In the parsha of Nitzavim, on the day before his death, Moses addressed the Israelites en masse “in order that He may establish you today for Him as a people and He will be for you as God (Deuteronomy 29:12).” The beginning section of Netzavim (29:9-28) consists of the directive for the acceptance of the brit (covenant) by the Israelites and warning of the enactment of the curses of the previous parsha for forsaking the covenant. Verses 9 to 14 direct the Israelites to swear a communal oath entering into the covenant and establishing an obligation to keep the Torah (laws), binding on all future generations. The ensuing verses (15-17) warn the nation, individually and collectively, to avoid the worship of idols and false gods. Most of the people, born and raised in the wilderness, had little or no familiarity with idol worship, while those old enough to remember life in Egypt would recall the idolatry of Egypt and its trappings. The current generation, reared under Moses’ guidance and living in direct proximity to the Sanctuary, was unlikely to fall prey to idolatry. Once settled in the Promised Land, however, the danger existed for future generations to go astray. Thus, at the transition in his speech between the admonition of idolatry and the resulting curses, Moses warns (29:17),
“Lest there be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, that l’vavo (his heart) is turning away hayom (today) from being with the Lord our God, to go to serve the gods of those peoples; lest there be among you shoresh poreh (a root that bears) rosh and laanah.”
Netzavim is the first appearance in the Torah of two weeds: rosh (here not referring to its primary meaning of “head”) and laanah. Each plant, well known in biblical times as well as today, is emblematic of a different negative nature, making them ideal for metaphors. Ibn Ezra treats these terms as similes, “rosh injures the well/sound and wounds (or pollutes) the adherents.” Onkelos (Deuteronomy 29:17) explains rosh as chetin (inadvertent transgressions) and laanah as zadon (conscious transgression). Rashi explains the phrase “shoresh poreh rosh v’laanah” as “a root that grows a green herb bitter like gidin (its identity will be discussed later), that is which bears and multiplies wickedness among you.”
Netzavim is also the first instance of these two plants occurring together in the Torah, but not the last, as they are paired in five other locations, all warning about transgression and exile: “Do horses gallop on the rock? Does one plow there with cattle? That you have turned justice into rosh and the fruit of righteous into laanah (Amos 6:12)”; “Therefore, thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, this people, laanah, and I will give them to drink water of rosh (Jeremiah 9:14)”; “Therefore, thus said the Lord of hosts on the prophets: Behold, I shall feed them laanah and make them drink the water of rosh; because from the prophets of Jerusalem has spread deceit to all the land(Jeremiah 23:15)”; “He has built against me, and encircled me with rosh and laanah (Lamentations 3:5); and “Remember my affliction and my anguish, laanah and rosh (Lamentations 3:19).” All of these pairings project extremely negative and destructive connotations.
The word rosh (raish aleph shin) is also found on five occasions in Tanakh without laanah. In addition, a variation of the word, substituting a vav for the aleph, is employed once (Deuteronomy 32:32), “their grapes are grapes of rosh; their clusters are m’rorot (bitter).” In the ensuing verse (Deuteronomy 32:33), rosh is tellingly compared to a liquid poison, “Their wine is snake venom and the rosh of cruel vipers.” Elsewhere in Tanakh, “Why do we remain? Let us gather together and let us enter the fortified cities, and be silent there; for the Lord our God, has cause us to be silent and given us rosh water to drink, because we have transgressed against the Lord (Jeremiah 8:14).” Because the Israelites allowed themselves to be poisoned by the root of rosh amongst them, they are punished midah keneged midah (measure for measure) with having to drink poisoned water. Similarly, “They speak words, swearing falsely, making covenants; thus judgment blossoms like rosh in the furrows of the field (Hosea 10:4).” In this vein, “And they put rosh into my meal (provided to mourners); and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Psalms 69:22).” Also, “He shall suck the rosh of asps; the tongue of the viper shall kill him (Job 20:16).”
