I always wanted to be in business, I don’t know why. Maybe not a bakery, but something. Not enough to go to business school - that seemed the corporate thing, and definitely not what I wanted. I didn’t really know WHAT I wanted, so I drifted for a long time.

I did not “go into” teaching, I got a job as an assistant teacher when I had four kids in day school and we needed the tuition break. (I had been a secretary at a Jewish school in Vancouver BC before I got married, so it didn’t seem like much of a jump.) I was really happy to stop, to be honest. Teaching, even just assisting, is draining work.

I once read a book called “Growing a Business” by Paul Hawken. (Once? Well, ok, maybe like a dozen times.) In it, Hawken talks about how to choose which business to open. He says (I’ll paraphrase) to look for places ‘where the shoe doesn’t fit,’ look for things that frustrate you or that are missing in your own life. If you find a way to solve your problem, & if you can help other people solve that same problem in THEIR lives, then you may have a business.

Hawken also says a good business idea will arise naturally out of your life. I always assumed that I’d end up in some kind of publishing venture, since I always loved to read, I love books, I even love touching paper.

Instead, what happened was my husband got Hodgkin’s. After he recovered, he was left with stomach issues which he was obsessive about resolving, since he couldn’t stand not being fully healthy anymore. Turns out in retrospect, our kids’ GI doc tells us, that “most likely” Aron’s life-long gluten-sensitivity CAUSED the cancer.

I was surprised, because usually you only hear about intestinal lymphomas being associated with celiac disease. (People with undiagnosed CD are 33 times more likely to develop intestinal lymphoma than those who can tolerate wheat.) But the doctor said people with undiagnosed CD are 3 times more likely to develop ANY kind of cancer - often lymphomas (Hodgkins is a type of lymphoma), but possibly any kind.

This is all out of order - that conversation took place June 2006, Aron was sick in 1999, recovery took all of 2000 and into 2001, when he was still bothered by stomach issues, but the tip-off wasn’t just in his stomach… let me tell you [warning: new tangent ahead!] there may be no body more documented on the face of this planet than my husband’s. When he was sick, but not yet diagnosed, he went to TWELVE different doctors to figure out why he felt like crap, and that’s not counting the two shrinks me and my in-laws sent him to because we were sure after doctor #7 or 8 that he was crazy.

And it’s normal for cancer survivors to get obsessive about their health afterwards - they don’t ever want to get sick like that again. Imagine surviving cancer; every little thing becomes cause for alarm - not just ‘worry’ but CAT scans and blood work and multiple doctors offering multiple opinions.

So not only can I tell you that as a child my husband was always small for his age (like 5th percentile), always anemic, always got canker sores (NOT cold sores, there’s a difference), got lots of cavities and had slightly discolored teeth (he bleached them when he grew up), always had stomach issues as a child which got better as he got older, which are all classic signs of celiac disease; but I can also tell you that he had elevated liver enzymes, high “alk-phos” (whatever that means), had been diagnosed with osteoporosis like having the bones of a 65-year old-man before the age of 40, anxiety, eczema, bacterial overgrowth, gastric reflux, allergies, joint/bone pain, and other lesser-known, possible symptoms of celiac.

When Aron’s niece was diagnosed with celiac disease in January 2002, our son was just undergoing a colonoscopy/endoscopy due to his frequent stomach aches, which turned up nothing. I looked into celiac a little and became convinced that Aron had it, and in the summer of 2002 when his whole family got tested for celiac, Aron went with our kids. Not one of our household tested positive, but Aron’s father did. (He’d actually been diagnosed with CD when he was a young boy, but as he matured he was told he had grown out of it. Turns out you can’t “grow out of” celiac disease, but he’d arrived at the age of 60 without any noticeable signs beyond recurrent heartburn.)

Even though Aron tested negative (twice!), by the end of 2002 he went gluten-free. Also dairy-free, which he basically was already, but now it was official. At first, I confess I was ANGRY at him - I thought this was another “mishegas,” worse than all the others in that it impacted on ME! - I had to learn a whole new way to cook, constantly shlep to Whole Foods, spend an arm and a leg on specialty products, blah blah blah. But you know what? He really really started to feel better, for the first time in a VERY long time.

