wa-Yeitzei 3rd Eve
ãåÌãÈàÄéí1
 350x233.jpg "Mandragora autumnalis, flowers (winter)") |
 700x465.jpg "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} Mandragora autumnalis – 5 (winter) flowering ãåÌãÈàÄéí1 plants  (poisonous) |
In early spring, during the wheat harvest, when Ru•veinꞋ went out into the field, he found some ãåÌãÈàÄéí.1 So he collected some and brought them to his mother, LeiꞋâh.
When Râ•kheilꞋ saw them she said to LeiꞋâh, "May I please have some of your son's ãåÌãÈàÄéí?1
 0350x263.jpg "Mandragora autumnalis, berries on plant (spring)") |
 1277x960.jpg "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} Mandragora autumnalis – (spring) berries on plant (poisonous) |
But LeiꞋâh was bitter. "Is it a trifling matter that you took my man?!?" LeiꞋâh railed against her younger sister. "Now," she demanded defiantly, "you would take my son's ãåÌãÈàÄéí1 too?!?"
Feeling both guilty and angry after her older sister's outburst, Râ•kheilꞋ shouted back at her sarcastically, "So he shall bed with you tonight—in exchange for your son's ãåÌãÈàÄéí!"1
 350x633.jpg "Mandragora autumnalis, berry") |
 705x1275.jpg "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} Mandragora autumnalis – ripe berry (spring) poisonous (photo: wikimedia.org) |
In the evening, when Ya•a•qovꞋ came in from a long day in the field harvesting wheat, LeiꞋâh went out to meet him before he got home. "I paid Râ•kheilꞋ with my son's ãåÌãÈàÄéí1 for you to come into me tonight." So he spent that night with LeiꞋâh.
And Ël•oh•imꞋ hearkened to LeiꞋâh and she became pregnant and gave birth to a 5th son by Ya•a•qovꞋ. Then LeiꞋâh reflected, "Ël•oh•imꞋ has granted me ùÒÀëÈøÄé, after I gave my maid to my man." So she called him éÄùÌÒÈùëÈø.
Then LeiꞋâh became pregnant again and gave birth to a 6th son by Ya•a•qovꞋ. "Ël•oh•imꞋ has endowried me with a good dowry," she mused. "This time, my man éÄæÀáÌÀìÅðÄé because I have given birth to 6 sons for him." So she named him æÀáËìåÌï.
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 Mandragora autumnalis – human-like root poisonous (photo: mandrakehouseherbs.co.uk) |
After that, LeiꞋâh gave birth to Din•âhꞋ
Then Ël•oh•imꞋ remembered Râ•kheilꞋ. Ël•oh•imꞋ hearkened to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son, saying, "Ël•oh•imꞋ àÈñÇó my reproach." So she named him éåÉñÅó, saying, "éÉñÅó é‑‑ä to me another son."
Ya•a•qovꞋ Bargains Successful Return Home
After Râ•kheilꞋ had given birth to éåÉñÅó, Ya•a•qovꞋ told Lâ•vânꞋ, "Prepare a send-off for me. I'm going back home to my land. Include in the send-off for my women and children whom I earned working for you and I'll be going. For you know all of the work I've done for you."
"If you like," Lâ•vânꞋ replied, "my snake-divining2 showed me that it has been for your sake that é‑‑ä has blessed me. So own your salary for me and I will give it to you."
"You know how I've worked for you, and how your assets have profited with me. You had little before I came, and it has greatly exploded under my management. é‑‑ä blessed you through whatever I touched. Now I have to consider, when shall I prosper my own house?"
"What shall I give you?" asked Lâ•vânꞋ.
Optional parental preparation:
- Note 1 – ãåÌãÈàÄéí, pl. of ãÌåÌãÈà; Solanaceae (toxic / poisonous nightshade family), Mandragora autumnalis, formed from mandra, relating to livestock, and agaron, harmful; perhaps from Persian mardumgia, "man plant" (due to the occasional human likeness of its roots, which ancients believed could be animated by incantations); popularly Mandrake, Devil's or Satan's Apple, Love Apple. "...M. autumnalis is the plant of the Greece goddess Aphrodite. She had the second name “Mandragoritis”. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty. One said that the autumn mandrake has an aphrodisiac effect. One also brewed a beer with the autumn mandrake. This beer had a hallucinogenic effect and one believed that one could only understand the world in this state of trance. However this was not harmless. M. autumnalis is highly poisonous!… All parts of the autumn mandrake are poisonous including the seeds." (Steffen Bauer, asklepios-seeds.de/gb/mandragora-autumnalis-seeds.html). Ubiquitous in the Levantine, M. autumnalis has long been used in magical spells and witchcraft. Eating some of its berry was believed to ensure conception (Martha Modzelevich, flowersinisrael.com/Mandragoraautumnalis_page.htm). Every part of the plant, even the seeds, are highly toxic (poisonous), hallucinogenic. M. autumnalis grow 15-30 cm high and up to 60 cm across with up to 45 cm long leaves, flowering during the rainy winter months, then, during the spring wheat harvest (Khag ha-Shâvu•otꞋ), producing fragrant yellow-to-orange berries that reach up to 4 cm in diameter. Mandragora species have a long use in traditional medicine, an extract being used for its real or supposed aphrodisiac, hypnotic, emetic, purgative, sedative and pain-killing effects. ("Mandragora autumnalis", Wild Flowers of Israel (eia design), retrieved 2015-04-04, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandragora_autumnalis#cite_ref-JackBerr79_10-2.
- Note 2 ophiomancy – ðÄçÇùÑÀúÌÄé (ni•khashꞋᵊtiy); pi•eilꞋ (verb), formed from ðÈçÈùÑ (nâꞋkhâsh; snake, serpent, asp), past 1st pers. sing.; I divined by ophiomancy. Ancient ophiomancy seems to have interpreted chance, or set-up, observations of whether and how a snake reacts to a threat or prey (e.g., whether a snake struck, whether prey consumed or whether snake declined to strike or feed and fled) as a portent of how some future event would play out; the number of coils of the snake were taken as an indication of units of time or number of repetitions of the event, etc.
Questions you might anticipate that your child might raise and be prepared to discuss:
- What does trifling mean?
- What does railed mean?
- What does sarcastic mean?
- What is a dowry? ("Endowry" is coined here to mean endow with a dowry.)
- What is a send-off banquet?
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