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what is manna?

What is the manna mentioned in the bible—animal, vegetable, or mineral??

 

In brief, all three: the substance called manna is the result of a insect-plant collaboration, and it’s possible the substance has mineral content. In Exodus Chapter 16, while the Israelites are traversing the desert after fleeing Egypt, God speaks to Moses of a substance that is revealed after the morning dew evaporates: “a fine, scale-like thing, fine as the hoar-frost on the ground” which is to be consumed like bread. The Israelites called it man (derived from the word ‘what,’ or ‘what is it’), “and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” According to the text, the manna sustained them for their forty years of dwelling in the desert. In Numbers Chapter 11, manna resembles coriander seed but also bdellium [b’dolach], which may or may not refer to an aromatic resin emitted by Commiphora [myrrh tree]. “The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it in pots, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of a cake baked with oil.”

Theories of manna’s identity have ranged from the improbable—a type of lichen not found in the Sinai Desert—to the plausible: a sweet exudation from a plant, caused by scale insects or aphids feeding on it. Possible plant sources include Anabasis setifera, Gomphocarpus sinaicus, Tamarix nilotica, Acacia raddiana, Capparis cartilaginea and C. spinosa v. aravensis, Pyrethrum santolinoides, and especially Haloxylon salicornicum, which grows commonly in the southern Sinai. The latter plant is called ‘man rimth’ by Bedouins, who collect the sweet resin from the stems in summer. According to Israeli botanist Avinoam Danin, Haloxylon (formerly called Hammada) is probably the most plentiful source of this sweet substance, but other less common plants in the Sinai may also be sources. Therefore, manna refers to the sweet white substance exuded by some or all of these plants.

The term manna has since been used in other parts of the world to refer to any sweet substance exuding from plants. In Northern Iraq, the sweet substance, possibly caused by insects feeding on the plants, is harvested from ash trees [Fraxinus ornus]. According to the authors of “Identification of Sugars in the Manna of Northern Iraq,” the substance “usually accumulates on the leaves until they fall to the ground. The sugars are extracted from the raw material with boiling water and mixed with eggs to make a popular dessert.” The nougat-like treat is called mann al-sama (manna of the heavens). There is a similar sweet in Iran called gaz, made with honeydew or resin from plants like Tamarix gallica and Astragalus adscendens. Plants upon which psyllid insects have been feeding exude this substance. The insects place their eggs “alongside the main vein of fully-grown leaves, which then curl up around the vein. The nymphs begin feeding inside the rolled-up leaves before they are scattered over the plant during flowering. They can be seen between the sepals and petals, but not inside the corolla. The white, sticky, segmented strings of gaz are mostly secreted in the last instar stage. The segments indicate multiple excretions. The soft exudates harden, eventually detach from the nymph’s body, and remain in the foliage, mixed with the nymphs and often with the plant debris as well.”

Ancient Greek scholar Pliny the Elder, describes manna in his Natural History: “Honey comes out of the air, and is chiefly formed at the rising of the stars, and especially when the Dogstar itself shines forth […] at early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey, and any persons who have been out under the morning sky feel their clothes smeared with damp and their hair stuck together, whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars or the moisture of the air purging itself.” According to Edward Parker in his book Ash (Reaktion Books, 2021), Greco-Roman tradition called the exudate from ash trees manna, and the practice of giving it to infants as a first food spread to Europe.

Sicily also has a long history of  extracting manna from ash trees [Fraxinus ornus and F. angustifolia, primarily] for edible, medicinal, and cosmetic uses. There are ash plantations in the towns of Castelbuono, Pollina, and Cefalu. The tree bark is scored with a knife to harvest the liquid exudate, usually in summer to early autumn. The liquid solidifies rapidly when exposed to hot sun.

 

 

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Sumac in za’atar

What species or variety of sumac is used in the spice mix called za’atar? I googled it after reading about it in a Lebanese cookbook written by Mary Laird, but the recipes all just say “sumac berries with salt spray left on them!” Are there different versions of the spice mix in Israel and Arab countries?

 

There are many variations of za’atar–Syrian, Lebanese, Israeli, Palestinian, etc. I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent from your question about sumac, because the identity of the main ingredient of za’atar is a bit complicated.

One primary difference, these days, between Israeli, Palestinian, or Jordanian za’atar, and za’atar made anywhere without plant protection laws is that the picking of Origanum syriacum (the main ingredient of za’atar) is prohibited in Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan because it is an endangered plant, and there’s a hefty fine if you’re caught harvesting it in the wild. (Sources: Gil Marks, Olive Trees and Honey 2005, and “A political ecology of za’atar” by Brian Boyd in Environment and Society, 2016).

The word za’atar means ‘hyssop,’ as in the common name for Origanum syriacum, rather than Hyssopus officinalis, which would be too bitter to eat. (Marks says that the plant mentioned in the Hebrew Bible–the Torah–is ezov, which is hyssop, but again, those bible writers weren’t necessarily botanists, so they are believed to have meant O. syriacum.) For more discussion of biblical botanical confusion, see Old Dominion University’s page on bible plants.

