Cheese and Spirituality, Part 3: Jewish Cheese History; Antiquity

 

Introduction

Shortly after Cheese and Culture was released in spring of 2012, I found myself on a book tour in New York City and had the opportunity to speak to the Culinary Historians of New York on May 31st. After the event a young Jewish woman came up and asked whether I knew anything about Shavuot, the Jewish dairy festival. I had to admit that I knew nothing about Shavuot, but her inquiry piqued my interest to learn more. As time went on, I noticed that Jewish members in the audience at other speaking events seemed to be especially interested in cheese history, and I became fascinated with the idea of embarking on a deep dive at the intersection of cheese history with Jewish history, should an opportune time arise to do so.

That opportune time arrived in 2015 when I became eligible to apply for a sabbatical leave the following year. The objective of my previous sabbatical had been to write the manuscript for Cheese and Culture based on the university course of the same name that I had developed, and to recruit a publisher and publish the book ; now I was proposing to update and expand the scope of Cheese and Culture for a 2nd edition. One of the specific objectives was to “Conduct research on Jewish cheese history, with the goal of publishing a scholarly journal article that will provide new material for inclusion in the 2nd edition of Cheese and Culture”.

Upon receiving word that my sabbatical application had been approved, I contacted Harriet Publicover, a Jewish PhD student and food anthropologist at Freie Universität in Germany. Harriet had connected with me earlier in the year about her work on Rabbinical law relating to cheese and cheesemaking. In view of my upcoming sabbatical leave I asked if she would be interested in working together and she graciously agreed to collaborate on an article that she was spearheading that looked at early Jewish laws relating to cheese and cheesemaking in the Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud. We published a paper in 2018 in Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal titled: “Eating Their Curds Their Way?: Early Rabbinic Rulings on Jewish Cheesemaking and the Cheeses of Non-Jews”. Unfortunately, this Journal is not open access thus I cannot include a link to the paper here.

Harriet was a wonderful mentor as we worked on this publication, helping me to engage for the first time with the vast and perplexing world of Rabbinical law. I quickly realized that I can never become a scholar in Jewish cheese history, but that I might be able to use cheese science and an understanding of the world of the cheesemaker as a lens to provide new insight into the vast and often sensitive and painful body of scholarly literature at the intersection of Jewish history and food anthropology.

As I began to probe beyond late antiquity into the medieval period and thereafter, I became intrigued with the idea that Jews of the diaspora living in different geographical and cultural settings during the medieval period seemed to approach the Kosher restrictions pertinent to cheese and cheesemaking differently, which gave rise over time to strikingly different culinary practices involving cheese in daily life and in religions festivals. Of particular interest to me were the culinary uses of cheese in traditional Ashkenazic cooking as compared with those used traditionally in Sephardic cooking.

The use of cheese in Ashkenazic cooking, developed over many centuries of Jewish life in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, is limited almost exclusively to soft, fresh acid coagulated varieties such as cream cheese, pot cheese, farmers cheese and curd cheese. Strongly flavored aged hard, semi-hard, semi-soft and soft rennet coagulated cheeses, which became deeply rooted in the cuisines and cultures of the surrounding European gentile populations during this same period, are notably absent from traditional Ashkenazic cooking.

In contrast, Sephardic Jews who remained in the greater Mediterranean region until the end of the Middle Ages (when many migrated to Northwest Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean Islands), embraced flavorful hard, semi-hard and semi-soft aged rennet coagulated cheese varieties, as evidenced today by the abundant representation of such cheeses as Feta and other white brined types, Kasseri, Kashkaval, Kashar (Kasher) and other aged pasta-filata types, Halumi, Pecorino Romano and Parmesan cheeses in traditional Sephardic cooking.

Reconstructing the factors that led to this difference then became a major goal for the 2nd edition of Cheese and Culture. My working hypothesis was that cultural, economic and environmental differences that confronted these two broad cultural groups within the Jewish diaspora ultimately gave rise to different strategies to navigate the kosher restrictions on cheese and cheesemaking that were codified in the Mishnah and Talmud during late antiquity.

Cheese in Ancient Israel through Late Antiquity

Jewish engagement with cheesemaking clearly extends back to ancient Israel when cheese served as an essential source of protein in the Israelite diet. The Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible contain several references to cheese and curds. Furthermore, abundant archeological evidence indicates that dairying and dairy processing had been practiced in the Southern Levant and throughout Southwest Asia for millennia before the nation of Israel came into existence at the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (See previous posts on the origin and dispersal of cheesemaking).

