Today - 2003_04_03 -
I found comprehensive info about Tamar, the palm tree,
which has so many meanings for me,
including the fact, that it was me,
who gave my grandson the name T, which is another form of Tamar and today used as name for males, while Tamar is used for females.

Since the article in the very good website "Bridges for Peace" is dated April 3, 2003, and might not be there tomorrow, I'm going to quote the article in excerpts and dedicate it to the gareed-craftsmen in Sinai and to the bamboo craftsman Ran Lichtner in Israel.

Date Palm Tree Of Grace And Beauty

Among the seven species of vegetation found in Israel and listed by Moses (wheat, barley, vine, fig, pomegranate, olive and date), the date palm holds a place of special significance to the land and people of Israel.

... Aside from its artistic and symbolic characteristics, the date palm has many practical uses for food, roofing for houses, and is even a source for rope and weaving materials...

Friend Of Desert Dwellers

A native of Israel and other areas of the Mideast, the date palm's scientific name is Phoenix Dactylifera. Date palms are found in groves, or as lone specimens.

Plantings were often made by travelers, especially at water holes and wells. Often, the planting was not intentional, but the result of the date pit falling into the moist sand of an oasis and taking root. After all, the dried date is full of nutrition and sugar and was easy to take as a dry fruit on long desert journeys. Moses, in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, came to a place called Elim where there were 12 wells and 70 palm trees (Ex. 15:27). Nine of the wells remain today and the 70 palm trees have multiplied to more than 2,000.

El-Arish

The date palm is very prolific. A female date tree may bear 200-1,000 dates each. A cluster of dates weighs up to 25 pounds (12 kg), and the annual yield of a single tree may reach 600 pounds (270 kg). The tree begins to bear good crops during the eighth year and is considered mature at 30 years. The trunk, marked by the scars of fallen fronds (branches), grows about 1 foot (30 cm) a year for the first 50 years, after which the rate begins to decrease and few new fronds are developed. Incredibly, date palms bear fruit annually for well over 100 years.

Date palms come as female and male trees. From earliest times, fertilization of the female tree has been aided by cutting off the male flower cluster just before the stamens ripen, then suspending them among the flowers of the female tree. Today, machines collect pollen from the male trees, and the pollen is then scattered by plane or helicopter over the female trees.

Every part of the palm is useful to those who dwell in desert lands. The fronds are used for roofing, walls and fences, braiding baskets, wickerwork, mats, and other woven items. The stout mid ribs are useful as poles for roofing and constructing simple furniture.

The Date Palm In History

Palm fronds were used by the Israelites to construct booths in Accordance with God's commandment to remember their deliverance from Egypt and desert wanderings by living in a palm branch shelter during the Feast of Tabernacles. Palm fronds are still used today during Sukkot as roofing material for booths built on city balconies and backyards throughout Israel.

The Jewish historian Josephus claimed there were forests of palm trees in his time (AD 37-95), located by the Sea of Galilee in the Jordan Valley, as well as near Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. One palm grove near Jericho was described as being seven miles (10 km) long. In the Bible, Jericho is called "the city of palm trees" (Jud. 1:16). Phoenicia (Lebanon) also took its name from the date palm. Though palm trees grew around Jerusalem, the hill country of Israel was too high and too cold in winter for the palms to bear fruit to maturity. The fruit was so poor that the Talmud (book of Jewish law and customs) forbade its use as a temple offering of first fruits.

Josephus records that palm groves in and around Jerusalem were destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 during the siege of Jerusalem. They destroyed all vegetation in a 7 mile (10 km) radius, and a year later plowed salt into the ground so nothing would grow there again. In the 1800s, the Turks placed a tax on trees, leading to the obliteration of almost all trees in the land, including most of the date palms.

Date palms were reintroduced into Israel by Kibbutz Degania in 1909 at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. There are now over 200,000 date palms in Israel, producing around 12,000 tons (10,886 metric tons) of dates annually.

Date plantations are concentrated along the Syrian-African Rift Valley from the Sea of Galilee (900 feet or 300 meters below sea level), to Jericho along the Dead Sea (1,200 feet or 400 meters below sea level), and to Eilat on the Red Sea in the south. This valley is the lowest area on earth and is typified by a hot dry climate and an abundance of underground water, perfect conditions for growing extremely high quality dates.

Spiritual And Symbolic Significance

The date palm (Hebrew "tamar") means tall and willowy. Tamar, suggesting grace and beauty, was the name given to several Hebrew women.

The sword-shaped, unopened frond growing from the heart of the date palm is called the lulav. During the Feast of Tabernacles it is waved (along with the willow, myrtle and citron) by Jews toward the four corners of the earth

Jesus rode from Bethphage into Jerusalem, multitudes waved palm branches and laid them on the road before Him. In so doing, they were not only giving Him honor as a coming king, but making an enormous symbolic political declaration before the Romans about the hoped for independence of the Jews from Rome under the rule of their Messiah. Without the palm branches, it would have merely looked like a noisy mob. It was the palm branches that symbolically proclaimed the majesty of the occasion.

Ornately carved date palms adorned the inner walls of Solomon's Temple, symbolizing the Sanctuary of God's Presence as the spiritual oasis in man's life on earth. An oasis is a tranquil retreat, a place of rest and refreshment, a joy and relief to sojourners of the desert to find palm trees beckoning to their source of fresh water, offering shade and plentiful fruit.

The Psalmist used the date palm symbolically of the righteous. Verses from