And then our son, who is actually pretty stoic (I remember him breaking down when he was six or seven and telling us how much he suffered from stomach aches, and I took him to his pediatrician, who talked to him and couldn’t find anything specific, so the doctor said, “kids get stomach aches, it’s normal,” and sent us on our merry way, and Yitzchak suffered in silence for another two YEARS before Aron got him that endoscopy/colonoscopy when he was nine) anyway, he tried the gluten-free diet and immediately found relief as well. (Finally!)

And then our youngest also was complaining of a stomach ache every single day… that she went to school. She was fine on the weekends. I said for sure it was stress, because this was her second time through kindergarten, and she still wasn’t doing so well. Turns out it was the pizza bagel I sent her every day for lunch. She had to go gluten and dairy-free, too, but then she blossomed not only in health but in school - within two years she went from “remedial reading” to “advanced reading” and has stayed there ever since.

It’s funny but it wasn’t until last summer (2007) that our oldest went gluten-free, even though I always suspected she was the most gluten-sensitive of all our kids. In fact, when I left teaching in June 2006 I made her get tested again and she STILL didn’t have celiac. That’s when I had that conversation with the doctor, when he said that Aron probably got cancer because he had been eating gluten. Our third was also tested normal at that time, but we’ve never suspected any gluten-sensitivity with her, so she still eats wheat.

At that time I got tested myself. Since I had been essentially eating gluten-free for a while (you can barely get me to make ONE dinner for the family, I am certainly not making TWO!) I had to do a “gluten-challenge” where I ate substantial amounts of gluten every day - a bagel, a slice of pizza, some pasta - for six weeks. Sounds good, right? I got SO SICK! I was stunned - I NEVER suspected I might have issues with wheat! But you know what? I do NOT have celiac disease. (I also still eat wheat. A little bit here and there doesn’t seem to do me too much harm.)

Anyway, there are clearly more people who suffer from eating wheat & gluten than just those with celiac disease. Celiacs are less than 1% of the population (and even that’s huge! Until 2003 they thought celiacs were 1/5000 people. Then they found out it’s 1/133), but there must be double or triple that number who need to eat gluten-free. I’ve read estimates that go as high as 30%, but that’s just crazy talk. (I believe it, but I won’t admit it in public.)

So what we had here, was a situation where the “shoe didn’t fit” on a whole lot of people. I knew how hard it was to find products like kosher / gluten-free / dairy-free bread for sandwiches, to make lunches for school every day. Somehow the bread I made without gluten or dairy tasted pretty good. And the rest was history.

Did I think it would be this hard to run a business? Well, obviously, now that we’ve been in business since January 2007, and open since June 2007, I can tell you that it is one thing to be able to BAKE gf-bread; and another thing to get OTHER people to bake gf-bread, CONSISTENTLY, in a real-life kitchen where equipment breaks and deliveries come late; another thing to package gf-bread and market gf-bread and deliver gf-bread, to bill for gf-bread and pay for the ingredients to make the gf-bread.

But Paul Hawken did warn me that business is people, and it would be the PEOPLE who would surprise me the most, both for the bad and for the good. I think business has been rewarding for me because the people it has brought me have for the most part been exceptionally good.

Also; you know how sometimes authors will say that their characters take off in ways that surprise them (the authors)? The bakery keeps doing that to me. The business plan called for a strictly WHOLESALE bakery (what else can you do with a bakery that is closed Saturdays & obscure Jewish holidays?) but from the day I pitched the idea to our investor, until right this very moment, it is fighting to become a retail bakery, even a cafe. (I sometimes consider getting a beer & wine license!) It is our retail customers that have carried us through this past year of product development, for sure.

THANK YOU, WONDERFUL CUSTOMERS! We LOVE you and APPRECIATE your coming back! And any readers who made it down here - THANK YOU FOR READING!

As usual; Saturday, CLOSED

As usual; Sunday, 10-2

Here’s what’s different:

CLOSING EARLY,

MONDAY, MAY 26, 10-2 !!!

(Also no online orders will be shipped Monday.)

Thank you and happy holidays!!

City of Manhattan Beach
on the 13 th Street & Metlox Plazas
2nd Fields of Green Free Community Event!

