Ecclesiastes And The Poterium

During the festival of Sukkot, it is traditional to read the Book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet, in Hebrew). One explanation is that the author of Kohelet is writing in the autumn of his life. This is comparable to the fall harvest. Autumn is a reminder of the winter to come, and the dormancy (which resembles death) of many plants and trees in Israel. This year, the reading will take place on September 29.

Nogah Hareuveni, Tree and Shrub In Our Biblical Heritage, page 71

“It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of the seerim under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool” (Ecclesiastes 7:5-6)

Nogah Hareuveni, Tree and Shrub In Our Biblical Heritage, page 76

Known in English as the poterium, seerim are very common Israeli shrubs that are unusually flammable. They can catch fire even when the shrub’s branches are still green, even before the plant’s thorns have developed.

What are these seerim? Although the Hebrew word means “pot”, most commentators identified the seerim as “a kind of thorn”. From several places in the Bible and in the writings of the Sages where seerim are mentioned, it is clear that the references are to a specific thorny plant, not just to “a kind of thorn.”¹.

The flowers of the seerim have a unique structure. Two or three ovaries of each flower are surrounded by four or five sepals joined together to form a small “pot” (seer, in Hebrew). This little “pot” is green when young, reddish at maturity, and rusty brown in its last stages, when the color is similar to a fired clay pot. The top of the “pot” is covered by the tips of the sepals, which look like a tiny pot cover. This structure gives the plant its name: seerim—pots. These little “pots”, or compound fruit, are found in numerous quantities on each shrub. They burst in the heat of fire and produce small explosive sounds as they burn.²

"Before the thorns grow into a bramble, may He whirl them away alive in fury." (Psalm 58:10). The Psalmist turns this verse into a parable, explaining that the burning whirlwind will consume the wicked while they are still in power, just as the seerim shrubs catch fire and are destroyed even while they are still green, before their green branches have turned to thorns.

¹ Nogah Hareuveni, Tree and Shrub In Our Biblical Heritage, page 66

² Ibid, page 67