Encyclopedia Judaica 1906

Bread

By : Emil G. Hirsch Kaufmann Kohler

ARTICLE HEADINGS:
Preparation of Bread
Figurative Use of "Bread
Blessing of the Daily Bread
Treatment of Bread

Preparation of Bread.

Bread was the principal article of food among the Hebrews, while meat, vegetables, or liquids served only to supplement the meal (Gen. xxv. 34, xxvii. 17; Ruth ii. 14; I Sam. xxviii. 24; Gen. xviii. 7). Originally the ears of barley or wheat were simply roasted, and this primitive custom of using "kali" (parched corn, Ruth ii. 14; I Sam. xvii. 17) was retained for the offering of the firstlings (Lev. ii. 14, xxiii. 14; Josh. v. 11). The primitive bread of the Hebrew, as with all Bedouins, was unleavened and was called "Matzos." (unleavened cakes, Judges vi. 29; Gen. xix. 3); hence it was retained for the ancient Passover ritual as "the bread of affliction" (Deut. xvi. 3). The ordinary bread consisted of dough ("bazek") mixed with fermented dough ("se'or"), which raised the mass into "hamez" (soured bread), while in the "misheret" (kneading trough, Ex. xii. 34, 39). The shape of the bread was round-therefore "kikkar lehem," a circular loaf of bread (Ex. xxix. 23; Judges viii. 5),also "'uggah" (cake, Gen. xviii. 6; I Kings xix. 6); while "hallah" (Lev. viii. 26; Num. xv. 20) is probably a perforated or punctured cake, and "lebibah" (II Sam. xiii. 6) a folded or rolled cake. The bread was baked by women. It could be taken as food on a journey (Gen. xxi. 14; I Sam. ix. 7); when kept too long it became dry and moldy (Josh. ix. 5). The Showbread was kept for a whole week and then eaten by the priests, while the fresh bread was offered anew every Sabbath (Lev. xxiv. 8, 9; I Sam. xxi. 7).

In the time of Herod, bakers furnished the people with bread (Josephus, "Ant." xv. 9, § 2), if such did not already exist in the time of Jeremiah and Nehemiah (Jer. xxxvii. 21; Neh. iii. 19, xii. 38). The priests of Bet Garmo possessed special skill in baking the showbread, but were blamed for keeping their secret to themselves (Yoma iii. 11). In Talmudical times the housewife baked the bread for the week every Friday (Ta'an. 24b, last line; see Baking).

Figurative Use of "Bread."

"Bread" is often used in the Bible for food in general, as in Gen. iii. 19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (compare Gen. xxxix. 6, xlvii. 12; Ex. xxiii. 25; Lev. xxi. 8; Num. xix. 9; Job xxiv. 5; Ps. cxlvii. 9 [A. V. "food"]; I Sam. xx. 24 et seq. ; Prov. vi. 8; Isa. Ixv. 25 [A. V. "meat"]); but as a rule "lehem." denotes bread, while in the Arabic it signifies meat. In Ex. xvi. 8 and I Kings xvii. 6 it is contrasted with "basar" = flesh. It is the "food" which comes forth from the earth (Ps. civ. 14; Job xxviii. 5; Isa. xxx. 23, lv. 10), and, being solid, sustains (A. V. "strengtheneth") man's heart (Ps. civ. 15; Judges xix. 5 [A. V. "comfort"]), thus becoming a "staff of bread" (Lev. xxvi. 26; Ezek. iv. 16) or "stay of bread" (Isa. iii. 1), the "breaking" of which means famine. On the other hand, "fulness of bread" (Ezek. xvi. 49), or "fatness of bread" (Gen. xlix. 20) is plenty. Giving or breaking bread to the hungry (Isa. lviii. 7; Ezek. xviii. 7; Prov. xxii. 9) is charity; to withhold it from the hungry (Job xxii. 8) is inhuman. To invite the stranger to eat bread and to prepare it for him quickly is hospitality (Ex. ii. 20; Gen. xviii. 5), the lack of which meets with due punishment (Deut. xxiii. 4; Judges viii. 15). The seed of the righteous shall not "beg bread" nor "be in want of bread" (Ps. xxxvii. 25, cxxxii. 15; Isa. li. 14), whereas the children of the wicked "shall not be satisfied with bread" (Job xxvii. 14; compare I Sam. ii. 36; II Sam. iii. 29), Abstinence from "bread" signifies fasting (II Sam. iii. 35).

