Encyclopedia
Judaica 1906
Spices
By : Emil G. Hirsch Immanuel Benzinger
Aromatic vegetable substances
used in preparing food or in compounding
salves or perfumes. With the exception
of salt, no condiments were known
to the ancient Jews, and even
cinnamon, with which the Hebrews
were familiar, was employed only
in unguents and similar mixtures,
while aromatic herbs and spices
found their sole use in the preparation
of mulled wine (see Wine). With
a single exception, all the ingredients
of unguents and perfumes were
vegetable. This exception, called
"shehelet" (A. V. "onyclia"),
the operculum of a variety of
mussel found in the Red Sea, formed
one of the four components of
the incense burned in the Temple.
It is still used in the East,
for, though it exhales a disagreeable
odor when burned alone, it gives
the requisite pungency to a composition
of several spices. Such animal
substances as ambergris and musk
seem to have been entirely unknown
to the ancient Hebrews.
Many of the plants from which
spices were obtained are described
in special articles (see Aloes;
Balm; Balsam; Bdellium; Calamus;
Cassia; Cinnamon; Frankincense;
Spikenard; Stacte; Storax). To
these may be added the bitter,
odorous gum galbanum ("helbenah"),
another component of incense (Ex.
xxx. 34), which is described in
Ecclus. (Sirach) xxiv. 15 as yielding
a pleasant odor, and which was
regarded by the ancients as the
pith of the narthex, although
the common Persian ferulę of the
family of the Umbelliferę contain
a pith with an odor of peculiar
strength and likewise called galbanum.
The odor of this alone is by no
means pleasant, but when mixed
with other scents, it adds, like
sheḥelet, an agreeable pungency.
It is used also for the extermination
of insects, and in therapeutics
it is employed as an aphrodisiac.
There are no details regarding
the preparation of these vegetable
products; the modern method of
extracting the ethereal oils by
distillation was unknown to the
ancient Jews. The aromatic elements
of such gums and woods as could
not be used in their natural state
were obtained by boiling the substances
in oils or fats (comp. Job xli.
23). The fondness of the Orientals,
of both ancient and modern times,
for incense and perfumed unguents
naturally created an extensive
traffic in spices; and the fact
that there were professional perfumers
shows that the art of manufacturing
perfumes by various combinations
had reached a high stage of development
(see I Sam. viii. 13; Neh. iii.
8)
Jewish and Kosher Spices |
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