Five species of grain
Category of plants in Jewish law From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Category of plants in Jewish law From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Judaism, the five species of grain (Hebrew: חמשת מיני דגן, romanized: hameshet minei dagan) refer to five varieties of grain which have special status for a number of rituals. These species are commonly considered to be wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt. However, some of these identifications are disputed.[1]
The five species, with their Mishnaic Hebrew names, are as follows:[2]
The Talmud groups them into two varieties of wheat (hitah, kusmin) and three varieties of barley (seorah, shibolet shual, shifon).[9]
Since European medieval times, Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewry accepts the five grains as wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt.[10]
Other than the traditional translation, some researchers today propose that only the grain species native to the Land of Israel can become chametz. 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.[5][11][12]
A number of laws apply only to these five grains:
Oats are generally accepted in Ashkenazi Jewish tradition as one of the five species, but modern research suggests that what has been traditionally translated as "oats" is in fact a wild species of barley or other grains. This debate is practically significant because of the candidates for the five species, oats are the only one which is gluten-free. Although there have been no changes to normative Jewish law to reflect the debate,[8] 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.[3]
According to Rabbi Johanan ben Nuri, rice and millet are also included among the "species of grain", and thus can become chametz and matza and are obligated in challah.[9] This opinion was not accepted as halacha.[17]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.