Garlic Stinketh
Numbers 11:5
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leek, and the onions, and the garlick.
The Hebrew word for Garlic (Old King James: Garlick, love the KJV) is Shuwm (shoom). It is from an unused root meaning to exhale; garlic (from its rank odor):--garlic.
As George D'Oyly & Richard Mant penned in their early 1800's Commentary on the Bible, these foods were very typical of the lowest class in Egypt (that would be the Jews) during the time of the Israelite slavery. From their work: The Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version: With Notes, Explanatory and Practical ; Taken Principally from the Most Eminent Writers of the United Church of England and Ireland, Together with Appropriate Introductions, Tables, Indexes, and Maps (that is quite the mouthful, I have seen evangelistic tracks with less words and less intelligence).
Perhaps the Israelite diet of poverty-class Egyptian foods would be somewhat analogous to the African slave in America's diet of black-eyed peas, collard greens, okra gumbo, and fried chicken, all of which were African in origin and not considered Southern haute cuisine. Except, the Africans' food would remind them of freedom whereas the Israelites food should have reminded them of slavery. We love our chains I suppose...
Leeks, onions, and garlic belong to the Alliaceae vegetable family. Allicin is the sulfur compound that gives garlic its distinctive kick (Garlic is the # 1 antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and all around anti-pathogen herb. Garlic contains over 80 sulfur compounds, many of which are used to create sulfa drugs. From www.all4naturalhealth.com). I like what the health food store Sonnewald states, "Good Health comes from the Farm .... Not the Pharmacy!" www.sonnewald.org
(An aside, how many off our health problems could just be either avoided or treated through natural means....not some pharmaceutical company concoction that might kill you to cure you? Have you seen the research on teens and anti-depressants? It makes them more prone to suicide...that is hardly a good treatment plan for depression. The American dietary creed: I'll treat my body worse than my car and then when it breaks down, take a ton of pills and spend a pile of cash to try and bail myself out of the consequences).
When you see supplements of garlic in the store in pill form that state "odorless" on the label, you can be certain that what makes garlic such a healing agent is its odiferous kick. Take away what causes the kick, you have a castrated compound. Speaking of kick, I have been on a garlic kick for the last several months. When I feel a cold coming on, I eat several raw cloves. Characteristically, this causes my body to recoil like a shotgun blast. I am convinced that it has warded off impending sickness. My eyes water, I breathe fire, and the cold virus gets droned with a Hellfire missile-like blast, blowing it up to smithereens like al-Qaeda in Tora Bora. No colds so far this winter, watch me get sick now that I have written this.
My wife, who has the palate of food critic (which she is) and nose of a bloodhound--fortunately not the face--then gets nauseous when she gets within 5 feet of me. Last Sunday before church, I consumed a couple of raw garlic cloves. My timing of consumption was off--I came to church reeking and she was repelling away from me in the pew. That most have looked concerning to others behind us....while our pastor was preaching about peace between spouses, my wife gave me a very visible shove. But, the smell makes her literally sick to her stomach, so I understood and was appropriately apologetic and in a state of rectitude after church...this wasn't the first time where I went out in public with her with garlic exuding from me.
At one point in the service, I belched internally and it tasted like I had a stink bomb in my mouth. But, then I thought of the germs getting beat up, and I rejoiced. I was looking around to see if any of the little kids around me were looking around with grimaces...a kid would say aloud, "Mommy, something stinks!" I didn't see any signs of this...perhaps the children were just far enough away and the adults were too polite to expose, either verbally or non-verbally, my impoliteness and impropriety. Afterwards, it might have been, "What was that?!!! Bierker smelled like a sulfur-breathing Leviathan "
I have also not seen any vampires since ingesting garlic. So, it must be working. Today, to get ready to write this piece, I ate two cloves of raw garlic. Lina is in Seattle so she won't mind. I am even turning on others to this treatment. Two weeks ago, my neighbor was suffering from a cold. I gave him a bulb of garlic and showed him how it was done. Just chomp it down. He looked at me with a curious gaze...a mix of admiration and increduilty. Later, he went home and did the deed and even gave some to his girlfriend to stave off a cold. I found out a week later, that his cold was a manifestation of him having a ruptured appendix; his body was just getting beaten down and he needed emergency surgery...not sure garlic can help that. But, he did think the garlic whupped the cold.
I am convinced that what makes garlic harsh makes it good. Taking the harshness out takes the health out too. Kind of reminds me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in 'Men Without Chests" :
"And all the time—such is the tragic-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity.’ In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ an demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
Sort of like the truth. Sometimes it has to hurt to help.