Thus rosh is a substance, usually in liquid form, as deadly as snake venom and the epitome of poison, and not, as generally mistranslated into English, as “gall,” connoting something extremely bitter.
The word laanah, perhaps from la’an (Aramaic and Arabic “to curse”), is found in three locations unconnected to rosh: “You who turn justice to laanah, and cast righteousness to the ground (Amos 5:7)”; “He has filled me with bitterness, He has sated me with laanah (Lamentations 3:15)”; and “For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but her end is as bitter as laanah, as sharp as a double-edged sword (Proverbs 5:3-4).” (This is reminiscent of the manna, whose taste for the Israelites was like honey, but to the nations of the world as bitter as wormwood.)
Thus laanah is the quintessence of bitterness.
Ramban surmises, “One is calledrosh because it is the head/chief of the bitter herbs, the bitterest of all, and the second called laanah, from the expression ‘lai’ahnot mee’pahny’ (“to humble yourself before Me” Exodus 10:3), for he who eats it becomes oppressed and is humbled, because he eats it only to afflict his soul.”
On the contrary, these are not two bitter herbs, but one notorious bitter herb and one notorious poisonous plant. A hint to the identity of these two plants lies in the ensuing verse (Deuteronomy 29:18),
“And it will be, when he hears the words of this curse (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), that he bless himself bilvavo (in his heart), saying: ‘Peace will be to me, though I walk in the stubbornness of leebee (my heart)’ -- that be swept away ha’ravah (watered/the moist) with ha’tz’maiach (the dry).”
This verse delves into the rationalization of certain types of transgressors. One perspective (Ibn Ezra and Radak) understands this verse as the wicked might wrongly think they will be added to and protected by the righteous and, thereby, escape the devastating consequences promised in the curse. Another interpretation is that even if a person does not consider himself bound by the oath, he will be held accountable (Ramban). According to Rashi, “watered” denotes a transgression committed inadvertently and “the dry” is what a person does wittingly and with desire. Ramban posits that “watered” refers to the contented soul and “the dry” to the desiring soul. In any case, as Ramban notes, the references to “watered” and “dry” connect back to rosh and laanah. This correlation is probably not only metaphoric, but also refers to the actual growing environments of these two plants: rosh thrives in a moist setting and laanah in arid conditions, for sin and idolatry can emerge in any milieu.
Most of the biblical citations of rosh, particularly the verses comparing it to snake venom, point to a noxious plant as well as a deadly liquid extract from it. In this vein, Saadiah explains rosh as “ra’al,” Hebrew for “poison/venom,” from the root “to tremble/reel, a reference to the effects of toxins. The Septuagint translated rosh into Greek as colh (bile) -- derived from chole (“green herb”) -- but also used in Greek literature in the sense of “poison” and “anger.” Pointedly, the Aramaic word raish, employed by Onkelos in the other citations of the word as the translation of rosh, has a meaning of “poison,” similar to ris (spelled with a samek), meaning “drop of poison.”
There are several theories about the identity of the dangerous rosh. Some commentators consider rosh to be the golden henbane (Hyoscyamus aureus), a perennial member of the Solanaceae family sprouting sticky, hairy leaves and bell-shaped golden flowers with a purple throat. Consumption of any part of the plant can produce delirium and convulsions. However, henbane is far from the most lethal of herbs and is prone to more arid regions and to rock outcrops and walls (like the Kotel). More accurately, golden henbane is a plant called shikron in Hebrew (probably the source of the northwestern border of Judah in Joshua 15:11) and shikhrona in Aramaic. (For more on henbane, see Tetzaveh 2 in Exodus.)
