appertaining thereto: “And the caper-berry fails ... .” The meaning “caper” for האב is evidence by the lxx (ἡ κάππαρις, Arab. alkabar), the Syr., and Jerome (capparis), and this rendering is confirmed by the Mishnic אביונות, which in contradistinction to תמרות, i.e., the tender branches, and קפריסין, i.e., the rind of fruit, signifies the berry-like flower-buds of the caper bush,[1] according to Buxtorf. This Talm. word, it is true, is pointed אביונות; but that makes no difference, for אביּונה is related to אביונה merely as making the word emphatic, probably to distinguish the name of the caper from the fem. of the adj. אביון, which signifies avida, egena. But in the main they are both one; for that נביּונה may designate “desire” (Abulwalîd:[2] aliradat; Parchon: התאוה; Venet.: ἡ ὄρεξις; Luther: alle Lust), or “neediness,” “poverty” (the Syr. in its second translation of this clause), is impossible, because the form would be unexampled and incomprehensible; only the desiring soul, or the desiring, craving member (vid., Kimchi), could be so named. But now the caper is no named, which even to this day is used to give to food a more piquant taste (cf. Plutarch's Sympos. vi. qu. 2). It is also said that the caper is a means of exciting sexual desire (aphrodisiacum); and there are examples of its use for this purpose from the Middle Ages, indeed, but none from the records of antiquity; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xx. 14 (59), knew nothing of it, although he speaks at length of the uses and effects of the capparis. The Talm. explains האבי by חמדה, the Midrash by תאוה, the Targ. by משכבא, interpreting the word directly without reference to the caper in this sense. If haaviyonah thus denotes the caper, we have not thence to conclude that it incites to sexual love, and still less are we, with the Jewish interpreters, whom Böttch. follows, to understand the word of the membrum virile itself; the Arab. name for the caper, 'itar, which is compared by Grätz, which has an obscene meaning, designates also other aromatic plants. We shall proceed so much the more securely if we turn away from the idea of sexual impulse and hold by the idea of the impulse of self-preservation, namely, appetite for food, since אביון (from אבה, the root-meaning of which, “to desire,” is undoubted[3]
- ↑ The caper-bush is called in the Mish. צלף, and is celebrated, Beza 25a, cf. Shabbath 30b (where, according to J. S. Bloch's supposition, the disciple who meets Gamaliel is the Apostle Paul), on account of its unconquerable life-power, its quick development of fruit, and manifold products. The caper-tree is planted, says Berachoth 36a, “with a view to its branches;” the eatable branches or twigs here meant are called שיתי (שותי). Another name for the caper-tree is נצפה, Demai i. 1, Berachoth 36a, 40b; and another name for the bud of the caper-blossom is פרחא רבוטיתא, Berachoth 36b (cf. Aruch, under the words aviyonoth and tselaph).
- ↑ In his Dictionary of Roots (kitâb el-utṣûl), edited by Neubauer, Oxford 1873-4.
- ↑ Vid., Fried. Delitzsch's Indogerman.-Sem. Stud. I p. 62f. Also the Arab. âby in the language of the Negd means nothing else.)
