Vayakhel/Parah: Seeing Red (Part 1/2)
This week, we read Parshat Parah, one of the four special Torah portions recited during the Purim-Pesach season. This special reading outlines the laws of the parah adumah (literally the “red heifer”), a ritual used to purify those who have become ritually impure through contact with a human corpse. In honor of this occasion, we embark on a three-part exploration of Hebrew and Aramaic words associated with the color “red.” Part I of this series focuses on the word adom and its etymological cognates, while Part II will examine other Hebrew terms for “red,” and Part III will focus on Aramaic synonyms to round out the discussion.
The adjective adom (“red”) derives from the triliteral root ALEPH-DALET-MEM. It appears nine times in the Bible to describe objects characterized by redness. For example, adom is used to describe the red lentil stew that Esau traded for his birthright (Gen. 25:30) and is also used to describe a lover’s complexion in Song of Songs (5:10). Of course, the red heifer is described as a parah adumah, with a feminine form of that adjective used to denote the cow’s color (Num. 19:2). A related adjective, admoni (“ruddy”), appears three times in the Bible, in reference to both Esau and King David (Gen. 25:25; I Sam. 16:12, 17:42). Another derivative, adamdam (“reddish” or “ruddy”), is used six times in Leviticus 13–14 to describe tzara’at discolorations on the skin or garments that may indicate ritual impurity.
The verb forms of adom, which mean “to redden” or “to dye red,” appear ten times in the Bible. A plurality of those instances are when the Bible describes the red-dyed hides used in the construction of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:5, 26:14, 35:4, 35:23, 36:19, 39:34). Other examples of these verbs include Isaiah’s metaphor of sins being “red as crimson” (Isa. 1:18) and Nahum’s description of warriors’ shields being “reddened” in battle (Nah. 2:4, see also Lam. 4:7 and Prov. 23:31).
One of the most common derivatives of the root ALEPH-DALET-MEM is the noun adam, which refers both to Adam as the first man created by Hashem during the Six Days of Creation (proper noun) and to humanity in general (common noun). The word adam appears over 560 times in the Bible, making it one of the more frequently used terms in Scripture.
The Midrash (Tanchuma Tzav §14) and early Spanish exegetes such as Rabbi Yonah ibn Janach (in Sefer HaShorashim) and Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (in Kuzari) explain that man is called adam because he was formed from the adamah (“ground” or “earth”). This connection is implicitly stated in Genesis 2:7: “And Hashem God formed man (adam) from the dust of the ground (adamah),” but the Bible does not make quite make the linguistic connection explicit. Interestingly, Rabbi Ernest Klein notes a parallel etymology in Latin, where the words homo (“man”) and humanus (“human”) are said to derive from humus (“ground” or “earth”). This linguistic connection underscores the universal symbolism of humanity’s earthly origins. Other English words derived from humus include exhume, humble, and humiliate.
Rabbi Ernest Klein further suggests that the word adamah itself likely derives from adom, originally denoting “the red arable ground” prized for agriculture.
The root ALEPH-DALET-MEM gives rise to a rich array of nouns, each reflecting a connection to the color red or the concept of earth. These include: odem (“ruby” or “carnelian”), a red gemstone (Ex. 28:17); madim (“Mars”), known as the “Red Planet”; adamdemet (“rubella” in Modern Hebrew), a term for a reddish rash; Edom, an alternate name for Esau and his descendants on account of the red lentils Esau demanded from Jacob (Gen. 25:30); Admon, the name of a judge in Jerusalem mentioned in the Mishnah (Ketubot 13:1, Bava Batra 9:1, Shevuot 6:3) and a poetic reference to Edom in Maoz Tzur; Admata, the name of one of Achashverosh’s advisors (Est. 1:14).
There are also several place-names derived from this root: Adam is the name of a city in the Holy Land (Josh. 3:16); Adamah and Adami are names of cities in the tribal territory of Naphtali (Josh. 19:36); and Admah was a kingdom allied with Sodom that was destroyed along with it (Gen. 10:19, 14:2, Deut. 29:22, Hos. 11:8).
Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Gen. 1:26) offers a novel interpretation of the relationship between adam and adamah. Contra to the traditional view that adam derives from adamah, Rabbi Hirsch argues that — au contraire — adamah derives from adam. He explains that being formed from the earth is not something unique to Adam/humans; rather, animals, too, share this characteristic. What distinguishes humanity from the animal kingdom is man’s combination of a physical/corporeal body and a supernal/abstract soul, which makes man more akin to Hashem, who is entirely incorporeal.
