The Mishnah and the Masa
of the Corn Tortilla
by Gregory Cuellar
Originally published in HaLapid, Winter 2004
What Christians say about the ceremonials and
Judaic precepts being dead and having expired is against one of their own
Gospels, which says, “Noliteputare, Think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets.”
Luis de Carvajal
Among the number of claimed crypto-Jewish practices, the most commonly
noted are the lighting of candles on Friday night, ritual slaughter, salting
meat, separating meat and milk, burning a small portion of the dough (hafrashot
challah or the separation of priest’s dough), and burying the dead in linen
shrouds. Although, strictures of space
and time preclude an exhaustive investigation of all these practices, one particular
crypto-Jewish practice has beckoned both my suspicion and my curiosity. This is the burning of a small portion of
the dough or the separation of priest’s dough, as observed by crypto Jews.
Two aspects require special
attention in order to appreciate this unique Jewish ritual. First, it is crucial that we recognize this
practice in connection with the Mishnah, Second Century Rabbinic Text. Second, because my focus is the crypto Jews
of Texas, it is equally important that we consider the connection of the tortilla
de maiz (corn tortilla) to the performance of this. Therefore, I will first speculate on the
historical context of the crypto Jews in Texas and their use of the masa
of corn tortillas in fulfilling the halachah (Jewish law) of the
separation of priest’s dough. Second, I
will provide observations on how this practice compares to its mishnahic
context.
In his unpublished study Chicano
Jews in South Texas, Dr. Carlos Larralde claims that in observing the
separation of priest’s dough, the first piece of the masa (dough)
was thrown into the fire before making a batch of tortillas de maize
(corn tortillas) or bread. For some people of South Texas Hispanic heritage,
the thought of using masa of the corn tortilla in connection with an
early rabbinic practice (hafrashat challah or the separation of priest’s
dough) may appear anomalous and awkward.
The use of masa in the separtation of priest’s dough would have
distinguished the many crypto-Jews from the Christian community and indigenous
groups. Nevertheless, how is it that
these early crypto Jews in southern Texas come to use the masa of corn tortillas
as viable substitute for fulfilling Jewish halacha? I concur with Schulamith C. Halevy that
these practices did not derive from reading the Bible and were not shared by
any non-Jew nor learned from Jews in the region, but most likely was a product
of an unbroken tradition harking back to the Iberian Peninsula.
Early Crypto Jews and Maize
Jeffrey M. Pilcher, a researcher
of Mexico’s culinary history, states that “It was probably in the central
highlands that some unknown woman conceived the culinary soul of Mesoamerica,
the tortilla [de maize].” For all Mesoamerican peoples throughout the
regions of the New World, maize was the very basis of settled life (Coe 1994).
The Spaniards, who migrated to the New World, gave priority to the bread of the
Iberian tradition, which was the use of wheat bread making. However, those of the crypto-Sephardic
dispersion, who came to the New World, would become the beneficiaries of the
infamous staple of Mesoamerican cuisine, the corn tortilla.
During the early centuries of the
Spanish Conquest, wheat farms served as the foundation for Spanish usurpation
of Indian lands in Central Mexico. The love of wheat led to the displacement of
several Indian cornfields. Spanish
society concentrated in urban areas that could sustain a plentiful harvest of
wheat, usually the central highlands. Therefore, just as corn was the basis for
settled life for the Indian, wheat was a cultural and religious necessity for
many Spaniards, which ultimately shaped the social and physical landscape of
New World. In his book Food,
Conquest, and Colonization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America, John C.
Super comments on the Spaniards’ dependence on wheat stating, “they
demanded it wherever they went.”