By late antiquity, Jewish rabbinical authorities were aware of the cheeses and cheesemaking that took place in their region and beyond, as evidenced by various deliberations about dietary restrictions relating to cheese that were recorded in the Mishnah around 200 AD. For example, the rabbis formulated rulings about curds, which probably referred to soft fresh acid coagulated, acid-heat coagulated, or rennet coagulated curds that were formed into unsalted moisture laden soft cheeses. They also discussed hard cheeses that needed to be cut by a saw, a probable reference to acid and acid-heat coagulated cheeses that were highly salted and dried in the sun into rock hard spherical entities. They were intimately familiar with rennet-coagulated cheesemaking, as practiced using milk coagulating agents derived from either the stomach lining material or the stomach contents (i.e., clotted milk contained within the stomach) of suckling animals (kid, lamb, calf). They were also aware of rennet-like coagulation using the sap of fig trees as the coagulating agent.

The cheese varieties reflected in these practices were widely produced in various regions throughout the southern Mediterranean rim, Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent by late antiquity. The rabbis were even familiar with famous high-end export cheeses from Bithynia (the Black Sea region of Anatolia or modern northwest Turkey), which were highly esteemed by the Romans.

Cheesemaking restrictions in the Mishnah focus primarily on three directives: 1.) Ensuring that milk from prohibited mammals such camel, donkey or horse, either alone or blended with approved milk, is not used in cheesemaking. Pursuant to this, milking of animals must be performed either by a Jew or under approved Jewish supervision; 2.) Ensuring the proper slaughter of valid animals used as a source of rennet (either the animal’s stomach lining material or the clotted milk contained within the animal’s stomach), and 3.) Avoiding blatant mixing of meat and dairy during cheesemaking by restricting the quantity of rennet (animal stomach lining material) added to cheese milk to levels low enough to not impart a perceptible flavor to the milk.

These directives made it virtually impossible for Jews to eat any gentile cheese. Indeed, the Mishnah imposed an outright ban on the eating of any cheese made by gentiles. The restrictions also made it nearly impossible for Jewish cheesemakers to interact with their gentile counterparts because procuring milk or rennet from unsupervised gentile sources was out of the question; Jewish cheesemakers had to have complete control over every aspect of their operation, from the raising and milking of their animals, to the slaughtering of their suckling young that furnished rennet, to the making and packaging/storage of their cheese. On the other hand, the Mishnah did permit Jews to benefit from (for example, through the sale of) gentile cheese, which made it possible for Jewish merchants to engage with gentiles in the trade of gentile cheeses.

By the time the Babylonian Talmud, a vast repository of commentaries on the laws laid out in the Mishnah, was redacted around 500 AD, the rabbis had revised some of the cheesemaking restrictions, creating the possibility for more flexible interpretations and enforcement. For example, the Talmud legitimized the practice of using the coagulated milk contained within the stomach of a suckling animal that was slaughtered by a gentile, opening the door ever so slightly for the Jewish cheesemaker to acquire milk coagulants from gentile sources. Jewish engagement with rennet-coagulated cheeses for centuries thereafter depended in part on how strictly the kosher restrictions were interpreted and applied, or expanded upon, by the local religious authorities.

Before proceeding any further, however, it is necessary to address the question of how these cheesemaking and cheese eating restrictions came to be codified in the Mishnah. The context for the answer is found in the Biblical account of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt after 400 years of servitude there. En route to the Land of Cannan, the Promised Land, Moses led the Israelites to the sacred mountain at Sinai, where he received a total of 613 commandments from God, including the Ten Commandments. Among the 613 commandments was the requirement that the Israelites were to observe annually a spring celebration of the first grain harvest of the year, which was to commence with a Festival of First Fruits, held immediately after Passover, and to end 49 days later, with a Festival of Weeks, which Jews call Shavuot.

The Torah, the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy), does not speak of a connection between the observance of Shavuot and the consumption of cheese and dairy products during the festival celebration. However, Jews believe that Moses received a set of oral instructions from God at Mount Sinai along with the Torah that was written down. The oral instructions were subsequently passed down orally from generation to generation until the oral traditions were compiled and redacted in the Mishnah. The intentional linkage of dairy and cheese to the celebration of Shavuot is derived from the oral tradition, which offers various explanations for the spiritual significance of including dairy during the celebration of Shavuot.