Fun for the whole family, including performances by the SqueeGees children’s musical group, children’s activities, food samplings, professional athlete appearances, exhibitors (like us!) and educational speakers all inspiring healthy eating, healthy living, and the awakened athlete.

You can order any of The Sensitive Baker’s products to pick up at the event, and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit GrowingGreat, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring children and adults to adopt healthy eating habits. GrowingGreat provides comprehensive nutrition education and school garden programs to 1,000’s of elementary school students in Southern California.

To place an order please call The Sensitive Baker 310-815-1800.

For more information about the event,
call the GrowingGreat office 310-939-9216.

Hope to see you there!

Meet Clifford, the big red chef. (He’s all hunched here but he’s gotta be 6 feet tall. In my world, that’s a big dude!)

Eugenie has gone and left a hole in our hearts, but life must go on, soups and tuna salad have to be made, and Cliff is filling that void. He’s a friend of Dylan’s from The Art Institute of California culinary school, and this is a rare photo of the two together: actually, Dylan and Cliff “share” the cooking position and when one is here the other is usually not.

Kind of like Clark Kent and Superman, only in my book, both these young men are Superman! Welcome to the team, Cliff, good to have you on the bus. Thanks for bringing your tunes!

P.S. We have to get another photo of Cliff after work, when he takes off his hat and lets loose his dreds! Muy impressive!

***

And, ta da, here he is!

(How long do you think it takes to GROW hair like that? Cliff reminds me of Samson, only blonder.) (Much sweeter, too.)

We DEFINITELY need to update this entry with the new schedule - in an effort to better serve you (lunch), Dylan & Cliff now work together most mornings. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Triumph Gluten Free!

[Little tidbit about the cards: Some of our team members speak English only as a second language, and as much as we try to train new hires about gluten and the dangers of bringing your lunch from home, sometimes I’m just not sure I’m getting through. When our Triumph Dining Cards arrived, I photocopied & enlarged the one for Mexican food, in Spanish, and hung it on the “bulletin board” / refrigerator.

And then I stepped back and secretly watched as EVERY Spanish-speaking person in the establishment - even ones who speak perfect English and I was sure “got” the gluten issue - all read the sheet with great interest and with looks of growing comprehension and even enlightenment on their faces as they began to feel like they “owned” the gluten issue.

That’s what handing people the information in their own language, referencing items from their own experience, can do.

Of course, it helps that the information is crystal-clear and distilled so that even in English it has that effect on me. They say it takes a busy chef less than a minute to read one of these and understand it.

The cards - not to sound like a commercial, but I really like them, they’re well made and like I said, effective - anyway there are TEN of them, for ten different languages and cuisines, and that means they open up TEN different worlds for the gluten-sensitive. That’s less than, like, $2 a world.]

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about the new blog, which has tips for dining out, new product reviews, and other gf-news, but I’ve bored you long enough. I listed it in the blogroll - you’ll have much more fun if you go there yourself and check it out!

The Jewish Journal

It’s really a great piece and big, big thanks to writer Adam Wills for spreading the word about celiac disease. I just need to say one teeny thing. (And then I promise, I’ll shut up about the oats, I’m sure everyone is sick of the whole oats issue.)

It’s not that “the Hier family is confidently sticking with oats.” That’s not for us to decide. The RCC tells us oats require the blessing HaMotzi, with washing before and a full Grace after Meals following.

‘Nuff said.

And thanks once again to the lovely Keren Greenberg for the photo!

When Challah Becomes the Bread of Affliction

Understanding and Implementing Special Diets to Aid in the Treatment of Autism and Related Developmental Disorders, by Lisa Lewis, Ph.D.

I can see why this is still touted as THE place to start researching the connection between autism and diet, even 10 years after it was published. This is a remarkably thorough book, well-researched and relatively easy to understand.

Dr. Lewis starts by telling the story of her son, Sam, from his birth, through his diagnosis of autism, through his thank God successful recovery largely due to the GF-CF diet in conjunction with other therapies. She explains the physiological basis of autism a whole lot better than I get it, tells you how to test your child for gluten-sensitivity (and other sensitivities - I’m learning with that autism you rarely get just one!), how to start the diet, how to explain the diet (to extended family, or caregivers), and provides countless recipes for, like, normal food that kids actually want to eat.

