Biblical Source

• The Bible's Psalm 56:9---traditionally attributed to King David---expresses woe to God: "Thou has counted my wanderings; put Thou my tears into thy bottle; are they not in Thy book?" Although the Hebrew term "nod" is usually translated as "wineskin," the concept of collecting tears in some sort of container as a memorial of suffering has deep roots in Jewish culture.
  
  

Rabbinic Literature

• The Talmud (tractate Shabbat, page 105b) expands on this idea of the collection of tears by describing how God collects all the tears that are shed by mourners of upright people, and then sets these bottles aside as items of unique value.
  
  

Tear Bottles in the 19th century

• The use of the tear bottle has largely vanished from contemporary Jewish practice, although the late nineteenth century saw a resurgence of their use in Victorian England. In the United States during the Civil War, departing soldiers gave their wives an empty tear bottle so they could demonstrate their devotion by filling it in their absence.