“Can what is tasteless be eaten without salt? Does slimy halamot juice have any flavor?” (Job 6:6).
These descriptions are made by Job as he laments the terrible
downturn his life has taken. He claims that life is meant to hold
certain undeniable, reliable truths such as the tastelessness of
unsalted food or the repugnant sensation of juice of the halamot.
Regarding these foods he adds “I refuse to touch them; they are like food when I am sick"
(6:7).
Biblical commentators have struggled to identify the
halamot of
verse 6. Some suggestions include meaningless ("tasteless”) words, or
egg whites, or and a particular cheese called “halum” in Arabic that
secrets a slimy juice and has a vile taste. Every one of these
identifications relies, among other things, on the etymology of the word
itself.
Other commentators and scholars believe that
halamot refers to a plant. Here too, several possible candidates have been suggested over the years.
Today it is widely accepted by scholars that the
halamot is in fact a plant and it has been identified as
Malva nicaeensis, or mallow, whose modern Hebrew name,
halamit,
is almost identical to the biblical halamot. The plant is easily
recognized by its edible fruit that resemble a small, round loaf of
sliced bread. Inverting the Hebrew letters gives us the word
lehem – bread. This is also reflected in the Arabic name for the plant –
hubeza, from the Arabic word
hubz, bread. The round leaves of the mallow are edible only after they are cooked, which removes the slimy juice.
The mallow is an annual plant that reaches a height of some 50 cm (20
inches). It blossoms from February to June, and has pink, five-petaled
leaves, approximately 2.5 cm (about one inch) in diameter.
Mallows thrive on nitrogen, and are therefore commonly found in
cultivated areas, by road sides, in gardens, garbage heaps, and grazing
areas where livestock drop their nitrogen-rich manure. The genus
Malva includes some 30 species that are found throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. A small number of
Malva
species found their way to other parts of the world, including the
United States. Israel is home to six species of the plant, and at Neot
Kedumim visitors can see the mallow (
Malva nicaeensis) and the small-flowered mallow (
Malva parviflora).
In folk medicine, mallow is used to bandage wounds and reduce
swelling. Studies have found that the mallow is rich in tannins,
anti-bacterial components, anti-oxidants, as well as vitamin A, which
also makes it a useful ingredient in shampoo to strengthen hair
follicles.
The mallow spreads itself over a large area and is an integral part
of the green landscape that characterizes Israel in the winter months.
This green covering was a part of the natural outdoor “buffet table” of
our ancestors during the winter months when the fruit trees they
cultivated were in deep hibernation. This "vegetable of the field" is
an important addition to the diet of animals and people. "As the ox
consumes the vegetable of the field"
(Numbers 22:4), certainly included the mallow.
In the modern history of the State of Israel,
this plant also holds a place of honor regarding the steadfast courage
of the pre-state Jewish population of Jerusalem. In November 1947 the
United Nations ratified the Partition Plan that created Jewish state.
The response of Jerusalem’s Arabs and the Jordanian legion was swift:
the city’s Jews were attacked and the Old City placed under siege. By
spring of 1948, the Arab forces cut the main road into Jerusalem, making
it impossible to bring food and other basic supplies into the city.
The military governor of Jerusalem at the time, Canadian-born Dov
Yosef, later wrote in his book "The Faithful City: The Siege of
Jerusalem, 1948" that to survive the siege and assuage the pangs of
hunger, the residents had their children go into the nearby fields and
pick mallows –
halamit. The plant tastes like spinach, and it
was packaged and sold in Jerusalem as “New Zealand spinach.” On local
radio broadcasts people were told how to prepare the “spinach.”
However, the Jordanians also listened to the Hebrew broadcasts and when
they heard that the besieged Jews were eating
hubeza – the food
of poor people and donkeys, they realized that the situation of the
Jews was so dire that the Old City of Jerusalem would soon fall. So the
Jews stopped the radio broadcasts, and passed on the culinary
information via runners and word of mouth. The food was not fancy. But
it did allow the Jews of Jerusalem to hold out and survive the siege.
The short winter months and the green covering of nature give us the
chance to know the abundance of edible plants of the field, like the
halamit.
Gathering the leaves and preparing them into edible, even tasty, food
makes for a unique healthy culinary experience as well as a cultural
experience that gives us a taste of how our forefathers lived in this
land, and how they used the natural flora to enrich their winter dietary
needs.
While the mallow may have been known as the food of the poor, it is
often the poor who have the knowledge and understanding to distinguish
between plants that are edible and healthy, and those that are not.
These are the people who have the wisdom of nature to sense the true
grace of God to provide for them. The 8th century BCE Greek poet Hesiod
wrote that the rich were “stupid…they know not how much more full the
half is than the whole, or how much can be benefitted from the mallow.”