She ends with pages and pages of resources, but remember the book was published in 1998, so they’re not current. It’s so cute, she actually has a section at the end where she explains how to buy a modem so you can “surf the web.” She recommends getting Compuserve. Does anyone else remember Compuserve? Am I totally dating myself when I say I’ve even heard of Compuserve?

I guess that’s why people get Special Diets for Special Kids, Two, but my understanding is that most of the second edition is new recipes, and the explanatory part, which is what I really wanted, didn’t get repeated. I like this one. I once read (I can’t quote the source exactly) that when you’re looking for books you should try to find the one that saves you from reading ten others. When it comes to the connection between diet and PDD, Special Diets for Special Kids is that book.

And to quote a review from a fan who agrees, “Special Diets For Special Kids made me feel like I actually had someone there holding my hand the whole way.“

The only recipe we tried at the bakery was the yeast-free bread, but it didn’t work for us. (I think that was our YF#67, the “spongy-pudding.” I’m sure it’s our fault, we have no luck with yeast-free breads.) Anyway, now that I’ve brought the book home, I’m gonna try more, including the one for matza balls. Wish me luck!

What are they talking about? I asked my husband to show me Kilayim 1:1, and the Rambam there. [’Cause you know: Any actual Torah in these posts comes from my husband, Rabbi Aron Hier. The mistakes, sadly, are all mine.]

Kilayim is the Jewish prohibition against mingling different species, for example planting a blend of wheat and barley seeds in a single field. In Kilayim 1:1 the Mishna states that it is permitted to plant a blend of barley and shibbolet shu’al (the mysterious 5th grain.)

And at Kilayim 1:1, the Rambam states that, “Shibbolet Shu’al is Wild Barley.” “Se’orim midbarim”; se’or means barley, and midbar means wilderness. Where does everyone get “two-rowed barley?” I see no reference to any rows!

Rambam also states, by Pesachim when they first define the grains, that when the Torah says “wheat” it also means “spelt,” and when the Torah says “barley” it also means “rye” and “shibbolet shual.” (You might say, “I thought they said that in the Talmud!” They did, but there it’s a little squidgy, people seem to imply the categories could shift depending on the circumstances. The Rambam comes along and says firmly, “No, shibbolet shu’al is ALWAYS a kind of barley.” That’s actually big.)

[As for the rabbis classifying all 5 grains as either “wheat” or “barley,” even though botanists think of rye as another species entirely and oats as from a whole new tribe:

[Imagine your breakfast comes with “Coffee” or “Tea.” So then your waitress explains that “Coffee” also means “Decaf,” and “Tea” could be “Black Tea” or “Green Tea” or even “Herbal Tea” which everybody knows isn’t really “Tea” at all. But it’s certainly not “Coffee,” it’s like the antithesis of Coffee, so what else can we call it?]

[Again, I am not a rabbi; and this blog is for entertainment purposes only.]

So anyway, for Rambam to call “shibbolet shual,” “se’orim” is no surprise, he’s already defined it as “se’orim.” Any plant he names here in Kilayim is, ipso facto, a type of barley. And what type is that? WILD se’orim. The kind that nobody cultivates. Weeds.

[In English it’s a cliche, “sowing your WILD oats.” And there’s, “feeling your oats,” for when a horse, or person, is feeling frisky. The concept of oats as an expression of, and cause of, wild-ness goes way back.]

All Rambam actually says, in Kilayim, is that shibbolet shu’al is some kind of wild, uncultivated grain that can be seen, in some physical or metaphysical sense, as a type of “barley.” Note also we still haven’t established what the connection is between barley and shibbolet shu’al.

Personally, I am reminded of the Mishna in Sotah 14a, where Rabban Gamliel comments on the offering of barley: “Because her actions were like acts of an animal, so she brings an offering of ANIMAL FODDER.” Even today, half our barley is grown to feed animals (and a large part of the rest goes to feed man’s more bestial nature.)

Know what else is animal fodder? Think of Samuel Johnson’s famous quip: “Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.” To which Boswell is supposed to have replied, “Aye, which is why in England you’ll raise fine horses, while in Scotland we’ll raise fine people.” Even today, “most oats are used as livestock feed.” “Most” as in, 95%, although this is changing.