Blessing of the Daily Bread

A special benediction was instituted for bread: Blessed be He who bringeth forth food out of the earth," after Ps. xiv. 14 (Ber. vi. 1). The one who presided at the table broke the bread and said the blessing (Ber. 46a; Matt. xiv. 19, xv. 36, xxvi. 26 et seq.; Acts xxvii. 35); and where three ate together, grace was also said in common (Ber. 50a). Divine blessing rested on the bread which Sarah baked, for she was careful to guard the dough against Levitical impurity (Gen. R. lx.). There is, however, a mark of divine favor in every piece, for when Adam heard the words: "Thou shalt eat the herbs of the field" (Gen. iii. 18), he shed tears and said: "O Lord of the Universe, must I and my ass eat out of the same manger?"; but when God said: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. iii. 19), he felt relieved (Pes. 118a). The manna, or "the bread from heaven," was typical of the daily bread received by man from the hand of God; even the sweat of labor was not wanting in the former (Mek., Beshalla?, Wayassa', 2 and 3). "He who, having bread in his basket, still says, 'What shall we eat to-morrow?' is one of those of little faith," says R. Eliezer of the first century (Sotah 48b).

Treatment of Bread

Simeon ben Yohai said: "A loaf of bread and a rod were handed down from heaven tied together as if to say: If ye observe the Law, there will be the loaf of bread for you to eat; if not, there will be the rod for you to be punished with" (Ber. 29b). Bread with salt, the poor man's food (Ber. 2b), should be sufficient for the student of the Law (Abot vi. 4); of him it is said, "The Lord will bless thy bread" (Ex. xxiii. 25; B. ?. 92b). He should be satisfied even with barley-bread (Shab. 140b). However, bran-bread is not so nourishing as fine wheat-bread (Pes. 42a), which feeds the intellect. "The tree of knowledge Adam ate of was wheat," says R. Judah (Sanh. 70b). It is best eaten with some other kind of food. "The Babylonians who eat bread together with pastry are fools" (Be?ah 16a). "Herbs together with bread promote the appetite" ('Er. 140b). Bread should be treated with special regard. Raw meat should not be placed upon it, nor an overflowing wine-cup be allowed to spoil it; it should not be thrown across the table nor used to hold up any other thing (Ber. 50b; Mas. Derek Ere?. viii.). There is an evil spirit of poverty by the name of Nibbul ( "bread-spoiler"), who has power over him who spoils bread; and there is a good spirit by the name of Na?id ("cleanliness"), who blesses him with plenty who lets not crums of bread lie on the ground (Pes. 111b; Hul. 105b).

It was considered improper to hang up bread in a basket. "He who hangs his bread-basket hangs his support," was the common saying (Pes. 111b); however, to have bread in his bread-basket lessened one's hunger (Yoma 74b). "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye" (Prov. xxiii. 6).

Whenever Rab Huna broke (or folded) bread for the meal, he first opened his door and said, "Let every one in need come and eat" (Ta'an. 20b). The virtuous woman of the Bible does not eat "the bread of idleness" (Prov. xxxi. 27), and in Talmudical times she broke her bread to the poor (Ta'an. 23b). Micah, the idolater (Judges xvii.), provided the poor on the road with bread, and was therefore not counted among those who have no share in the world to come (Sanh. 103b). The men of Sodom passed a law not to give bread to the needy, and when one maiden, moved to compassion, handed some in a jar to the poor, her countrymen on discovering it besmeared her body with honey, andplaced her thus upon the roof, where bees came and stung her to death, and her cry "made the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah very grievous before the Lord" (Sanh. 109b, after Gen. xviii. 20). "He who does not leave some crums of bread for the poor deprives himself of God's blessing; but he must not leave them to a 'guardian spirit.' after the fashion of the heathen" (Sanh. 92a). During the Middle Ages the Jew took an oath by "the bread from God" (Tendlau, "Sprichwörter und Redensarten Deutsch-Jüdischer Vorzeit," p. 105).

"Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days" (Eccl. xi. 1), is illustrated in Ab. R. N. iii., ed. Schechter, p. 17, and in Eccl. R., by the story of a man who suffered shipwreck and was saved by a spirit appearing to him personifying his charities; other similar stories are given in Eccl. R. A more drastic illustration is given by a story reproduced by Dukes' "Rabbinische Blumenlese," 1844, p. 73, from Diez, "Denkwürdigkeiten von Asien," i. 106, quoting Cabus. A man, in order to test the truth of this verse, cast each day into the water several hundred loaves with his name printed thereon. They reached the son of Calif Mutawakkil of Bagdad, who, while bathing, had become imprisoned beneath a rock and remained there for seven days, feeding on these loaves, no one knowing where he was until he was discovered by a diver. Of course, the man who had thus saved the prince from starvation was richly rewarded.