Gil Marks’s recipe for za’atar is as follows:
1/4 c. brown sesame seeds
1 c. Syrian oregano (aka white or Lebanese oregano) or alternatively [if you’re not a lawbreaker]: 2/3 c. dried thyme and 1/3 c. dried wild or sweet marjoram
2-4 T ground sumac or 1 T lemon zest
1/2 tsp table salt or 1 tsp kosher salt (optional)

My handwritten recipe which is probably from Claudia Roden’s Book of Middle Eastern Food, 1968, says:
1 cup dried thyme
1 cup sumac
1/4 cup cooked, dried unsalted chickpeas finely pulverized
3 T. toasted sesame seeds
1 T. marjoram
2 T. salt
Bear in mind that Roden is from an Egyptian Jewish family.

There are probably countless regional variations. The za’atar we used to get in a twist of paper from the bread vendors in Jerusalem’s Old City seemed to have very little sumac–it was mostly something like oregano, thyme, sesame seeds, and salt.

And now, back to sumac! Here’s a link to an article on sumac in HaAretz by Daniel Rogov (a cookbook author and food writer). He doesn’t say which species of sumac is the edible one, but most powdered sumac is from Rhus coriaria.

Excerpt:
“Now before we get too far into this, let us make it clear that edible sumac is not to be confused with Rhus glabra which many people know by its common name ‘poison sumac,’ which causes severe itching and skin reactions when touched. Those who have lived in North America are probably familiar with this annoying plant which is a cousin of Rhus toxicodendron (poison ivy).

“In preparing edible sumac, the hairy coating is first removed from the berries, which are then ground to powder-like consistency and used by many in the same way that lemon juice and vinegar are used in the West. The spice is probably at its most popular when making mixtures of za’atar…”

Here is additional information about sumac from Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages.

For another discussion of za’atar and its ingredients, see the Food-Condiments section of this site from a Society for Creative Anachronism member–it gives you an idea of the diverging opinions about the constituent ingredients.

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Acacia trees in the Pacific Northwest

Can you tell me if Acacia trees grow in Seattle? Could I obtain a small cut branch from one? I am a funeral director, and the last wishes of the deceased we will be burying were to have a sprig of acacia placed inside the casket. This man was very active in the Freemasons, and evidently the acacia is an important symbol for them.

 

Most Acacia species are marginally hardy in our area. According to local tree expert Arthur Lee Jacobson, most gardeners who plant Acacia end up with a large pile of exotic firewood once the trees have died off during a serious winter. Therefore, your most likely source for a cut sprig would be to ask local florists, who obtain this plant regularly for use in flower arrangements. You can also contact the source the florists use, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market (where they will order it from California).

In Freemasonry, acacia symbolizes the soul’s immortality, perhaps because of the evergreen foliage. The book of Exodus in the Hebrew bible seems to have been the inspiration for choosing this tree, called shitta [singular] or shittim [plural]. According to the text, the wood was the raw material for the Tabernacle and its contents, the Ark of the Covenant, the Altar and the Table and the Pillars of the Curtain. Biblical botany scholar Lytton Musselman speculates in his book Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh (Timber Press, 2007) that the species might have been Acacia albida, now renamed Faidherbia albida. However, the masonic texts have another view. According to Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, “It is the acacia vera of Tournefort [refers to 17th century French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort], and the mimosa nilotica of Linnæus. It grew abundantly in the vicinity of Jerusalem, where it is still to be found, and is familiar to us all, in its modern uses at least, as the tree from which the gum arabic of commerce is obtained.”

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on the “Burning Bush” plant

I am looking for more information regarding Rubus sanctus, also known
as the Burning Bush at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. I am interested in this plant because my church group is just finishing up our study of the Book of Exodus. And I thought this plant might make a really nice and symbolic gift.

I am beginning to understand that this plant may be rare, or possibly known by
another name?

 

The problem with English common names for plants of the Bible is that you are at several removes from knowing which plant the original Hebrew text describes. There are some sources which state that “burning bush” refers to Rubus sanctus, but it is more likely that it refers to Senna alexandrina. The Hebrew word in Exodus is sneh, which is the same as the Arabic word for the Senna plant.

Plants of the Bible by Michael Zohary (Cambridge University Press, 1982) says that “the plant in question, specifically named ‘sneh,’ might well have been a real plant in the local flora. As there is no hint in the text that the sneh was a thorny bush, and there are no plants in Sinai or anywhere else that are not consumed when burnt, sneh may be identified linguistically only.” He also suggests that the plant may have been Cassia senna, now renamed Senna alexandrina. There is no native Rubus in Sinai, Egypt, or southern Israel, and the bramble in the monastery garden at Santa Caterina is a cultivated specimen, planted by the monks “to strengthen the belief that the ‘burning bush’ has grown there since the revelation, so completely is sneh equated with brambles in the minds of scholars and Bible lovers.”

While Senna alexandrina may be a bit difficult to obtain, there are other species of Senna more widely available. However, if you wish to grow the Rubus you saw (also referred to as Rubus ulmifolius ssp. sanctus and Rubus sanguineus) as a keepsake from your trip to the monastery, you should go ahead. It is not easy to obtain except as seeds, and it prefers a moist environment.