Basil: Soul Reviving, Gentle Plant of Peace
Everyone entering our mini greenhouse, is enchanted by the sweet scented, peaceful presence of basil growing there during the warm season from April to October…
Pure, White Yom Kippur Surprise
This Yom Kippur eve, my dear husband surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of pure, white jasmine flowers with a note asking for forgiveness…
Castor Oil – The Natural Detoxification Agent
A number of stray castor oil plants are growing in various unexpected locations in my garden. I also own a bottle of castor oil, in Hebrew – שֶׁמֶן קִיק/shemen kik. It is hard to imagine any correlation between the content of my bottle and the weed popping up in my garden…
The Holy Apple Orchard
The apple has rightfully merited to receive much recognition throughout the times till today. It has come to symbolize so much more than a crunchy fruit…
Most Bitter, Soul-Inflicting Wormwood
Finally a familiar plant which is mentioned repeatedly in the Torah! Altogether wormwood is mentioned seven times in the Tanach…
Black Seed Sprinkled on Bread since Talmudic Times
My Shabbat guests – a new couple in Bat Ayin – brought delicious, ‘homebaked’ sour-dough rolls sprinkled with black seeds and sesame seeds, yum! If you haven’t seen Nigella sativa seeds they are round resembling sesame seeds, but completely black. It is interesting that just as we use black seed with sesame seed as a crust for various baked goods or in the dough today, exactly so were they used in Talmudic times…