***

Let’s review: The Encyclopedia Talmudit (vol.7, pp. 224-225) states that “according to most Rishonim,” shibbolet shu’al is avena sativa in Latin; avena in Old French, avoine in Modern French; and oats in English.

Rashi (1040-1105) states “v’shibbolet shu’al means in Old French, “avena,” and the “shibbolet” of it (it’s ear) is made like a zanav (tail) of a fox.”

But, the Aruch, a ‘talmudic dictionary’ written by Rav Natan ben Yechiel (1035-1106) (Rashi’s contemporary) (he may not have a wikipedia page, but he was still a big guy, Rashi himself cites him more than once), identifies “shibbolet shu’al” as EITHER “avena,” OR “secale,” rye.

The Rambam (1135-1204), as we said, translates “shibbolet shu’al” as “wild barley,” which is open to interpretation.

The Meiri (1249 - 1310) says, “shibbolet shu’al,” called in Old French, “avena.”

The Rosh (1250-1328) says, “shibbolet shu’al, called, avena.”

According to the Bartenura: (circa: 1450-1500) “shibbolet shu’al is se’orim midbarim, wild barley, also known as avena.”

Whoa, hold up there! So, Bartenura doesn’t think Rambam is contradicting Rashi at all, on the contrary, he says these are all different terms for the same thing!

Later Acharonim maintain the traditional understanding of oats as shibbolet shu’al:

Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann-Heller (1579- 1654) states: “The Rabbi (Bartenura) wrote “avena,” and it is called thus because the “shibbolet” of it (it’s ear) is made like a zanav (tail) of a fox.” [Straight out of Rashi.]

Tiferet Yisrael (1782 - 1860): “shibbolet shu’al is hafer [German for oats.]”

BTW, the Chazon Ish (1878 - 1953) (on the Rambam at Kilayim!) explains that there are three reasons why two different species might be considered NOT kilayim. The first reason, which applies to barley and shibbolet shu’al, is that the two species were, at the moment of creation, a single organism with different physical characteristics, much like branches of different-colored fruit on a single tree; and the two species diverged only AFTER Creation. “And the sages decided with Divine Spirit what is considered a single existential species; and that which determines common membership in a single species goes beyond appearance or form, but depends on other, foundational things deeply embedded in all living things, which cannot be seen & require the Divine Spirit to access.” (Could he be talking about DNA?)

And so the mesora, the tradition, was passed down until today, that shibbolet shu’al means oats.

***

[Total side point: Before I got married, my last name was Huberman. Hubber is Yiddish for oats. Coincidence? I think not.]

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

(Hint: Don’t look at the drawings, or the colors, just look at the plants.)

***

***

Let’s see that again, shall we?

On the left, common wheat, triticum aestivum, (also known as bread wheat) the most cultivated wheat species in the world.

On the right, spelt (triticum spelta.) When people recite the “short list” of gluten-grains (”wheat, rye, and barley”), they don’t mention spelt because it IS a kind of wheat. We try to keep it simple.

That simplicity backfires, because as a result people say, “Spelt is gluten-free, right?” WRONG! I know, the labels say “wheat free” but they lie! Spelt is actually an ancient form of wheat. (Notice they’re both triticum.) The rabbis got it right on both counts: They list spelt separately - because people treat it as a different thing. But they called it a “type” of wheat - because spelt and the wheat that we know are, like, sisters.

Next we see barley (hordeum vulgare) on the top, rye (secale cereale) below. These two species are not quite as closely related. Cousins, rather than brothers.

Remember what Dr. Kagnoff said in that YouTube video? About 13 minutes in, he classifies wheat (including spelt), rye, and barley as “all part of the same sub-family, part of the same tribe, all very closely related.” (Good graphic, doc!)

***

Even though scientists consider wheat, rye, and barley as “cousins,” the rabbis classify rye as a “type” of barley. That’s because the bible only mentions wheat and barley, and the rabbis are coming along and performing what my husband calls a “typical rabbinic amplification.” They’re increasing magnification on our “lens” so that we can see that the phrase “wheat and barley” also includes spelt, rye, and oats.

