Flax linen was grown principally for its plant
fiber used in making linen cloth, its production was thought to be essential for the textile industry of that time. According to the
Mishnah (
Baba Kama 10:9), in 2nd-century
Judea, women were the primary sellers of wool, and they sold garments of flax in
Galilee. According to
Midrash Rabba (Genesis Rabba 19:1), the people of
Beit Shean would make very fine (thinly woven) linen garments which were expensive to buy, but which would spoil easily at the slightest smear of charcoal. Likewise, the inhabitants of
Arbel (now
Khirbet Irbid) were also renowned for making linen garments, but these were made of a much thicker weave and were cheaper to buy, and they would normally last longer. Historically, linen production has played an important role in Jewish agrarian laws, as well as in religious rites and ceremony. There are strict regulations regarding its wearing with
woollen fabrics. Textiles made from a
mixture of linen and wool are prohibited to be worn under religious Jewish law. At the time of the flax harvest, the
Sages have even defined how many stalks of flax that were forgotten in the field by their owner can be esteemed as "forgotten sheaves," enabling their finder to possess them, without him being guilty of theft. What constitutes a violation of
Sabbath-day laws is also discussed with regard to flax, as bundles of freshly
retted flax were permitted to be placed inside a heated earthenware oven in order to accelerate the evaporation-rate of moisture remaining in the flax, so long as this could be done before the night of Sabbath had commenced. After drying, and after the limitations of the Sabbath had passed, it facilitated
scutching of the flax stalks, for the production of
bast fiber. In the ancient land of Israel, flax was harvested in the
lunar month of
Adar (March), but by the late 19th-century, the cultivation of flax had completely disappeared from
Palestine. To procure a whiter fabric, the leaves of bladder campion (
Silene venosa) were traditionally used to bleach the flax fibers.
Dioscorides, in the Second Book of his
De Materia Medica (2:125), brings down the plant's medicinal uses in his day.
Culinary usage In ancient times, the green
sprouts and tender leaves of flax (
Linum strictum) were served in a hot dish of
kūtaḥ (consisting of
milk whey, stale bread crumbs, vinegar, and salt), for added flavour. In some cultures, flaxseed is traditionally roasted, ground to a powder, and eaten with boiled rice, a little water, and a little salt. Tender, germinated sprouts of flax-seeds, when eaten together with sprouts of celery seeds (
Apium graveolens) and fenugreek (
Trigonella foenum-graecum), are said to have a cooling effect on the entire body. ==See also==