Forced to forsake their lives in
Spain, it is likely that the early crypto-Jews also preferred wheat to
corn. Haim Beinart, a professor devoted
to the study of the Jews of Spain, claims that every Sephardic Jewish community
had butcher shops and baking ovens. Furthermore, every city had its own
particular conditions regarding kosher slaughtering, the sale of meat, and the
baking of bread. One may infer that for many of the early crypto Jews in southern
Texas, the maize of the corn tortilla was not even an option in Jewish
markets in Spain. Thus, the many
Spanish and Portuguese crypto Jews who moved to southern Texas in the mid
eighteenth century not only escaped the full strength of the Holy Office of the
Inquisition in Central Mexico, but also distanced themselves from the main
region in which wheat was cultivated and sold. For it was in central Mexico
that wheat had surplus production and only minimal production in small ranches
in the valley stretching from Querétaro to Guadalajara by the end of the
eighteenth century (Super 1988). Even
the early priests living in southern Texas attest to the difficulty of
attaining wheat during the early colonial period. Wheat remained a religious necessity because it was the only
grain recognized by the Roman Catholic Church for the Holy Eucharist since the
11th century. Priests could
substitute no other bread for the body of Christ. Thus, priests stationed in
the northern Spanish territories frequently complained of their inability to
say Mass for lack of altar bread. Compounding the priest’s problem was also
their inability to grow crops in arid soil, thus relying heavily on the Indian
technology. Many of the Canary Islanders,
who are considered the early crypto Jews in southern Texas, had insufficient
number of employees to work the land, which would have resulted in little wheat
yielding crop. Thus with the inability to cultivate wheat, it would seem
logical that they would have used maize in observing a common Sephardic
practice of the separation of priest’s dough.
Unlike the early priests, modifying a papal edict was not an option when
it came to substituting maize for wheat for the Eucharist. Conversely, the early
crypto Jews did not allow their new context to hinder the practicing of an
ancient tradition. In the end, they chose to be creative with the rabbinic
tradition in order to sustain their Jewish heritage. Therefore, I will now turn
to the Mishnah and the separation of priest’s dough.
The Mishnah and the Masa of the Corn Tortilla
The Mishnah-Tractate Challah
Chapter 1 Mishnah 1 states that “five kinds are liable to the priest’s
share of the dough, wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye.” The Mishnah also gives a list of specific
varieties not liable to the separation of priest’s dough, which includes rice,
sorghum, poppy, sesame, and pulse.
Clearly, the masa of the corn tortilla is not mentioned in either
list. Therefore, how is it that the early crypto Jews in southern Texas came to
use the masa of the corn tortilla in the separation of priest’s
dough? According to rabbinic tradition,
it is the capacity for leavening that determines dough to be liable to this
practice. Culinary expert Plicher
states that the masa of the corn tortilla could not be kept for more
than a day because it would begin to ferment.
It is plausible to think that part of the reason for using the masa was
because the preparers were too far north from where wheat flourished; on the
other hand, they were in a location where maize production was plentiful. However, I would also like to think that
these early crypto Jews were fully aware of the rabbinic tradition, and they
knew that only grains that leaven produce dough liable to separation of
priest’s dough. For them, this included masa. Furthermore, according to
Mishanic tradition, dough is liable to dough-offering only if it is prepared in
the manner that is normal for bread. In
other words, dough for dough’s sake is not liable. It is dough that will become
a loaf of bread that becomes liable.
Thus, Dr. Larralde’s statement is accurate that “a first piece of the masa
(dough) was thrown into the fire before making a batch of tortillas de
maize (corn tortillas).” The
makers knew that it was not just the masa that was liable, but the masa
prepared in the context of making a round tortilla that became liable for the
separation of priest’s dough. In other
words, when the masa prepared was done for the purpose of making corn
tortilla, which could be thought of as a bread, then it was liable to
separation of priest’s dough.
Conclusion
According to Nuesner, the essence
of the ancient rabbinic tradition of the separation of priest’s dough concerns
the idea that the transformation of grain into bread is a life process of
fermentation and God lays claim to a share. Therefore, for the early
crypto-Jewish settlers in southern Texas during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, maintaining the essence of this practice necessitated an acute
familiarity with Rabbinic law and an ingenious ability to expand meaning in
order to survive as Jews in their New World context. The practice of separation of priest’s dough evolved because of
their confrontation with altered circumstances in the New World. I would like to think that this type of
Judaism; the ability to innovate and change in order to deal with the problems
of their time is the Judaism that many of their latter descendants are in
search of. A Judaism that is persistent and unwavering in their devotion to God
and to themselves.
Gregory Lee Cuellar is a third year PhD
student of the Hebrew Bible/Rabbinic Literature at Brite Divinity School in
Fort Worth.. A crypto-Jewish descendent from Cuero, TX, he plans to teach the
Hebrew Bible. His dissertation topic intends to deal with an interpretation of
Psalm 122 that takes into account the Sephardic liturgical tradition.