[These are the same rabbis who will call one activity the “father” of another activity; obviously when they talk about relationships they’re not always referring to genetics.]

Finally we have oats (avena sativa.) Part of the same sub-family, says Dr. Kagnoff, but different tribe. A long-lost cousin, so to speak.

It may not LOOK like they’re related, but oats are actually one step closer to wheat than any other edible grain of the grass family. Rice, corn, millet, all come from different sub-families. Oats are in the SAME sub-family.

As for the “quaint” (to our 21st-century eyes) classification of oats and rye as sub-types of barley you must check out Wikipedia’s entry on the origin of oats. Quote: “Oats, like rye, are usually considered a secondary crop, i.e. derived from a weed of the primary cereal domesticates wheat and barley.” (Emphasis added.)

***

Kilayim: Did you read Dr. Felix’s assertion that oats could never have been shibbolet shu’al, since the mishna allows shibbolet shu’al to be mixed with barley?

That all has to do with another mitzva, called kilayim, that forbids the mixing of species. For example, if you have a field you can’t deliberately mix a bag of wheat seeds and a bag of barley seeds together and plant the blend. By accident, if a few alien seeds get mixed into a bag, that’s ok. No more than 1 part in 24, though, and only if it was by accident.

But if you have a bag of barley and a bag of shibboleth shu’al, no problem. Throw ‘em all together, doesn’t matter.

Professor Felix claimed that since oats are obviously a different species, there’s no way such a mixture with barley would be permitted.

But perhaps if oats had ALWAYS been a weed growing amongst the barley, maybe some years even more than 1/24 despite the best efforts of the farmer, in practical terms you might have to sometimes treat them as one species.

Or maybe they said, “Nebach, how sad for the poor man, he has to take his pitiful barley, that can’t even make decent bread (not like wheat, the good stuff!) and stretch it out with weeds. We better let him eat it or he may starve.”

(Don’t quote me on this, I am not a rabbi, nor do I play one on TV.)

***

BTW, it’s not yeast that makes chametz. (a) You don’t need to add yeast to make chametz, maybe because (b) there’s yeast everywhere; on fruit, even on your own body. They add yeast to wine for example, and wine is clearly not chametz. All we can say for certain is that what the sages called “leavening” is the thing that happens when you get this category of grain wet, and then let it sit around for 18 minutes.

Maybe the water “activates” the naturally-present yeast, somehow, but then again it’s possible what we translate as “leavening” has nothing to do with yeast.

***

What’s in a name?: Let’s articulate HOW oats look different from the other “chametz” grains.

You’ll say, “Duh! On oats the seeds are all separate and individual-like, but on wheat, etc., the seeds are all lined up in compact heads.” It’s the distinguishing characteristic of oats, the thing that makes them unique, those separate, individual seeds.

(Even rice & millet look more wheat-like than oats do.)

My rebbe, Rav Matis Weinberg, always says a (true) name is an expression of the very nature of a thing.

Even in English the word “oats” is plural, indicating multiplicity, as opposed to the word “wheat,” in the singular, indicating monolithic uniformity.

In Hebrew, the word shibbolet literally means the part of a plant containing grains, such as an ear of corn. But it can also mean a spike/point, a stream, or a path, concepts all linked by the idea of something separating out from a larger whole. It may be that ears of grain are called shibbolet because they have hairlike projections sticking out from the seeds. Like the English “ear,” it’s a generic term that can be applied to any grain.

Rashi is the first Rishon to translate shibbolet shu’al into modern terms (avena) and he explains that this specific grain is called shu’al (fox) because “ears” of oats are [shaped, lit. “made”] like the tail of a fox.

In what way? Well, look at this fox’s tail. It’s fluffy. Look at the oats in the picture above. They look like the tail of the fox.

Let’s not forget that the ancient Israelites would have been very familiar with what oats look like. Not because they cultivated oats, on the contrary; because they would have been constantly, vigilantly, weeding them out of their prized wheat fields, lest the oats go to seed.

The very thing that Prof. Felix takes issue with, the way that oats LOOK different from the other grains (because they’re all separated on the stalk, which makes them fluff up) turns out to be the very essence of shibbolet shu’al.

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?