PEPPER

PEPPER (Heb. פִּלְפֵּל, pilpel), the fruit of the perennial creeping plant Piper nigrum, which grows in India and in the neighboring tropical regions. The Hebrew name, like its English one, is derived from the Sanskrit pippali. Probably it was first brought to Ereẓ Israel after the expeditions of Alexander the Great. R. Johanan notes that in former times pepper was not yet available for spicing roast meat and roquet was used instead (Er. 28b). Pepper was an expensive spice and sometimes the seeds of bitter vetch were used as a substitute (Eccles. R. 6:1). In the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud, people were very fond of pepper and attempts may have been made to cultivate it. The aggadah states that the emperor Hadrian challenged Joshua b. Hananiah to the effect that despite the Land of Israel's virtues it lacked some things, such as pepper, and in reply Joshua brought him pepper from Niẓḥana (seemingly a locality in Upper Galilee) in order to prove "that the Land of Israel lacks nothing" (Eccles. R. 2:8, no. 2; see also cinnamon ). R. Meir uses the same phrase about pepper and adds that it is subject to the law of orlah just like other local trees (Ber. 36b). In addition to its use as a spice, pepper was also used to dispel halitosis and a woman was permitted to go out on the Sabbath with a peppercorn in her mouth (Shab. 6:5). A   proverb had it that "Better one peppercorn than a basket full of gourds" (Meg. 7a). The term pilpul (Avot 6:6; Tem. 16a) is connected with pilpel and from it is derived the verb palpel, to show sharpwittedness in learning. In the Middle Ages, pepper was a medium of exchange and was called "black money." A species resembling pepper is pilpela arikhta, long pepper (Pes. 42b), extracted from the bunches of unripe fruit of the species Piper longum. In Israel today the name pilpel is applied to the decorative tree Schinus molle and also to paprika, both of which originate in America and were unknown to the ancients. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Krauss, Tal Arch, 1 (1910), 118f.; Loew, Flora, 3 (1924), 49–62. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feliks, Ha-Tzome'aḥ, 125. (Jehuda Feliks)