In class last week we read a review from a Hebrew newspaper of a book about common Israeli spices. “סיפורי תבלין” (Spice Stories) delves into the history and folklore of each plant—noting, for example, that the Egyptians believed that eating coriander would cause them to give birth to sons. So for our writing assignment on the mythology or folklore behind a plant, I wrote about the mandrake in the world of Harry Potter. Little did I know that my professor would come back the next day with a passage from the Bible (Genesis 30:14-16) which suggests that the mandrake was prized among our foremothers. So much so that they led to the birth of Isaachar. Mandrakes are also intertwined with sensual imagery in Song of Songs: “The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates [are] all manner of pleasant [fruits], new and old, [which] I have laid up for thee, O my beloved” (7:13). The Wikipedia article claims that the Hebrew word means “love plant”—indeed, דוד (from which דודא probably derives) means “lover.” Perhaps J.K. Rowling would have been better advised to plant (har) the Mandrake in Half-Blood Prince 
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November 2, 2005
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