Jacob's Blessing to Judah🍷

When Rav Dimi came, he said: "What is which is written: 'Binding his foal to the vine' (Gen. 49:11)? Every grapevine you have in Eretz Yisrael requires a foal to harvest.
“And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine [soreka]” - Every barren [serak] tree you have in Eretz Yisrael will produce to load two donkeys.
And lest you say 'they do not contain wine', the verse states: 'He washes his garments in wine'.

And lest you say 'It's not red', the verse states: 'And from the blood of the grape you drank foaming wine' (Deut. 32:14).

And lest you say 'It does not inebriate', the verse states: 'And his incitement' (Gen. 49:11).

And lest you say 'It has no flavor', the verse states: 'His eyes shall be red [ḥakhlili] with wine' (Gen. 49:12). Each palate [ḥeikh] that tastes it says: 'For me, for me [li li].'

And lest you say, 'It is good for the young, but it is not good for the old', the verse states: 'And his teeth white [leven shinayim] with milk' (Gen. 49:12). Do not read leven shinayim (white teeth); rather, leven shanim (as one of years (i.e. elderly)."

אסרי לגפן עירה BINDING UNTO THE VINE HIS FOAL — He (Jacob) prophesied of the land of Judah that it would run with wine like a fountain: the vines will be so productive that a man of Judah will bind to a vine one foal and he will fully load it with the grapes of only one vine, and from the produce of only one branch he would load one ass’s colt.

כבס ביין HE WASHED IN WINE — all these phrases indicate abundance of wine.

The words כבס ביין he renders by “their garments will be of fine purple” — resembling wine in colour. The word צבעונין “coloured garments” in the Targum is the rendering of סותה — for a woman attires herself in these to entice men to take notice of her (so that the word denotes a garment that attracts notice to its wearer, being a noun formed from the root סות, to entice or allure). Our Rabbis, too, explained this word (סותה) in the Talmud (Ketubot 111b) in the sense of allurement — the allurement of intoxication: they say, “And as for the wine in question, perhaps you will say that it cannot intoxicate — remember that Scripture says of it סותה “its allurement” (i.e. it has an allurement so that people drink more and more of it).

חכלילי [HIS EYES] ARE RED — חכלילי denotes redness, as the Targum renders it: they shall become red. Similar is (Proverbs 23:29) “who hath redness (חכלילות) of eyes?” Redness of eyes is associated with wine because that is what usually happens to those who drink much wine — their eyes become red.

Similarly, And his vesture in the blood of grapes. Some say that suto (his vesture) is the word kesuto (his vesture) with the kaf missing. However, I believe that sutoh comes from the same root as masveh (veil) (Ex. 34:33). The meaning of our verse is that his vineyards will produce so many grapes that Judah will bind his foal to the vine and he will not care if the animal eats of the grapes; and he will have so much wine that he will wash his garments in wine rather than in water. Scripture terms wine the blood of grapes because wine is red. The Bible speaks figuratively here, as it does in And it shall come to pass in that day, That the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, And the hills shall flow with milk (Joel 4:18). The land will produce so much wine that Judah will be called “red eyes” because of the great amount of wine that he will drink. He will be so called because the eyes of one who drinks much wine look red. Similarly Judah’s teeth will be white from the large amount of milk that he will drink.

AND HIS TEETH WHITE. U-leven (white) is an adjective modifying shinnayim (teeth). Shinnayim is in the dual form because the teeth are arranged in two sets. Saadiah Gaon, of blessed memory, explains His eyes shall based with wine to mean that his eyes shall be redder than wine. He similarly explains And his teeth white with milk to mean that his teeth shall be whiter than milk. Others say that And his teeth white with milk means that he will not eat an unclean thing and will not follow what his eyes see. The latter is a ridiculous homily.

אסרי לגפן. The letter י in the word אסרי is an addition, similar to the letter י in Deuteronomy 33,15 שכני סנה, and other examples of a similar construction. Also the letter י in בני אתונו, is an addition. The entire expression ולשרקה בני אתונו is a duplication, seeing that the word שרקה means the same as גפן, perhaps a superior type of vine. The entire verse is a praise of the quality of the land apportioned to the tribe of Yehudah which yields such bountiful harvests that the farmer can tie his ass to the vine after having eaten from its grapes, without any worry. There are so many grapes on a single vine that they suffice to make up a full load for his ass. Similarly, there is so much wine that even if he were to launder his garments in wine instead of in water, he would not run short of wine. Yaakov repeats the theme once more in different words, saying: ובדם ענבים סותה, the expression דם ענבים refers to wine, the word סותה to garments. Naturally, this is an exaggeration permissible to poets.

ולבן שנים מחלב. Due to drinking a lot of milk his teeth are white. Some commentators understand the word שנים in our verse as describing the teeth-like points of the rocks being white from the drippings of excess milk by the sheep and goats. Accordingly, even these so-called teeth have to be explained allegorically, as a reference to the Messiah. [I believe that all the commentators who chose the path of interpreting Yaakov’s words allegorically, simply could not credit that he would waste his last few minutes on earth with describing mundane matters as being the essence of what he had to communicate to his children at that time, even if these words were garbed in poetic language. The sages were convinced that behind this lovely prose there must be hidden far more profound spiritual messages. Ed.]

HIS EYES ARE ‘CHACHLILI’ (FROM WINE). The Commentators say that the word chachlili denotes redness, and it means that his eyes will become red from drinking much wine. Of similar meaning is the verse, Who hath ‘chachliluth’ (redness) of the eyes?
Now it appears to me that this is a case of a word whose letters are transposed, it being derived from the expression, Thou didst paint (‘kachalt’) thine eyes. The lamed is doubled — [chachlili] — as is customary in many places, and it denotes the process of painting eyes which is known and frequently mentioned in the words of our Rabbis. In Arabic also its name is “al kachul.” The verse is thus stating that Judah’s eyes are colored with wine for just as others paint them with puch (eye-paint), which is the Arabic “al kachul,” so does he paint them with wine, and just as others whiten their teeth with ointments, so does he whiten them with milk, the comparison indicating the abundance of wine and milk in Judah’s land, just as Onkelos mentioned. Similar in meaning is the verse, Who hath ‘chachliluth’ of eyes, [the letters in the word chachliluth are to be transposed to read] kachliluth” (paint), with the verse stating that the drunkard has his eyes painted by wine and he cannot hide his drunken state. It is possible that the verse is stating, “Who has coloring of eyes?” meaning “who needs to paint his eyes always? They that tarry long at the wine, since the wine dims their eyes, causing them to tear, and be consumed away in their sockets, thus making it necessary for him to have his eyes constantly painted.” Scripture, in the book of Proverbs, is thus speaking of the disgrace of wine and the external evils of contentions and wounds which befall he who drinks it in abundance, while in his house there will always be the cry of “Woe” and “Alas.” It then also mentions this specific harm which affects his body, namely, the dimming of his vision, and many other sicknesses. This is a correct interpretation and elucidation of the subject.