Vayetze (Gen 28:10-32:3) Torah portion, December 3, 2022.
I knew I was behind, but it appears I'm farther behind than I thought. Finals took up a lot of my time.
Gen 28:12 "And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder [stairway] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."
Gen 30:14 "..and found mandrakes..."
Mandrakes were believed to be a stimulant to help with fertility and conception in barren women.
It was used as a soporific (sleep inducing) and pain-killing plant for many hundreds of years. Mandrake is a powerful narcotic, emetic, sedative, and hallucinogen; its poisons can easily lead to death.
People take European mandrake root for treating stomach ulcers, colic, constipation, asthma, hay fever, convulsions, arthritis-like pain (rheumatism), and whooping cough. It is also used to trigger vomiting, cause sleepiness (sedation), reduce pain, and increase interest in sexual activity.
It has a large, brown root, somewhat like a parsnip, running 3 or 4 feet deep into the ground, sometimes single and sometimes divided into two or three branches. Immediately from the crown of the root arise several large, dark-green leaves, which at first stand erect, but when grown to full size a foot or more in length and 4 or 5 inches in width - spread open and lie upon the ground. They are sharp pointed at the apex and of a foetid odour. From among these leaves spring the flowers, each on a separate foot-stalk, 3 or 4 inches high. They are somewhat of the shape and size of a primrose, the corolla bell-shaped, cut into five spreading segments, of a whitish colour, somewhat tinged with purple. They are succeeded by a smooth, round fruit, about as large as a small apple, of a deep yellow colour when ripe, full of pulp and with a strong, apple-like scent.
Gen 32:1 "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him."
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