Others contend that rosh is the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), a slender annual herb reaching about 4 feet (1.2 m) in height and sprouting large red or white flowers, which die back to reveal a bulbous green seed capsule crowned with a stigma. The latex of the immature capsules is the source of opium, morphine, and heroin. That plant, however, was probably originally grown for its tiny seeds, today commonly sprinkled on baked goods, which were pressed for their oil and ground for flour. The seeds develop after the plant loses its opium-producing juices and have no narcotic properties. Eventually, opium trade and then the poppy plant itself spread through much of the world, used for both medicinal and recreational purposes. Coins from the reign of Herod depict the poppy, along with sheaves of wheat. In the Talmudic period (Yerushalmi, Avodah Zarah 2:2, 40d), poppy juice/opium was called ophion (from the Greek opos, “plant juice/sap”).
There is increasing question, however, whether the opium poppy plant itself actually reached either Egypt or Israel before the time of Alexander the Great. Although once considered a native of Western Asia, evidence now points to a southwestern European origin of the opium poppy and a gradual move eastward during the Bronze Age to Asia. (The earliest seeds were discovered in caves in Spain, while tellingly no poppy seeds have been discovered in Egyptian tombs or ancient Mesopotamian sites.) In this vein, some scholars question the translation of the Sumerian (c. 3400 B.C.E.) ideogram hul gil as poppy, but rather as a type of gourd (i.e. Mark David Merlin, On the Trail of the Ancient Opium Poppy, Associated University Presses, 1984, p. 156). The earliest proof of the presence of opium in Egypt and the Levant appears in the Late Bronze Age (around 1300 B.C.E.), the time of the Judges, in the form of bilbils, ceramic storage jars imported from Cyprus. Not only are these containers shaped like the capsules of poppies, but tests on substances inside revealed opium (Merrillees, R.S. High and Lows in the Holy Land: Opium in Biblical Times, Eretz Israel, 20:149-152; Opium Trade in the Bronze Age Levant, Antiquity 36, 1962, pp. 287-292). Claims of the earlier existence of opium in Egypt have been disproved by tests. Not only were the bilbils imported from Crete, but its contents as well and the actual poppy plant probably arrived in the Near East much later with the Greeks or even Romans.
Pointedly, at the time of the Septuagint, the poppy was cultivated and well known in Greece, called mekon, but not employed as the translation for rosh. In addition, although the poppy yields a narcotic, it is not per se a poisonous plant. To be sure, the modern world tends to view drugs as “deadly” and “evil,” but this was not the belief in ancient Israel, which placed the responsibility for evil only in people not in inanimate objects. Rosh and laanah were the metaphoric product and consequence of humans, not the source and cause of their transgression.
Most credible authorities consider rosh to be the poison hemlock (not the American tree of the same name), perhaps the Hebrew name coming from the plant’s formation of leaves, which cluster on the top of the tall plant like a head. Hemlock (Conium maculatum), a member of the Apiaceae family native to Western Asia, is a biennial many-branched herb growing up to 10 feet (3 m) in height. Hence (Lamentations 3:5) “He has built against me, and encircled me with rosh and laanah,” the tall, stout-stemmed poisonous hemlock metaphorically surrounding the nation of Israel. Similarly (3:7), “He has hedged me in and I cannot go forth; He has made my chain heavy.” Hemlock grows wild in fertile, moist soil of Israel, typically along the edges of cultivated fields, roads, streams, marshes, and ditches. Hence (Hosea 10:4), “thus judgment blossoms like rosh in the furrows of the field.”
