|
Your question is complex, and worthy of an answer, but we want to avoid becoming "rabbinical" in our attempt to resolve the issues. By "rabbinical" we mean coming up with a rule which is adding to Torah so you will be "safe" in your response to do a Torah mitzvot. We say this because today, we know much more about the science of bread making and fermentation and that can definitely add confusion to our assessment of how we obey Torah! Add to that the meaning of the terms in question today don't often match the original meaning in the Hebrew Bible and we find ourselves often scratching our heads!
First: The hypothesis that "Leaven is an early stage of yeast". And "Would leaven (sour dough) be considered a living organism from plant origin?"
No - leaven is not an early stage of yeast, and it's not a plant. Lets break this up into the components:
"Yeast" is a single cell organism that reproduces asexually by simply splitting in two. Science identifies yeast is a fungi. Today, we have "Baker's Yeast" but only because the process for multiplying yeast was developed in modern times and it provides a way to keep it pure. (Plus, modern man is lazy and anything he can do to take the "work" out of processes, we tend to lean that way.) Today we even have chemical leavening agents such as baking powder and baking soda, to name a couple.
But in ancient times, man did not know what "yeast" was, and they made their leaven with naturally occurring yeast by setting up conditions to concentrate and culture the yeast (though they did not know that was what they were doing), and that was a time consuming process.
"Leaven" is the word often chosen in English translation of the Tanach, where the original Hebrew word was "chametz". (Some translations also use the word "yeast" instead of "leaven".) But "Chametz" etymologically means "hot" and "pressed", so the most accurate translation in English should be chametz = "baked bread". "Matzah" is the same thing, also containing "leaven", but with matzah, it's just not given time for the yeast to do its job. You take dough, which would otherwise rise if you left it alone, spread it out thin so it will heat uniformly, quickly roast it in a pan on an open fire or in an oven, and it dries quickly - Matzah!
But "leaven", which is not "chametz", is instead the "stuff" which when mixed in fresh dough, has enough yeast in it to allow the rising process to take place, i.e., the stuff which starts consuming the sugar-rich components in the dough and release gas. It is this gas-release process which causes the bread dough to "rise". Then when risen dough is baked, we have bread - "chametz". (Not trying to insult you - just making sure we are understanding the process.) The yeast in the leaven which was mixed in the dough is killed during baking.
Therefore, ancient bakers learned to keep some of the "stuff" which would make their dough rise. The "stuff" is a mixture of moist flour which has been allowed to capture natural yeast from the air, and the mixture is held in conditions such that the yeast can reproduce, but the gasses they produce simply escape back into the air. So leaven contains yeast, but leaven is not an "early stage of yeast" which was the hypothesis. Also, neither yeast nor leaven are "living plant organisms".
A yeast cell is a living organism, but not a "plant".
The Torah commandments are:
- For Pesach, remove all chametz from one's home (Exodus 12:15)
- Not to possess chametz in one's house or "territory" during Passover. (Exodus 12:19, Deuteronomy 16:4)
- Not to eat chametz during Passover, instead, eat matzah (Exodus 13:3, Exodus 12:20, Deuteronomy 16:3)
In all these mitzvot, the command is to simply remove baked bread and eat matzah - in commemoration of the exodus - not so much for the purpose of being strictly obedient of "what" to eat or not eat. Rather it is the ACT of removing baked breads, not consuming baked breads with your meal, and spending the week of Pesach with YHVH that is important.
Regardless of whether or not you have "leaven" or "yeast" in the house, as long as you have rid your home of baked bread and do not consume baked bread during Pesach, you are acting in obedience to Torah.
(Let's not get wrapped around the axle on these definitions. Some will argue that "yeast" is a "leaven" and that there are other "leaven" or "leavening agents" other than what was described above. Fact is that the terms "leaven" and "yeast" are relatively modern terms so there's lots of room for argument!)
Second: "If yeast is a living plant organism, it probably falls outside what we can consume as it is not green and leafy."
As touched on above, yeast is a fungus, a living organism, but not a plant. The yeast cell consumes organic matter and oxygen for energy. A plant consumes sunlight and carbon dioxide for its energy (photosynthesis).
But you have concluded in your study that we can only consume "green and leafy" plants. The only information we have regarding green plants is from Genesis 1:29-30: "Then God said, "Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant."
We must realize here that Genesis is not a book of instruction. It is a narrative from Moshe's hand to begin the documentation of the story leading to the Messiah. The scriptures of Genesis regarding food are very general, not intended to be a complete, thorough, and solid reference of do's and don'ts. There are no other mitzvah presented in the Bible narrowing down what green plants can be consumed and which can't. In that, we have to use our own brains. Some green plants will kill us. So we must choose wisely. Also, YHWH gave no prohibition on fungi! As indicated, the scriptures of Genesis are very general, not specifically including or excluding what is or is not edible.
In the story of Elisha's miracle in 2 Kings 4: 39-42, the words of verse 39 translated as "wild squash" (Sterns) or "gourds" (NIV), in Hebrew is "paquot sade" or "fungi of the field". So it seems we have a story in the Bible which give credence that fungi, which includes mushrooms, are not expressly forbidden.
Therefore, according to this logic, mushrooms are edible. In fact, some have argued that manna was a sort of fungi. Interesting concept. In the same argument, the yeast cell is not prohibited by YHWH either. We'd be in big trouble if yeast was prohibited as we breathe yeast cells constantly, and they are critical to making chametz! In most cases, what yeast we consume is already dead (in both bread and wine), but we do ingest live yeast cells just by breathing. These are promptly killed by our immune systems.
Third: (Paraphrased) "Both bread making and wine making are a fermentation process. They both ferment don't they?"
Yes. In the simplest comparison, bread making and wine making are the same.
In bread making the released gas is important to the rising of the dough, and the alcohol produced is evaporated in the baking process. In wine making, the gases released are disposed of, and the produced alcohol is concentrated. Both, indeed, are a fermentation process. The only thing you said which is incorrect is that "wild spores feed on sugar thereby becoming yeast". Nothing "becomes yeast", rather, the yeast cells already exist and feed on sugar in both bread making and wine making producing both gas and alcohol.
More importantly, what does this have to do with Torah? Some Rabbis say you must also get rid of wine in the house at Pesach. This is part of why this response started out with the disclaimer that we must take care NOT to get rabbinical in our observance of Torah! Wine is not "chametz"....
- Wine is not baked and it has not "risen". After wine is filtered, any remaining yeast spores are dead. No fermentation is continuing in bottled wine. Therefore, one does not need to remove wine from the house during Pesach.
| 