Literally "Pruning of the Palm" according to Gesenius, from Chatsats (חצץ) = "to divide". However, as a noun it is used to mean "gravel" or "a small stone" (Proverbs 20:17 and Lamentations 3:16).
Genesis 14:7 states that it was an Amorite settlement destroyed in the War of the Kings, in the region of Eyn Mishpat (Kadesh).
2 Chronicles 20:2 says that its name was changed to Ein Gedi (עין גדי), "the Spring of the Mountain-Goat", which it is still called today: one of the great beauty-spots of modern Yisra-El, close to the Dead Sea. The Amonites attacked Yehoshaphat from there (2 Chronicles 20), and David hid there from Sha'ul (1 Samuel 24). It is situated in the tribe of Yehudah close to Herod's fortress of Masada.
Tamar of course is not just any palm tree, but specifically the date-palm, and the date-goddess. She appears in Genesis 38, in the tale of Yehudah and his three sons, and his fathering of Parets and Zerach on what he does not know is his daughter-in-law; all to do with the Levirate Law and the practice of Onanism, which I shall not explain in detail here as it is all explained in detail in the commentary to the text itself. Click the link to Genesis 38.
She then appears again as a daughter of King David in 2 Samuel 13, where she is encouraged by her cousin Yonadav (י֣וֹנָדָ֔ב, though probably Yah-Nadav in the original) to visit her sick half-brother Amnon, who is madly in lust with her; the consequent rape becomes a bone of contention between David and Tamar's full-brother Av-Shalom (Absalom), and a major pretext in the usurpation of the kingdom by Av-Shalom. There is a splendid novelistic version of the tale by Dan Jacobson, which was turned into an excellent play, but I can't remember by who; it was staged at the National Theatre in London back in the 1980s or 90s; if anyone can remember, please post a comment at the bottom of this page.
Palm trees do not grow particularly well at Ein Gedi, due to the intense salinity of the Dead Sea, on whose shores it lies. Indeed, they scarcely grow at all, except in the clear-water springs in the gorge behind Ein Gedi, where mountain-goats are still plentiful today.
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| Medjool date palm trees at the Dead Sea near Kibbutz Gilgal |
CHATSATSON in this case must be the stones, not the division, as we are in the realm of the date-goddess Tamar. The megalithic alignments of southern Brittany constitute scores of square miles of small granite boulders, lain out like a stone orchard by human hands. At Ein Gedi, these granite boulders are natural formations.
It may also be worth pointing out to Gesenius that pruning a palm tree is not actually much use, since palm "branches", being fronds, are not given to bifurcation in the same way as other flora. Palm trees are generally "pruned" by waiting for the old leaves simply to fall, or by slicing them with an extremely sharp knife.
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