Grapevine That Grows From River to Sea

Ps. 80:8-12

Some metaphors and phrases live longer than their original context and intent. In today’s psalm an ancient and familiar symbol is linked to a phrase that has become quite loaded and complex in recent months. 

The Judean ancestors often depicted the nation as a grapevine. It was the familiar local plant and very popular source of income - the vineyard features in many prophetic parables that imagine the potential, the problems, and the plights of their people - just like the fate of a vineyard - depending on so many factors for its failure or fine yield.  In this chapter that continues the previous one with its lament over the destruction of Jerusalem the symbolic grapevine is back as a trope that depicts the history and future fate of the nation: 

גֶּ֭פֶן מִמִּצְרַ֣יִם תַּסִּ֑יעַ תְּגָרֵ֥שׁ גּ֝וֹיִ֗ם וַתִּטָּעֶֽהָ׃ פִּנִּ֥יתָ לְפָנֶ֑יהָ וַתַּשְׁרֵ֥שׁ שׇׁ֝רָשֶׁ֗יהָ וַתְּמַלֵּא־אָֽרֶץ׃ תְּשַׁלַּ֣ח קְצִירֶ֣הָ עַד־יָ֑ם וְאֶל־נָ֝הָ֗ר יוֹנְקוֹתֶֽיהָ׃

You plucked up a vine from Egypt;

You expelled nations and planted it.

You cleared a place for it;

it took deep root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered by its shade,

mighty cedars by its boughs.

Its branches reached the sea,

its shoots, the river.

Ps. 80:8-12

The poet Asaph compares the people of Israel to a vine emerging out of Egypt, as the national story goes - and then taking root in the promised land, displacing the previous people there in order to do so- from the river to the sea.  There it is. 

As we’ve seen in previous biblical chapters - this concept captures not just the geographical aspirations but also the ideologies of inheritance. For some early Zionist Jews and their contemporary heirs, the Jewish state must extend from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea precisely because of phrases like the one in today’s chapter, corresponding to what was more or less the reality on the ground at certain historical periods.  Even if it was a land shared with other ethnic groups as it still is and will remain. 

The deep connection between the people of Israel and the land was perpetuated even after the painful exile.  The longing for a homeland where one’s roots are deep and year in and out enjoy the fruit of the vine in peace kept nourishing the Jewish spirit through many diaspora realities. 

The medieval Spanish-jewish Rabbi Judah Ha’Levi, in his famous book The Kuzari, uses this exact symbol of the grapevine to justify the unbroken link between land and its people: 

“It is impossible for this special quality of the connection of the people and their God without the connection to this specific place- the holy land, just as it is not possible for the grapevine to successfully grow in any climate.” 

Ha’Levi’s text became bedrock for the Religious-Zionist ideology and perhaps helps us unpack how we got to this place today - where competing narratives stake claim to the same land, same plots and grapevines. It is a tragedy that there is not consensus now that there is room for more than one vineyard, state and national identity on this sacred land. And maybe with time and good will this narrative will change, to make room between the river and the sea for the abundance of life and expression, compassion and justice for all. 

But what if not? 

The poet Yakov Azriel imagines the fate of the vineyard and its history as intertwined with ancient loss. This harsh imagery echoes the laments of Jeremiah and the other prophets who warned us to cultivate the vineyard with compassion and justice lest we will be lost: 

“We shuddered, frightened, for the sky turned red
As vineyards blazed; we huddled, coughing, when
Unbridled molecules of oxygen
Ignited, kindling savage fires that spread
Till all of Eden burned, while overhead
The heavens seemed aflame, though now and then
We thought a saving rain might come again,
But no — our vine was scorched, its branches — dead.

Yet I remember, too, how leaf by leaf
Belief began to bud again as breath
By breath we learned to breathe and to believe
Once more, the day we overcame our grief
And planted vines anew, despite the death
Of Adam and the suicide of Eve.”

Thank you poets, for reminding us how to grieve, and heal, and how to grow the grapevines of the future that will nourish all of us, everywhere, together, from rivers to seas of co-existence and peace.

Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.

Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.

Psalms #PSLAMS #Psalm80 #ספרתהילים #תהילים #BookofPsalms #כתובים #tehilim #Ketuvim #Hebrewbible  #Tanach #929  #labshul #belowthebiblebelt929 #threthreeweeks #grapevine #rivertothesea #Kuzari #religiouszionist

#fromtherivertotheseaallmustbefore #twostatesolution #futurist #healingtotheland #peace #prayforpeace #nomorewar #hope #everywhere #peaceispossible