Amongst the many frightening curses in parshat Bechukotai is the following – “When I break your bread staff (Mateh Lechem), and ten women will bake in one oven, and you will weigh the fragments of your bread, and you will eat and not be satisfied.” (Vayikra 26, 26).
Almost unanimously the Mefarshim explain that “bread staff” is an allegory and not to be taken literally. Its meaning varies from the “source of sustenance” (Rashi) to the “Eitz Chaim” meaning the Torah – referring to when Moshe broke the tablets containing the Ten Commandments (Likutei Torah).
In all allegories, you have the “Mashal”, the tangible object/concept and the “Nimshal”, the inferred meaning. The tangible object in this allegory is the “bread staff”. What is (was) a bread staff?
This subject was of keen interest to me in researching my book The Jewish Bread Bible (currently seeking a publisher) relating to, amongst other things, the historical origin of the traditional Jewish bread called a “bagel”.
According to most research to date on the subject, the first emergence of ring-shaped breads (like bagels) was around the 9th century CE, in the Puglia province in Italy. The purpose of my research was to prove that ring shaped breads existed long before that and it centered on the “bread staff”.
Archeological evidence from ancient Egypt, in particular an engraving from the tomb of Rameses III in the Valley of the Kings from around 1400 BCE, shows ring shaped breads, or more accurately, breads “with a hole punched in the middle”. The engraving is an artist’s depiction of Pharaoh’s royal bakery (everyone will remember the story of Yosef and the Royal Baker in prison), portraying the various utensils, processes and also a sampling of the variety of breads. This pictorial engraving is corroborated by physical evidence, from excavations from the tomb of Kha in Deir el-Medina from the Amenhotep II-III period (also around 1400 BCE) where they found mummified remains of similar breads.
The purpose of the hole in the center of the bread was purely practical. In order to keep the bread far away from rodents and other pests, a hole was made in the center of the bread and it was then “threaded” on a long stick or pole, and suspended high above the ground. This was the original “bread staff” – the “staff” or pole on which bread was stored.
This “staff” became synonymous with the bread stored on it, bread which was the staple food for sustaining life. This is the origin of the English synonym of bread – the “Staff of Life”. A full staff meant life. An empty staff meant death from starvation. The allegory of HKB”H breaking the bread staff in the passuk above, means not only “raiding the pantry” but “destroying” the pantry, a much more severe form of punishment.
Although it does not pertain directly to this shiur (just for purposes of completion), the method of boiling bread (like bagels) before baking them, most likely originates in the Beit Hamikdash. One of the Menachot (bread offerings), the Minchat Chavitin of the Kohen Gadol, which was offered together with the Tamid offering twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening, was bread that was boiled and then baked.
Getting back to the passuk above, according to Rashi HKB”H is warning Am Yisrael, that if we fail to follow the Torah, all the blessings that we received by virtue of the Torah will be withdrawn. The reason ten women will have to bake in the same oven (this is not referring to communal village ovens common from Roman times) but rather personal/individual ovens in each one’s back yard. There will not be enough wood for each housewife to individually bake bread in her own oven. The entire street will have to cluster around one of the ovens to bake all their bread, due to lack of wood. The wheat/flour will be so decayed and rotten that the bread made from it will fall apart while it is baking and the ten women will have to resort to weighing the remaining fragments between them, so they each get an equal share. Not only will food be practically non-existent, but our digestive systems will also turn on us so that even the food we do manage to eat will not satisfy.
The descriptions are horrific and conjure up imagery from the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash and the story of Marta the daughter of Baitus, one of the richest women in Eretz Yisrael, who had to resort to eating despicable remnants of food not fit for human consumption, resulting in her death (Gitin 56a). It conjures up similar imagery from the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust.
The next passuk explains the root cause of these punishments (ibid. 26, 27) “If in this you will not hearken unto Me and you will conduct yourselves with Me in Keri”. The Mefarshim explain the meaning of “Keri” that it comes from the root of the word “Mikreh” – chance. Before HKB”H punishes us, He first gives us ample warning. If our hearts are so like stone that we do not heed the warnings, instead rationalizing all our troubles as occurring by “chance” and not by G-d’s hand, then we will be deserving of punishments similar to the above. This period of Sfirat Ha’Omer is especially prone to such phenomena during the last 1953 years of Diaspora. This is why Bechukotai follows Behar, which details the laws of Shmita, during which we are required to abandon all rationalizations that the world is run by chance, and recognize that it is all by HKB”H’s guiding hand.
Parshat Hashavua Trivia Question: At the end of Behar, why is the mitzvah of observing Shabbat repeated and “sandwiched” between the prohibition of serving idols and paying respect to the Mikdash?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: In last week’s parsha we learned about The Korban ha’Omer, the barley offering. On which day was the Omer brought? It was offered on the 16th of Nisan, the second day of Pesach. This was contrary to the opinion of the Tzedukkim (a breakaway sect during the period of the 2nd Mikdash) who claimed that it was offered on the Sunday of the week, the day after Shabbat.
