Land of (Wheat) and Barley

Sotah 14

After explaining how a Sotah offering is different from other offerings, the Mishnah brings a statement by Rabban Gamliel. He explains that the offering is made of barley because barley is animal food. . Continuing the train of thought of the last chapter, that God acts with you in a reciprocal manner, he explains that the Sotah acted in a manner befitting animals so she brings animal food as an offering.

Let’s talk about barley, שעורה . It is one of the seven species that the land of Israel is blessed with, along with wheat, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. It is brought as the Omer offering on the second day of Pesach. And it is definitely a staple crop. So why the second-rate status?

Barley was always an important crop. It ripens earlier than wheat (see the plague of hail in Egypt, which ruined the barley crop but not the wheat which was not ready yet Shmot 10:31-32) and has many nutrients. But it also contains less gluten than wheat and therefore does not rise as well. Because of that, and it’s digestibility for animals, it was considered animal food. (Although it was also always used to make beer, definitely a human food!)

Barley requires less water than wheat and was therefore often grown in the south or on the edge of the desert. In those places, its status was higher and people as well as animals ate it. In fact, in one of the ostraca sent from the First Temple period fortress in Arad, there is a list of the barley providers for the fortress, all of them in nearby communities in the southern Hebron Hills: “from Maon 20 khakat of barley, from Upper Anim, 30 khakat of barley, from Lower Anim 20 khakat of barley.” All these areas are on the edge of the desert, they are more grazing land then farm land but they get enough rain to grow barley.

In the Yatir Forest, near the ancient synagogue and community of Anim, is the “industrial zone” of the village. Cisterns, winepresses and olive presses are all found here, outside where people lived. There are many stone implements that look like the crushing wheels for an oil press, only slightly different. Because of that difference, and because there are not so many olive trees growing here one suggestion is that these are grindstones for barley, which is crushed less finely than wheat.

A final proof for barley as a human staple in the south comes from Rabbi Yishmael, the second century Tanna and contemporary of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Yishmael came from Kfar Aziz, near Yata of today, in the southern Hebron Hills. He is one of the few Tannaim to come from “Daroma,” the southern part of Eretz Yisrael. In a discussion in the Mishnah in Ketubot about how much the food allowance of a ketubah should be, Rabbi Yosi says that only Rabbi Yishmael , who lived near Edom, would give the woman barley rather than wheat. In that area, it was acceptable.

Special thanks to Dr. Doron Sar-Avi, head of the Sussya field school, for the enlightening tour of Anim and Sussya last year.