“The Rabbis Maintained that it was Flaxseed”: The Identification and Interpretation of Unidentified Biblical Plants in Aggadic Homilies

The current study discusses proposals for identifying biblical vegetative terms in the literature of the midrash. The study follows the literary phenomenon of proposed identifications of general vegetative terms, such as “tree” (etz), “shrubs” (siḥim), or “fruit of the earth” (pri ha'adama), namely plants which the biblical narrator chose to avoid explicitly identifying as belonging to a specific species, and their identification does not seem to have been important for the story or for conveying its message. It seems that the midrash has two goals in identifying biblical vegetative terms: adding realistic details and connecting the reader to the text and to the location of the events related, and presenting religious concepts and educational messages. In several cases the identification of an anonymous plant is intended to enhance the conceptual and educational messages of the story or to stress other important messages. like social identity.