Hello, and welcome to Nissim Krispil's herbal medicine and folklore site. The site will provide you with information about the different plants and herbs native to the land of Israel.

In the site you'll find:

- A detailed list of the Medicinal plants and herbs native to the land of Israel- In the medicinal plants section

- An extended review of one of the plants- We'll review the uses of Sarcopoterium Spinosum L. (Thorny Burnet)

- In the questions and answers section you can ask Nissim Krispil questions regarding Herbal medicine, Folklore and more.

- Questions and comments to this site's constructors can be sent to zick@zahav.net.il.

(Quoted from "Medicinal Plants- a field guide to Israel's herbs"/ by Nissim Krispil)
"After the first man - or so it is told- named all animals, the Lord asked him:
"and you, what shall be thy name?  said man. I am worthy of the name Adam, as I was made of the earth (Adama- in Hebrew)"

Mother earth, the strongest and most solid support my shoes step on.
When I was a child,  I stooped over and laid on it. I rolled on the soil, and my senses were overwhelmed by her scent. As a child I loved to take handfuls of dirt, to dig holes and channels and to place my body within them, so I could feel the power of her embrace, and absorb her smell.

Today, as I walk her myriad paths, she is overflowing with medicinal herbs , perfumed plants, and spices, and always does she hold something beneficiary to man.

I walk among her many trails and hear the song of the grasses, I nibble off the head of this one, I rub it's leaves, absorbing it's scent within me. Stroke that one, and eagerly taste this one's spring flavor.

So many wears has she worn! So many things does she flow out of her! And with such good faith does she return all that we placed within her.

And so ungratefully do we repay her by covering her with piles of garbage, drenching her soul with sewers and foul water, drilling roads into her very bones, and burdening her shoulders with mountains of Concrete.

This reliance on the earth, the "matter" from which I came to be, always brings me back to the Arabian Falachs (farmers- in Arabic ), who preserve my forefathers' heritage. Living amongst them is to me the longing and the craving  to her. It is from them that I have learned the song of the grasses.

I also chanced upon those who call themselves "Herbal doctors" or "Witch doctors". They are scattered among the desert tribes and the villages of the Arabian Falachs. I have tried to visit most of them, although a good many of them have gone to their eternal home before my eyes had the chance of seeing them, and gone with them was their precious cargo of the "Songs of the Earth".

A great green wave engulfs the "World of Plastic", churning, distilling and purifying the hearts and souls of mortals. It has also reached our little plot, leaving behind it shelves full of real, natural, food. Scents and oils and purified souls, and flush- cheeked men who climb a mountain in order to absorb the scent of Mayoran into them, and learn the true smell of the land of Israel.

This composition does not presume to compete with or in any way push aside "Modern medicine". I admire and cherish it's works and enterprises. I recommend to all those who are ill to first go and see a doctor so that they may be examined and advised. Only then should they consider which medicine to take."