Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

, the five species of grain ( he, חמשת מיני דגן, hameshet minei dagan) refer to five varieties of

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

which have special status for a number of

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

s. These species are commonly considered to be

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

, rye and

spelt Spelt (''Triticum spelta''), also known as dinkel wheat or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat that has been cultivated since approximately 5000 BC. Spelt was an important staple food in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times. No ...

. However, some of these identifications are disputed.

Identity

The five species, with their

Mishnaic Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew is the Hebrew of Talmudic texts. Mishnaic Hebrew can be sub-divided into Mishnaic Hebrew proper (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which was a spoken language, and Amoraic Hebrew (also cal ...

names, are as follows: * ( ) –

* ( ) –

, but modernly taken to refer to

emmer wheat Emmer wheat or hulled wheat is a type of awned wheat. Emmer is a tetraploid (4''n'' = 4''x'' = 28 chromosomes). The domesticated types are ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''dicoccum'' and ''Triticum turgidum ''conv.'' durum''. The wild plant is ...

* ( ) –

or two-rowed barley.Oat Matzah
/ref> The name literally means "fox

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...

holds this to be oats, and

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

holds it to be a type of "wild barley," while Rabbi

Nathan ben Abraham Nathan ben Abraham, known also by the epithet ''President of the Academy'' () in the Land of Israel (died ca. 1045 – 1051), was an 11th-century rabbi and exegete of the Mishnah who lived in Ramla, in the Jund Filastin district of the Fatimid C ...

called it by its Arabic name (Fox's spike).

Zohar Amar Zohar Amar (born 1960) is a professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University, whose research specialties are: natural history in ancient times; the identification of the flora of the Land of Israel and identification ...

and El'ad Kapah, ''The Yemenite Commentary of Rabbi Nathan, President of the Academy, on the Identification of Flora in the Mishnah'', pub. in: ''Mittuv Yosef – Yosef Tobi Jubilee Volume'', The Jews of Yemen: History and Culture (vol. 2), Haifa 2011, p. 13 (note 24) * ( ) – rye,

, or

. Its Arabic cognate, () refers to oats. Rabbi

Nathan ben Abraham I Nathan ben Abraham, known also by the epithet ''President of the Academy'' () in the Land of Israel (died ca. 1045 – 1051), was an 11th-century rabbi and exegete of the Mishnah who lived in Ramla, in the Jund Filastin district of the Fatimid C ...

translated into

Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Arabic dialects (, ; ; ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encomp ...

as (), which

claimed is synonymous with an archaic Arabic word for oat, (). Rashi translated as (), indicating rye (''

Secale cereale Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is ...

''), which is not endemic to Israel, but was grown nearby. According to Dr Yehudah Felix, is

. The

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

groups them into two varieties of

(, ) and three varieties of barley (, , ).Pesachim 35a Since European medieval times,

Orthodox Jewry Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...

accepts the five grains as wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt. Other than the traditional translation, some researchers today propose that only the grain species native to the Land of Israel can become . This would rule out not only oats, but also rye (''Secale'') which grows in colder, wetter climates. They offer other translations to the 5 grains.How To Prepare For Passover / Pesach
/ref>

Laws

A number of laws apply only to these five grains: * Only bread made with these grains requires the blessing of ''

hamotzi Listed below are some Hebrew language, Hebrew Jewish services, prayers and Berakhah, blessings that are part of Judaism that are recited by many Jews. Most prayers and blessings can be found in the Siddur, or prayer book. This article addresses J ...

'' before eating, and

birkat hamazon Birkat Hamazon ( he, בִּרְכַּת הַמָּזוׂן, The Blessing of the Food), known in English as the Grace After Meals ( yi, ; translit. ''bentschen'' or "to bless", Yinglish: Bentsching), is a set of Hebrew blessings that Jewish ...

after eating. * Only bread made from these grain is obligated in

challah Challah (, he, חַלָּה or ; plural: or ) is a special bread of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major Jewish holidays (other than Passover). Ritually acceptable ch ...

. *

Matzah Matzah or matzo ( he, מַצָּה, translit=maṣṣā'','' pl. matzot or Ashk. matzos) is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which ''chametz'' ( leaven an ...

can only be made from these grains, and conversely only these grains can become

chametz ''Chametz'' (also ''chometz'', ', ''ḥameṣ'', ''ḥameç'' and other spellings transliterated from he, חָמֵץ / חמץ; ) are foods with leavening agents that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to halakha, Jews ma ...

and seor. * The prohibitions of eating and harvesting

chadash In Judaism, ''Chadash'' (or ''Chodosh'') () is a concept within Kashrut (the Jewish dietary regulations), based on the Biblical requirement not to eat any grain of the new year (or products made from it) prior to the annual '' Omer'' offering ...

only apply to these grains.

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

Menachot Tractate Menachot ( he, מְנָחוֹת; "Meal Offerings") is the second tractate of the Order of Kodashim. It has Gemara in the Babylonian Talmud and a Tosefta. Menachot deals with the rules regarding the preparation and presentation of grain- ...

10:7

Oat matza

As mentioned above, oats are generally accepted in Ashkenazi Jewish tradition as the one of the five species, but modern research suggests that what has been traditionally translated as "oats" is in fact a wild species of

or other grains. This debate is practically significant because of the candidates for the five species, oats are the only one which is

gluten Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. Although "gluten" often only refers to wheat proteins, in medical literature it refers to the combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins naturally occurring in all grain ...

-free. Although there have been no changes to normative Jewish law to reflect the debate, some rabbis take a stringent view and discourage the use of oat ''matzo'' to fulfill the biblical obligation of eating ''matzo'' at the

Passover Seder The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew c ...

Additional species

According to Rabbi

Johanan ben Nuri Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri (Hebrew: יוחנן בן נורי) was a ''tannaim, tanna'' of the 1st and 2nd centuries. Biography He initially studied under the watch of Gamaliel II, Rabban Gamliel of Yavne and senior of Rabbi Akiva, and later took up ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

and

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

are also included among the "species of grain", and thus can become ''chametz'' and ''matza'' and are obligated in ''challah''. This opinion was not accepted as ''

halacha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

''.Pesachim 114b

References

{{reflist Jewish law and rituals Plants in the Bible Agriculture in Israel

Identity

Laws

Oat matza

Additional species

See also

References