From Bitter to Sweet

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miracle-berries-and-their-flavor-tripping-properties


Shulhan Shel Arba’s The Fourth Gate discusses the idea of transforming something that was bitter into something sweet through the Lord. Moses tested the plant before him and discovered “that the wood was bitter, and the Holy One Blessed Be He sweetened the bitter with something bitter, a miracle within a miracle”. The Lord “taught him (Moses) that he knew the power of this plant, about its nature or its virtue, which was the sweeten the bitter.” Upon reading these passages, I was reminded of an experiences I had had where something that I tasted as bitter became sweet: the Miracle Berry.

The Miracle Berry is a fruit naturally found in West Africa that was used by native populations since the 1720s as it contains a protein that is able to mask the bitter taste of many foods (“Miracle Berry History”). Nowadays, the production of the berry has been commercialized to consumers who want to experience “flavor tripping” with sour fruits, hot peppers, and other things not normally considered to be sweet.

The taste group and I thought it would be beneficial to our class to attempt to mirror the experience that Moses had of something becoming sweet after some sort of divine intervention aka the Miracle Berry. Obviously the ideas are very different and I do not believe that the Miracle Berries allow us to “taste God” as Moses may have but they do mirror that experience.

The Fourth Gate also goes on to say that “Blessed be He taught him (Moses) the science of the plants he created – about their nature to revive and to kill, to heal and to sicken, to sweeten and to embitter” which is exactly what the indigenous populations were also able to learn. There was most likely no divine being helping them along the way but in the historical practice of healers and those who understood the medicinal values of plants, they were people who understood the science and power of plants. It is hard to tell if these people just learned from trial and error or if they did have some godly knowledge on what plants would help and which would hurt but either way they possessed the knowledge of the Lord.
 Works Cited:
“Miracle Berry History.” Miracle Berry History - Mberry, mberry.us/miracle/history.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausMay 11, 2018 at 7:54 AM

    Most medieval Jewish Christian and Muslim religious theologians believed knowledge from divine revelation and from natural science both came from God, so theology and science were less polarized then than now, at least among intellectuals. But it does make you wonder if R. Bahya knew of plants like miracle berries. Sure sounds like he did.

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