The glossy, dark green, pinnately decompound leaves, sprouting from an erect, smooth, hollow stem, are shaped like hemlock’s close relatives -- parsley, parsnip, and carrot. Indeed, hemlock greens are sometimes mistaken for wild carrots (Daucus carota), called Queen Anne’s lace, although the latter has purplish roots with hairs and those of hemlock are off-white and hairless like parsnip. Unlike its edible cousins, however, hemlock contains alkaloids that can prove lethal and also cause sickness and birth defects. Although all parts of the plant are moderately to highly toxic, the most dangerous are the smooth young leaves and the seeds. Hemlock seeds emit a disagreeable musty, mousy odor unlike the licorice aroma of the similar-looking fennel seeds. Cattle can be poisoned by consuming about a pound of hemlock leaves and sheep by less than half a pound. First the animals become excited, then lethargic as the heart and respiration slow, then paralysis sets in, death sometimes occurring within 5 to 10 hours. Thus the parallel between rosh and snake venom (Deuteronomy 32:32-13). The Greek philosopher Socrates died in 399 B.C.E. after being sentenced to death by drinking hemlock juice. Interestingly, quails are purported to eat hemlock seeds with no ill effects, although their flesh becomes poisonous to those who eat it, perhaps the source of death among certain Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 11:33). Thus rosh is, in most likelihood, the poison hemlock.
The laanah is a bitter herb, but bitter is not always and necessarily a pejorative. Indeed, most of the greens enjoyed by diners throughout the generations were bitter herbs, such as arugula, chicory, dandelion, escarole, and sorrel (schav). The famous French salad mesclun (Provencal for "mixed" greens) and the Italian version misticanza always include a number of bitter greens. Very mild greens, such as iceberg lettuce, are a modern innovation. What distinguishes laanah from the numerous bitter herbs is it is so acrid as to render it unpalatable.
The Septuagint translates laanah into Greek as pikria (bitterness), from pikros (sharp/pointed) denoting acridity. Saadiah explains it as the Hebrew pahkoo’ot (as in 2 Kings 4:39; Mishnah Shabbat 2:2), from the root “to split/burst,” referring to the coloquintida (Citrillus Colocynthis). This intensely bitter small spongy fruit -- also called colocynth, bitter cucumber, and bitter apple -- is a member of the gourd family and relative of watermelon. To be sure, coloquintida is infamous for its bitterness, as William Shakespeare (Othello Act 1, Scene 3) wrote, “The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts (England’s name for carob, its ripe fruit being very sweet), shall be to him shortly acerb as the coloquintida.” However, although bitter, it was still consumed since the Neolithic period as a food item. In addition, most commentators (e.g. M’tzodat Tzion in Amos 5:7) view laanah as a bitter leaf.
Pointedly, in the various citations of laanah in the Prophets, Onkelos translates it into Aramaic as gidah (singular) or gidin (plural). Similarly, Rashi (Deuteronomy 29:17) identifies laanah as “gidin,” the Aramaic word for “wormwood,” which serves as the epitome of bitterness, as in the phrase (Shabbat 87a) “kashink’gidin (hard/distasteful as gidin).” The English word wormwood has nothing to do with either worms or wood, but derived from the German “wermuth,” meaning “preserver of the mind.”
Wormwood is a member of the genus Artemisia, encompassing 180 species, of the family Asteracea, the genus containing the bitterest of herbs. Nevertheless, these plants serve as forage for camels and others desert creatures, although the flesh of these animals is said to develop a bitter taste as well. The biblical laanah probably refers to white wormwood/desert wormwood (Artemisia herba-alba Asso also Artemisiasieberi), called la’anat ha’midbar in Modern Hebrew and armoise blanche in French. This small woody perennial has hairy silvery-green leaves, which resist putrefaction. Wormwood thrives in desolate areas where other vegetation is sparse. Today, white wormwood is in serious decline due to overgrazing and habitat destruction.
The acrid wormwood leaves yield a dark green volatile oil, traditionally used to treat colds, coughs, stomach problems, and diabetes. Because of its stimulant qualities, wormwood has long been used not only in medicines, but also to add an intriguing flavor note and hallucinogenic kick to wines and liqueurs, most notably absinthe and the original form of vermouth (the French word for wormwood). All of these more relatively modern drinks derive from the Greek apsinthion (meaning “undrinkable”), called apsinthium by the Romans, made by soaking Pontic wormwood leaves in wine or boiling down leaves in water and adding the extract to wine. A small amount of wormwood turns bitter an entire vat of wine. Apsinthium was employed at Roman religious festivals (Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, Book 14, Chapter 19) and a cup given to the winner of chariot races (Ibid. Book 27, Chapter 28). Pliny also lists 48 medicinal uses of wormwood. This drink is synonymous with the Talmudic apsintin (Avodah Zarah 30a), also called “bitter wine,” which even a snake would avoid drinking. However, wormwood is an addictive narcotic and its essential oil, thujone, which give the leaves and flowers a characteristic odor, is a neurotoxin, which can affect the brain. As a result, wormwood beverages were outlawed in many countries in the early twentieth century, although weaker versions became increasingly permitted in some places by the end of the century.
