Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, March 28th, 2024
Maundy Thursday
There are 3 days til Easter!
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Bible Encyclopedias
Flowers in the Home and the Synagogue

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Flour
Next Entry
Flowers of the Bible
Resource Toolbox

As an agricultural people the Jews in their own land appreciated flowers as a means of natural decoration. The first crop offruits offered at the altar in Jerusalem on the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16) was crowned with the choicest flowers (Bik. 2:3). Among all the flowers native to Palestine the rose was preeminent. Solomon compared his Shulamite heroine to the "rose of Sharon." The Mishnah calls this the "king's rose" (Kil. 5:8).

The festival day of the harvest (Shabu'ot) is designated as the judgment day of trees (R. H. 1:2). This is supposed to be the origin of the custom of decorating the house and the synagogue with flowers on Shabu'ot. Jacob b.Moses Molin (d. 1427), in his "Meharil," first mentions the custom of scattering on the floor of the synagogue roses and other odorous blossoms as an expression of joy in the festival (see Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, § 494). The "Magen Abraham" says it is customary to place trees in the synagogue. Elijah Wilna, however, prohibited this innovation, since it would be aping the Christian custom on Pentecost (Danziger, "Ḥayye Adam," § 131, 13). In Palestinian synagogues flowers are distributed to the worshipers as they leave the services on Passover eve.

Isaiah Hurwitz, in his "Shelah" (p. 180a, Amsterdam, 1698), relates a custom prevailing in Safed, where the sexton distributed fragrant weeds to every person during the morning service on Shabu'ot, while the cantor recited "Ha-El be-Ta'aẓumot."

That flowers were highly valued by the Jews is further shown by the fact that nearly all their works of art are distinguished by floral representations, as the candelabra of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:33), the pillars of the Temple, and the molten sea with its brim wrought with "flowers of lilies" (1 Kings 7:19-26). The Talmud states that Solomon's Temple contained representations in gold of various aromatic trees in full fruit, from which fragrant perfumes exhaled with the movement of the air (Yoma 39b).

A.
J. D. E.
Bibliography Information
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Flowers in the Home and the Synagogue'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tje/​f/flowers-in-the-home-and-the-synagogue.html. 1901.
adsFree icon
Ads FreeProfile