:2; Hoshea 4:11; Tehillim 75:9; Daniel 5:1-23; Yoma 76b; Menachos 86b; Eruvin 53b; Pesachim 42b; Sifrei Naso §23. Academic material the articles cite (Ugaritic epigraphy, Indo-European comparisons, Dr. Kutscher) is omitted under house rule 9.