The question remains as to why these two specific plants were cited by Moses. This section of the Torah, stretching back to the end of the previous parsha, contains three key words: hazeh/hazot (this/these), hayom (today), and lev (heart). (There is also a word play in verse 17 between pen [lest] and phoneh [is turning].) Hazeh/hazot -- denoting the immediacy of and connection between the people, covenant, oath, land, Torah, and the retribution for forsaking the covenant -- is scattered thirteen times (29:3,6,8,13 twice, 18,19,21,23 twice, 26,27,28). Hayom is cited seven times (29:3,9,11,12,14 twice, 17) -- in contrast to kayom hazeh (“as this day” 29:27), the latter being the day when retribution is paid for idolatry invoking the curses. In addition, lev is found on four occasions (29:3,17,18 twice), the heart representing a person’s thoughts and private actions, which are included in the curse. These key words emphasize that the oath encompasses present and future (29:13-14), blatant and private. The covenant is not conditional or temporary, but all-encompassing and permanent. Turning to other gods, even in one’s heart and in secret, will result in dire consequences.
In the Torah text (29:28), there is a dot over each of the letters of the words lahnu u’lvaveinu (to us and to our children) and the letter ayin in od (forever). In the words of Rashi (based on Sanhedrin 43ba), “after taking the oath on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, the Israelites became responsible through the courts for each other for public transgression.” The letter ayin has the numerical value of seventy, the number of days after Natzavim that the Israelites crossed the Jordan, at which point the people took the oath and became responsible for each other’s public transgressions. Adherence to the law is not a matter of personal discretion, but communal responsibility. Hence the conclusion of the section (29:28), “The hidden things are for the Lord our God; but the revealed things are to us and to our children forever, to do all the words of this law.” The earthly court must deal with public transgressions, while heavenly court will excise judgment on those who break the covenant in secret (Ibn Ezra, Rashbam). Yet the people must be cognizant of the danger lying in idolatry, for it holds the potential of emerging and developing at any time or place, and will lead to destruction.
The keys words of Netzavim are reminiscent of another account of large scale destruction -- the generation of the Flood. The text (Genesis 6:5) states, “And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great b’aretz (in the land) and that every formation of the thoughts of leebo (his heart) was only evil all hayom (the day).” Just as the pervasive evil in the land at the time of Noah could not be tolerated, so too the Israelites’ forsaking God in the Holy Land would not be countenanced. According to Sforno, the phrase “every formation of the thoughts of his heart” “includes that in the future, that humanity (at the time of the Flood) would not heed reproof and would not change their (evil) ways.” Therefore, there was no hope of repentance, and the Flood and destruction was inevitable. However, in Nitzavim, Moses leaves possible the hope of repentance and salvation. In the words of Ramban (Deuteronomy 32:32), “Israel admits, confesses, and repents in time of trouble saying: ‘Why has all this befallen us (Judges 6:13)’... But Israel, whose root is good, ‘if it be cut down, then it will sprout again (Job 14:7) and grow good fruit.” God never threatens to completely annihilate the Israelites, just to chop them down, leaving open regrowth and return.
