April 5, 2006
5000 YEARS OF CONSTIPATION FOR NOTHING
It's Passover, Lighten Up (Joan Nathan, New York Times, 4/5/06)
WHEN Emily Moore, a Seattle-based chef and instructor, was invited to consult on recipes for Streit's Matzo, she assumed that the baked goods would have their traditional heft, because no leavening can be used during Passover.You probably have to be a Jew of a certain age to appreciate this, but having a Rabbi say that "there's nothing wrong about a raised product at Passover" is like him saying, "It's ok to worship this other G-d, too" or "a little bit of ham really makes the pea soup." I distinctly remember being told that we couldn't eat Ballpark Franks during Passover, because they "plump when you cook them," although I admit that could have been a joke. Posted by David Cohen at April 5, 2006 3:33 PMNot so, said Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, a member of a prominent rabbinic dynasty, who oversees the company's ritual observances. Let the cookies and cakes rise, he told her. Let there be baking soda and baking powder.
"He acted like I was crazy," Ms. Moore said.
The biblical prohibition against leavened bread at Passover — which begins on Wednesday night — has kept observant Jews from using any leavening at all. Cakes and cookies of matzo meal (ground matzo), matzo cake meal (which is more finely ground) and nuts can be tasty, but dense.
So it will surprise many Jews — it certainly surprised me — that among the profusion of products that most Orthodox certification agencies have approved for Passover are not just baking soda, but also baking powder....
But rabbis in even some of the most Orthodox associations say chometz does not refer to all leavening.
"There is nothing wrong about a raised product at Passover per se," said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, executive rabbinic coordinator and chief operating officer of the Orthodox Union's kosher division, the oldest and most widely accepted certifier of kosher foods.
Lise Stern, author of "How to Keep Kosher" (Morrow, 2004), said: "Chometz, which means sharp or sour, denotes bread that has a sourness to it caused by fermentation, occurring when liquid is added to any of the five grains mentioned in the Torah. This refers to yeast, not baking powder or baking soda."
Rabbi Soloveichik said: "They're just minerals. What do we care about minerals?"
Hmm. It seems your rabbis are starting to spend a little too much time in ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican Church
Posted by: Peter B at April 5, 2006 4:37 PMWhen I'd go to the Dryfoos house for the Seder I'd be the youngest one there, so I'd get to ask the questions. Mr. Dryfoos insisted on Turkey for dinner, so instead of a lamb shank there was a turkey neck. Well, you can imagine the rest...
Suffice is to say, it's a good thing no one ever taped the Jewish guy beating the Christian child at the Passover table....
Posted by: oj at April 5, 2006 5:43 PMActually, OJ, we always had brisket and turkey for Passover...and I think my Dad used the turkey neck in place of the lamb shank because the lamb shank smells like hell when roasted in the oven...
And for the rest of you, in case you can't "imagine the rest", one year's highlight included Orrin asking my Dad how many Christian childrens' bones did it take to make a box of matzah...
And then there was the Father Judd: one year, he went into a lenghty treatise on comparative religion, which included referring to Anglicans as "gutter Catholics."
Posted by: Foos at April 5, 2006 6:26 PMDavid - My Dad actually allowed us to eat hot dogs (with the bun!) during Passover if it was at a ballpark. He first announced that rule at the Mets-Padres game in April 1970..that's the day I had my first bread on Passover and the day Tom Seaver struck out 19, including the last 10 in a row. I was only 9, so I don't remember if he also allowed himself a beer in that setting...but I thought his ruling in favor of the Ballpark Frank was as wise as any found in the Talmud...
Posted by: Foos at April 5, 2006 6:37 PMFoos' comment reminds me of the time I was briefly visiting a college buddy's parents' house. He told me to help myself to whatever was in the fridge and I ended up eating meat off a dairy plate or somesuch.
I didn't know his parents kept kosher and when I expressed my surprise -- especially since my friend manifestly did not keep kosher himself -- he said, yeah, they do keep kosher, "but only at home" -- "I mean when we go out for Chinese food, we've got to get the spare ribs, no?"
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at April 5, 2006 6:48 PMAs a "gutter Catholic" I resent the comparison to Anglicans. :)
Oscar Wilde
Posted by: jdkelly at April 5, 2006 7:19 PMI use to go for lunch to the nearby "Carolina Barbecue" place with some teacher colleagues, most of whom were Jewish. Some of them wouldn't eat the cornbread which came with their pork barbecue because it might have leavening and it was passover. I always guessed they were sort of cafeteria Jews, like cafeteria Catholics, only, in this case, quite literally .
They made me kind of miss the old mackeral-snapping days, so I always ordered fish if it was a Friday during Lent.
Posted by: Lou Gots at April 5, 2006 8:35 PMSo it will surprise many Jews — it certainly surprised me — that among the profusion of products that most Orthodox certification agencies have approved for Passover are not just baking soda, but also baking powder....
You mean I spent all those years as a youth with a big lump of dough sitting in my stomach at my aunt's house in Albany in the middle of April for nothing?
Posted by: John at April 5, 2006 10:01 PMThat 5000 years of constipation have made you who you are, David.
Posted by: joe shropshire at April 5, 2006 11:27 PMIf nothing else, it certainly does tend to make one analytical....
(Might this be the key to the exhorbitant number of Mosaic persuadees in fields such as law, economics, psychology/psychiatry, academics, journalism, lit. crit., research, and general fat chewing?)
Posted by: Barry Meislin at April 6, 2006 4:49 AMWe're all Lamarkists now.
Posted by: David Cohen at April 6, 2006 8:07 AM