In this way, Rabbi Hirsch connects adam to adom (“red”) by noting that red lies at the edge of the visible light spectrum, making it the closest color to invisible light (such as infrared). This position symbolizes humanity’s unique role as the bridge between the physical and the divine. The physically invisible lights hint to Hashem's physical invisibility, and red's position at the edge of the rainbow makes it the closest color to the divine. Just as red is the closest visible color to the invisible, man is the closest creation to Hashem, possessing free will and the capacity for spiritual elevation in ways that no other creature can attain. Once the word adam came to mean “man,” adamah evolved to denote the earth as the domain over which man reigns.
Using his famous theory of phonetic interchangeability, Rabb Hirsch further explains that ALEPH-DALET-MEM bears a similarity to HEY-DALET-MEM (hadom, “footstool”) — based on the interchangeability of ALEPH and HEY — because adam serves as the Divine footstool (so to speak), serving as the earthly representative of Hashem’s interests. Furthermore, Rabbi Hirsch sees the word adam as also related to chatam (“seal”) — based on the interchangeability of ALEPH and CHET, as well as DALET and TAV — explaining that the presence of man in This World represents Hashem’s signature or signet, as man’s existence shows all and sundry how Hashem has stamped creation with His own imprimatur.
Rabbi Hirsch further posits that adam can be read as a portmanteau of ALEPH (representing the number one in gematria) and dam (“similar”). This can be explained by realizing that man’s unique independence and capacity for freewill makes him similar to the One God who created the universe (per the above).
Dr. Lawrence (Yaakov) Resnick, author of 1,000 Words, offers an intriguing interpretation of the word adam. He suggests that adam can be understood as a combination of ALPEH and dam (“blood”), signifying a particularization of blood. Before the creation of man, all living creatures were characterized collectively, with one animal essentially representing and being interchangeable with another. However, with the creation of humanity, each individual — a “blood-containing unit” — holds intrinsic and unique value, making them irreplaceable and distinct from all others. According to Dr. Resnick, this inherent value of the individual is rooted biblically in the very name adam, emphasizing the sanctity and uniqueness of human life.
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim takes this discussion in a slightly different direction, seeing dam, adom, adamah, and adam as related in the sense that they all derive from the biliteral root DALET-MEM. The core meaning of that root, according to Rabbi Pappenheim, is the concept of “similarity” or “resemblance.” The most direct declensions of this root include the words domeh (“resembling”), demut (“likeness/image”), and dimyon (“imagination,” which may resemble reality, but does not truly match it). Rabbi Pappenheim explains that dam (“blood”) derives from this root because one’s imaginative capacities depend on one’s blood, and the temperament of that blood can determine the exact content of what one sees in one’s mind’s eye or dreams. Building on this, Rabbi Pappenheim asserts that the word adom derives from dam simply because “red” is the color of blood.
When it comes to the word adamah, Rabbi Pappenheim has a more complex way of tracing it to the biliteral DALET-MEM: He asserts that mere “similarity” implies “incongruency,” for when two things only similar, then this means that they cannot be exactly equal. As a result, Rabbi Pappenheim traces the words dom/domem (“quiet/inactive”) to this root, noting that stopping activity creates an “incongruency” between the goings-on that continue to be active in one’s mind and the actions that one has ceased to do. Taking this a step further, Rabbi Pappenheim sees adamah (“ground”) as deriving from this idea because the adamah reflects such incongruency, as the adamah is a place wherein plants are active and grow, yet the adamah itself always remains passive and sedentary.
Finally, when it comes to the word adam, Rabbi Pappenheim offers two ways of explaining how it relates back to the biliteral root DALET-MEM. First, he cites the popular idea that man is called adam because he was created from the adamah. However, Rabbi Pappenheim raises a series of difficulties with this approach, which leads him to rejecting that etymology. Instead, he prefers to explain that man is called adam because man was created “in the image [demut] of Hashem” (Gen. 1:27) in the sense that he resembles Hashem in some ways (as we have seen above). [For more about the word adam, see “Be a Man” (Oct. 2019) and for more about adamah, see “Seasoning of the Land” (Part I, Part II)].
Interestingly, Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi also explains adom as a derivative of dam (like Rabbi Pappenheim), but explains the etymology of dam differently. He sees the word dam as deriving from the biliteral root ZAYIN-BET (“flowing”), as blood can be characterized as the liquid that “flows” from an open wound, or “flows” about in one’s body through the circulatory system. This explanation is based on the interchangeability of the letters DALET and ZAYIN (often seen when switching between Semitic languages, like when the Hebrew ZAYIN typically becomes an Aramaic DALET), as well as the interchangeability of the letters BET and MEM (as both of those letters represent labials).
The exploration of adom and its cognates reveals a profound interplay between language, symbolism, and theology. From the redness of the earth to the sanctity of human life, these words encapsulate the essence of creation and humanity’s unique role within it. In Parts II and III of this series, we will delve further into other Hebrew and Aramaic terms for “red,” further illuminating the richness of this vibrant color in Jewish thought and tradition.
To be continued…