In this vein is Hirsch’s commentary on the other biblical citation of rosh (Deuteronomy 32:32-33), “For if they (the nations opposed to Israel) had taken Israel’s fate as the judgment of God, if they had considered the judgment which this God of Israel had already meted out to other nations, instead of persecuting and mocking at Israel, they would indeed have thought of their own end, what would happen to them when once God would call them for judgment. For the tree from which they pluck the joys of their life, the fields from which they harvest their food are offshoots from the plantings of Sodom and Gemorrah, which did not escape the judgment of God. There is no thought of duty, only the same egotism and the same addictedness to sensuality which forms for them their guiding principle. Therefore nothing grows on their tree, and the grapes of their enjoyments end up in bitterness.”
The combination of rosh and laanah conveys an image of toxicity and bitterness and the fate befalling those subverting the Torah. The term “root” in Nitzavim denotes the latent source of submerged ideas and desires, which could potentially develop into a bitter and poisonous fruit – transgression and evil. A problem with weeds is that plucking them from the ground typically leaves the root intact, able to reappear at any time. The use of rosh and laanah dramatically contrasts with the blessing for the people when they follow the Torah, “And the Lord will make you overabundant with good, in the FRUIT of your body, and in the FRUIT of your cattle, and in the FRUIT of you land, in the land which the Lord swore to you fathers to give to you (Deuteronomy 28:11).” Adherence to the Torah results in the blessings, represented by delicious and healthy fruit; the outcome of forsaking God is the curses, symbolized by two inedible and dangerous weeds.
As the predominant shrub of Near Eastern deserts (cacti are American flora introduced to the Old World by the Spanish), the Israelites in the wilderness grew up surrounded by wormwood and aware of its bitterness. Since wormwood flourishes and dominates once it takes hold in an area, the plant provides additional warning of allowing evil to gain a foothold. Those Israelites old enough to remember Egypt might recall hemlock; others knew it from reputation. Shortly, they would face it in their everyday lives, a weed capable of invading their fields, as idolatry was capable of infecting their thoughts.
Hemlock and wormwood are particularly insidious because neither gives the appearance of the bitterness and danger residing within. Even watching animals is not helpful, as goats seem immune to hemlock and camels munch contentedly on wormwood. Neither of these plants contains oils causing dermatitis, thereby revealing their treacherous nature by contact. Thus there is nothing inherently obvious to warn or repel anyone desiring to consume them. In addition, neither plant is notably attractive or desirable. There is nothing about hemlock and wormwood to advertise their presence and most people simply pass them by without a thought or notice. As there are no universal warning signs to identify and avoid dangerous plants, a person must be able to know them with certainty before eating. Thus the real danger of idolatry is that evil and deceit frequently do not come in the forms or places we expect. Idolatry can be seductive, like Baal Peor (Numbers 25), or seemingly benign. Idols can be “wood and stone” or “silver and gold” (Deuteronomy 29:16). Idolatry can emerge in any person, family, or tribe.
Me’am Loez points out, “The verse proceeds from a single person to a family and then to a tribe. Sin can escalate. Thus (Judges 17-18) relates how the idol worship of an individual, Micah, ultimately caused an entire tribe (Dan) to turn to idolatry. Nevertheless, the progression ceases at the tribal level, because the nation as a whole will never forsake the Torah.” Ironically, tradition claims that Manasseh (Judges 19:30), the grandfather of the Levite involved in Micah’s idolatry, was none other than Moses, the extra letter nun in his name, suspended above the mem shin hey in the text, added out of respect. Thus the root of idolatry, the deadliest of plants, can grow from even the most fertile, holy of soil. The root of dangerous ideas can take hold whether in an environment of learning or ignorance, wealth or sparseness, urban or rural. Thus the opening of the parsha, “you netzavim today,” the nifal form meaning “standing upright (Genesis 37:7; Numbers 23:6),” as well as “be firm/stand firm (Zachariah 11:16; Psalms 119:89; Lamentation 2:4).” Constant understanding and vigilance is necessary to prevent buried roots from growing into hemlock and wormwood. We know from history its devastating consequences, the fulfillment of the curses.