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leek, and the onions, and the garlick.
The Hebrew word for Garlic (Old King James: Garlick, love the KJV) is Shuwm (shoom). It is from an unused root meaning to exhale; garlic (from its rank odor):--garlic.
As George D'Oyly & Richard Mant penned in their early 1800's Commentary on the Bible, these foods were very typical of the lowest class in Egypt (that would be the Jews) during the time of the Israelite slavery. From their work: The Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version: With Notes, Explanatory and Practical ; Taken Principally from the Most Eminent Writers of the United Church of England and Ireland, Together with Appropriate Introductions, Tables, Indexes, and Maps (that is quite the mouthful, I have seen evangelistic tracks with less words and less intelligence).
Perhaps the Israelite diet of poverty-class Egyptian foods would be somewhat analogous to the African slave in America's diet of black-eyed peas, collard greens, okra gumbo, and fried chicken, all of which were African in origin and not considered Southern haute cuisine. Except, the Africans' food would remind them of freedom whereas the Israelites food should have reminded them of slavery. We love our chains I suppose...
Leeks, onions, and garlic belong to the Alliaceae vegetable family. Allicin is the sulfur compound that gives garlic its distinctive kick (Garlic is the # 1 antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and all around anti-pathogen herb. Garlic contains over 80 sulfur compounds, many of which are used to create sulfa drugs. From www.all4naturalhealth.com). I like what the health food store Sonnewald states, "Good Health comes from the Farm .... Not the Pharmacy!" www.sonnewald.org
(An aside, how many off our health problems could just be either avoided or treated through natural means....not some pharmaceutical company concoction that might kill you to cure you? Have you seen the research on teens and anti-depressants? It makes them more prone to suicide...that is hardly a good treatment plan for depression. The American dietary creed: I'll treat my body worse than my car and then when it breaks down, take a ton of pills and spend a pile of cash to try and bail myself out of the consequences).
When you see supplements of garlic in the store in pill form that state "odorless" on the label, you can be certain that what makes garlic such a healing agent is its odiferous kick. Take away what causes the kick, you have a castrated compound. Speaking of kick, I have been on a garlic kick for the last several months. When I feel a cold coming on, I eat several raw cloves. Characteristically, this causes my body to recoil like a shotgun blast. I am convinced that it has warded off impending sickness. My eyes water, I breathe fire, and the cold virus gets droned with a Hellfire missile-like blast, blowing it up to smithereens like al-Qaeda in Tora Bora. No colds so far this winter, watch me get sick now that I have written this.
My wife, who has the palate of food critic (which she is) and nose of a bloodhound--fortunately not the face--then gets nauseous when she gets within 5 feet of me. Last Sunday before church, I consumed a couple of raw garlic cloves. My timing of consumption was off--I came to church reeking and she was repelling away from me in the pew. That most have looked concerning to others behind us....while our pastor was preaching about peace between spouses, my wife gave me a very visible shove. But, the smell makes her literally sick to her stomach, so I understood and was appropriately apologetic and in a state of rectitude after church...this wasn't the first time where I went out in public with her with garlic exuding from me.
At one point in the service, I belched internally and it tasted like I had a stink bomb in my mouth. But, then I thought of the germs getting beat up, and I rejoiced. I was looking around to see if any of the little kids around me were looking around with grimaces...a kid would say aloud, "Mommy, something stinks!" I didn't see any signs of this...perhaps the children were just far enough away and the adults were too polite to expose, either verbally or non-verbally, my impoliteness and impropriety. Afterwards, it might have been, "What was that?!!! Bierker smelled like a sulfur-breathing Leviathan "
I have also not seen any vampires since ingesting garlic. So, it must be working. Today, to get ready to write this piece, I ate two cloves of raw garlic. Lina is in Seattle so she won't mind. I am even turning on others to this treatment. Two weeks ago, my neighbor was suffering from a cold. I gave him a bulb of garlic and showed him how it was done. Just chomp it down. He looked at me with a curious gaze...a mix of admiration and increduilty. Later, he went home and did the deed and even gave some to his girlfriend to stave off a cold. I found out a week later, that his cold was a manifestation of him having a ruptured appendix; his body was just getting beaten down and he needed emergency surgery...not sure garlic can help that. But, he did think the garlic whupped the cold.
I am convinced that what makes garlic harsh makes it good. Taking the harshness out takes the health out too. Kind of reminds me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in 'Men Without Chests" :
"And all the time—such is the tragic-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity.’ In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ an demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
Sort of like the truth. Sometimes it has to hurt to help.
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