Concerning the cheesemaking and cheese eating restrictions in the Mishnah, their origin is rooted in three facets of the food purity laws of the Torah, which seemingly have nothing to do with dairy were it not for the oral tradition. First, the Torah restricts the eating of four-legged animals to those that possess a cloven hoof and which chew the cud. For example, sheep, goats, cows and deer all meet the two criteria and are approved for eating, but the horse, camel, donkey, pig do not meet the criteria and are therefore forbidden. Second, approved animals that are slaughtered for their meat must be drained of their blood, because the eating of blood is forbidden. The implication of this is that slaughtering must take place an approved manner that ensures that the blood is properly drained from the animal. And third, the Torah contains an injunction mentioned in the context of celebrating Shavuot about not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk.

Oral tradition, as codified in the Mishna, expands these three instructions to specifically address cheesemaking. First, the Mishna stipulates that it is not just meat from prohibited mammals that it is forbidden to be eaten, but also the milk produced by prohibited mammals; such milk is also forbidden and therefore cannot be used in cheesemaking. Because of this, various restrictions are needed to insure that only approved millk is used.

Second, rennet used in cheesemaking must originate from an approved animal that has been slaughtered by a Jew in the approved manner or potentially, by a gentile under approved Jewish supervision. Thus, the Mishnah forbids the use of rennet from forbidden animals or animals improperly slaughtered, in the same way that meat and milk are forbidden.

Third, the Mishna prohibits the mixing of milk and meat during cheesemaking by restricting the quantity of rennet added to the cheese milk to levels low enough to not impart a perceptible taste to the milk. Thus, rennet in the Mishnah is essentially considered the same as meat, and taste perception is the analytical tool to determine how much rennet can be added to milk during cheesemaking without violating the requirement for separating milk from meat.

These restrictions had profound implications for Jewish cheese history, but the implications of the phrase “You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.”, repeated twice in Exodus (See Exodus 23:19 and 34:26), extend far beyond cheesemaking, because according to oral tradition, this injunction demands complete separation of milk and meat in any food context, thus affecting many aspects of daily life.

For centuries, this very odd injunction has been debated, and many interpretations and hypotheses have been formulated to explain its inclusion in the Torah. The most plausible explanation, in my view, is that this was an attempt to prohibit the Israelites from participating in a competing Spring First Fruits Festival that was already deeply entrenched among the surrounding Canaanite peoples of the levant.

The Canaanite First Fruits Festival was a fertility ritual that had been assimilated from the highly sexualized Sumerian fertility celebrations of Inanna and Inanna’s mother, Ningal, the moon goddess (See Cheese and Culture for a detailed account of Inanna and Ningal). Like Inanna’s sacred marriage rite, the Canaanite First Fruits Festival included a pageant, during which sex was performed on public stage before the entire community. Here’s how the Canaanite First Fruits Festival is described in a set of cuneiform tablets that date from around 1300 BC:

“There follows a threefold rite each element of which is performed seven times. First, an emblem of the moon is produced and (apparently) placed on a pedestal. Next, a kid is cooked in milk, and finally, fresh water is poured into basins. The ceremonies now reach their climax. Statues of the two goddesses of fertility, Asherat and the Virgin Anat(?), duly arrayed in sumptuous and gorgeous attire, are paraded before the congregation, and the gods are thereafter solemnly enthroned – that is, their images are placed on prepared pedestals or in prepared niches.”1

The cuneiform tablets then go on to describe a pageant, performed on stage, that included repeated sexual intercourse of an old man, who represented the ending of the past year, with two young girls, who represented the fertility goddesses and the first fruits of the new season.

This First Fruits Festival poignantly illustrates the entrenched cultural landscape of the Canaanite neighborhood that the Israelites were moving into around 1200 BC after they obtained their freedom from Egypt. Therefore, I would argue that the Biblical command to not boil a kid in its mother’s milk was probably meant specifically to forbid the Israelites from assimilating these very popular and highly sexualized Canaanite First Fruits fertility rites into the Israelites’ own First Fruits Festival observances.

The theme of using food purity laws/kosher laws to prevent Jews from becoming entangled in the surrounding gentile culture will loom large as we follow the intersection of cheese history with Jewish history into the medieval period and beyond in future posts.

1Gaster. T.H. ‘A Canaanite ritual drama: The Spring Festival at Ugarit.’ Journal of the American Oriental Society 66 (Vol. 1) (1946) pp. 49-76.