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I hope to get back to this (another “series” perhaps), and do Gluten & Jewish Law: the Sabbath issue…. the Challah issue…. the Kiddush issue….. [We'll see how long I can eke this out for.] In the meantime, suffice it to say that if you’re not into esoteric Jewish blah, you should skip this whole series.
If you’re into Jewish blah, Passover is an appropriate place to dive in since this is where we first define the five “special grains.”
…G-d is bringing you to a good land: … A land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs and pomegranates; a land of oil-yielding olives and [date] honey. Deuteronomy 8:8
When a Jewish person eats these foods he (or she) should say a special blessing of praise of Eretz Yisrael afterwards. These five fruits (grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates) and no others. But even though only two grains are mentioned here (wheat and barley), in fact there are actually FIVE grains that require an “al hamichya” (special blessing of praise), five grains that can make a true “bread” requiring us to take “challah,” five grains that can become chametz.
It isn’t until Mishna Pesachim 2:5 (or, Pesachim 35a) that we actually learn the names of these five grains, when they talk about matza. The five are: Wheat, barley, spelt, rye, and something they call shibboleth shu’al, or “fox-grain.” We could get into lots more detail, and the debate rages on, but the tradition is that shibboleth shu’al means oats.
According to the sages, those five grains (and no others) become “chametz” if mixed with water and then left to “leaven” for 18 minutes, that’s what DEFINES them as one of the “special grains” and thus ONLY these five grains can be used to make matza.
Stop. Let’s take a look at that list, again. Somehow, 2000 years before anyone figured out celiac disease or gluten, the sages put together a list of all gluten-grains. Wheat, spelt, barley, rye, and (maybe) oats. You could have taken that straight off the CDF website.
I don’t have time to really do this subject justice, because I really wanted to post the first in the series on Passover itself, and that means in the next half-hour. I put this off too long, because it’s really a complicated subject. So we’ll get back to this, but while the Passover vibes are still running through me, let me just point out one interesting thing I noticed at the Seder.
It’s FIVE grains, FOUR definitively and one “other.” And they define them at Passover. And throughout the seder we kept having FOUR things that were really FIVE things - the FOUR questions, that are really FIVE questions (go count them.) The FOUR cups of wine, that are really FIVE (including the cup of Elijah.)
That’s cool, isn’t it?
April 26th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Looking forward to hearing more on this.
Hope you had a healthy and Kosher Passover,
Gina
April 28th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
You too Gina, and to your lovely family! I hope things have settled down now after tax-season. Thanks for your kind support!