DOI Artikel:
Avitsur, Shemuʾel: The way to bread: the example of the land of Israel
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48999#0242
THE WAY TO BREAD
The Example of the Land of Israel
By
Shmuel Avitsur
Forerunners of Bread
As a result of climatic changes in the palaeoli-
thic period the land of Israel and its neighbours
ceased to be a humid subtropical Eden, with
lush forest vegetation and swift-flowing streams
abounding in fish.
The changes in the fauna and flora resulting
from this desiccation undermined and threaten-
ed the very existence of man and forced him to
look for new sources of food. These he found
chiefly in the surviving plant life.
In consequence the wild-growing cereals as-
sumed greater importance, coming largely to
replace the tree-grown fruit and abundant game
and fish of former times.
As grains and pulses increasingly became his
staple food, man could no longer rely on find-
ing them growing wild and so he turned to cul-
tivating them. Even before this he had learned
how to keep and store grains after ripening,
from one season to the next. The domestication
of cattle and their subsequent exploitation for
field work, which made them the chief factor
in grain growing, produced the traditional, ox-
drawn, ard using agriculture which lasted (it
still continues, marginally, on the local scene)
for nearly six thousand years. We know that
bread was first eaten as food in the land of
Israel about five thousand years ago, whereas
the human race is at least half a million years
old. This means that mankind has subsisted on
bread for just one per cent of its total existence
(i. e. during the historical era), while for much
of the time before - and even afterwards - man
fed on foods prepared from unbaked cereals.
Below follows a description of these foods,
which even a few millennia ago' were made
from cultivated cereals and pulses of the kind
still grown today.
Three stages in the ripening of grain are
distinguished in the Bible:
First stage: aviv - when the corn is still green
(the Hebrew word aviv means growing, green-
ing, ripening; hence in its wider meaning -
spring, the season of the year); the kernels are
formed, soft, edible and sweet-tasting. They
must be eaten immediately and cannot be
stored.
Second stage: karmel - the ears are not yet
completely yellow, the kernels not quite ripe
and dry and still short of their full weight.
Though hard, the kernels can still be eaten raw.
After roasting they may be stored for a long
time and made fit for eating by steeping in
boiling water, re-roasting or pounding.
Third stage: the grain is now fully ripe, the
kernels are hard and cannot be eaten raw but
must be roasted, boiled and/or pounded, crush-
ed or ground beforehand.
The special ways in which these different
kernels were eaten or prepared as food, as
well as the methods of storing them is now
described.
Ways of Preparing Under-ripe Grains
The green or partly green aviv kernels (Arabic:
hidriye = green) generally were eaten raw
straight from the ears of corn in the field.
They were never stored, and could be eaten
only during a very short period in the year. The
The Example of the Land of Israel
By
Shmuel Avitsur
Forerunners of Bread
As a result of climatic changes in the palaeoli-
thic period the land of Israel and its neighbours
ceased to be a humid subtropical Eden, with
lush forest vegetation and swift-flowing streams
abounding in fish.
The changes in the fauna and flora resulting
from this desiccation undermined and threaten-
ed the very existence of man and forced him to
look for new sources of food. These he found
chiefly in the surviving plant life.
In consequence the wild-growing cereals as-
sumed greater importance, coming largely to
replace the tree-grown fruit and abundant game
and fish of former times.
As grains and pulses increasingly became his
staple food, man could no longer rely on find-
ing them growing wild and so he turned to cul-
tivating them. Even before this he had learned
how to keep and store grains after ripening,
from one season to the next. The domestication
of cattle and their subsequent exploitation for
field work, which made them the chief factor
in grain growing, produced the traditional, ox-
drawn, ard using agriculture which lasted (it
still continues, marginally, on the local scene)
for nearly six thousand years. We know that
bread was first eaten as food in the land of
Israel about five thousand years ago, whereas
the human race is at least half a million years
old. This means that mankind has subsisted on
bread for just one per cent of its total existence
(i. e. during the historical era), while for much
of the time before - and even afterwards - man
fed on foods prepared from unbaked cereals.
Below follows a description of these foods,
which even a few millennia ago' were made
from cultivated cereals and pulses of the kind
still grown today.
Three stages in the ripening of grain are
distinguished in the Bible:
First stage: aviv - when the corn is still green
(the Hebrew word aviv means growing, green-
ing, ripening; hence in its wider meaning -
spring, the season of the year); the kernels are
formed, soft, edible and sweet-tasting. They
must be eaten immediately and cannot be
stored.
Second stage: karmel - the ears are not yet
completely yellow, the kernels not quite ripe
and dry and still short of their full weight.
Though hard, the kernels can still be eaten raw.
After roasting they may be stored for a long
time and made fit for eating by steeping in
boiling water, re-roasting or pounding.
Third stage: the grain is now fully ripe, the
kernels are hard and cannot be eaten raw but
must be roasted, boiled and/or pounded, crush-
ed or ground beforehand.
The special ways in which these different
kernels were eaten or prepared as food, as
well as the methods of storing them is now
described.
Ways of Preparing Under-ripe Grains
The green or partly green aviv kernels (Arabic:
hidriye = green) generally were eaten raw
straight from the ears of corn in the field.
They were never stored, and could be eaten
only during a very short period in the year. The