Purim - 5777

Purim - 5777 Rabbi Hal Miller (Reminder: It is traditional that on Purim we read "Purim Torah". These are fashioned in the same way as regular divrei Torah, but are humorous, nonsensical, and often just plain silly. Any "rulings" of law herein are expressly declaimed as being jokes, not serious.... Oh, and bear in mind you're supposed to be a little schicker when you read it. --HM) Those of you who have been following this series over the past fifteen-plus years are aware of the "Halacha" series I have been writing for Purim each year. This year, our discussion topic is the halachos of breakfast cereals.

What is a "breakfast cereal"? According to Wikipedia, it "is a food product made from

processed grains that is often eaten as the first meal of the day, eaten hot or cold, usually

mixed with milk, yogurt or fruit. If you think about this definition, you may never eat this

food again. "Food product"? "Processed grains"? It seems people can't decide whether

it should be hot or cold. One has to wonder whether it might not be too tasty if you need

to combine it with something else. One has to wonder whether it might not even be of

any value if all it is being used for is to give some substance to one of these other foods.

Where did this "food product" come from? The answer to this depends on what you define

as "breakfast cereal". In Europe, porridge was the choice, going back centuries. If you

think porridge is a breakfast food, or for that matter even edible, then good for you. For

the rest of us, cereals stem from the American Indian. They dried and ground corn, making

a flour, which eventually was named for an Old English word, "grytt". We know this as the

grits popular in the American South. About 150 years ago, some folks in the midwest

began using other grains to make something that would substitute for expensive meats.

This led to oatmeal, and wheat kernel and rice kernel concoctions, and eventually to the

packaged cereals we have today when manufacturers realized that people needed

something, but didn't like what they were being fed.

The first issue before us is whether we are allowed to eat these cereals at all. We are

prohibited from eating or doing something dangerous to our well-being, a sekana.

Although a food item is not kosher or unkosher based on sekana, there are other reasons

that may prevent us from eating any given food.

These cereals are heavy in sugar and refined carbohydrates. Some are advertised as

having reduced sugar or reduced carbs, but that is in comparison to the high level ordinarily

found in similar products, not in comparison to foods that are in fact sugarless or low-carb.

No diet could survive the contents. Some are advertised as gluten-free, but if these grain

cereals are truly gluten free, what are they made of? One thinks of the marvelous things

"they" are doing with plastics nowadays. In any event, it is probably nothing we want to know

about.

Wikipedia's definition of "food product made of processed grains", requires a definition of

"processed grains". We find that means "the modification of a grain or mixture of grains".

Again one must ask whether modified grain is not prohibited as a sekana. However, when

automobiles first hit the roads, rabbis ruled that driving or riding in one is in fact a sekana,

but that it had already become so commonplace that they refused to prohibit it, this even

though the first and second cars licensed in the state of New York collided with each other.

Given that, we can rule that breakfast cereals, while possibly a sekana, are not prohibited.

Our next question is who may eat them? The advertising is, for the most part, geared

towards children, with pictures of cartoon characters, lots of loud colors, etc., all over

the box. We see commercials on television showing a parent feeding these cereals

to children, and we might think that this is in fact the group authorized to consume

this product. But we also see on those same boxes some reference to "healthy", a

word rarely defined as other than whatever the reader cares to define it as. Does this

reference intend to convince the parent to give the cereal to the kids, or does it also

intend that the parent might wish to eat it? How about cereals that kids are not willing

to eat, such as bran. These would seem to be targeted toward adults who wish to "be

regular" or "healthy" in some other way. The advertising does not resolve our question.

It may be that different cereals may be eaten by different constituencies, determined

by the answers to our following questions. In any event, there is no apparent restriction

in general.

Next, we ask when are we allowed to eat breakfast cereals, and when not? For an

item named "breakfast cereal", one might think that it should be eaten after a fast,

which we typically do overnight while sleeping. In that case, this should be a morning

meal. But we rarely see people use it at the end of Yom Kippur or any of the other

fasts. We see people eat it as a late-evening snack, perhaps in front of a television, in

a bowl, with some milk. We see people eating it at a movie theatre, dry, right out of the

box. People who work night shifts often use it as a break or midnight meal food. Although

tradition has it as a morning food, it is not limited to that point in the day. Perhaps at

other times, it is a "cereal" rather than "breakfast cereal", which leads to the question

of whether there is a difference. This, though, we must leave unresolved, taiku.

Are there times when eating cereal is prohibited? Certainly one would think that this

is prohibited on Pesach, yet a trip to the grocery store in March or April shows boxes of

"pesadic" cereals. Is this like "kosher pork"? In a way, yes--the cereals are made with

ingredients other than grains. If you've ever put some potato flour cereal in a bowl with

milk and seen the soggy results, you'd wonder why you ever bought the box. Back to

plastics.

There is an opinion that adults are prohibited from eating the sugary children's cereals.

This opinion follows the halacha that we are prohibited from humiliating someone, and

any adult caught with a box of this kind of cereal is likely to be humiliated. Others say

that this is not an issue, as it is a case of a person humbling themselves, something that

we see from Moshe Rabbeinu to be a Good Thing. The advertising slogan, "Breakfast

of Champions" seems to contradict this opinion, but even this can be reconciled by

defining a champion as being one of tremendous humility.

The next question is what are allowed uses, both typical and less typical? Certainly one

of the most common uses is to teach very young children to feed themselves. A side

benefit of this use is the entertainment value provided both the child and all adults in the

vicinity. Another derivative issue here is the question whether one may feed breakfast

cereal to a dog, as the majority of what one puts out for the baby ends up in the dog. If

it was only a small percentage, this would not be an issue, but in most cases, it is "rov",

the majority, that makes it out of the baby's hands and onto the floor. Since this use is

quite common, we can rely on minhag avoteinu, the customs of our fathers, and find

that feeding this product to a dog is also an allowed use, although perhaps less typical.

Certain cereals, in particular the ones at Pesach, become mush if you threaten them

with liquid, let alone actually immerse them. Typical uses for this type of cereal are

things like filling in for missing grout in the tile floor, acting as the liquid agent in a

compost bin, and dropping on the floor, thus feeding the dog again. Less typical uses

for these cereals include actually using them for adult human food, and stuffing up

the fan holes on computers. You can try it as bird food, but most birds know better.

Now we ask what are the details, such as size of the pieces, allowed ingredients

other than grains, etc.? These details depend heavily on intended use. Where a

small child is the intended user, piece size must be large enough for the child to

pick up using not-yet-coordinated hands, yet small enough to fit into the mouth

and chew, bearing in mind a child's tendency to stuff as many in the mouth at one

time as possible plus a few more. Where the user is going to add milk, piece size

must be large enough to leave at least some of the material crunchy even after

soaking for a number of minutes. Shape is dictated by advertising--compare those

of round pieces versus flakes versus "stars and charms". Shape may also dictate

whether the pieces will get soggy too quickly in milk or whether a child can pick

them up. Allowable ingredients also relies on use, where we must ask if the food is

to be used as animal fodder, craft paste, or table snacks. Certainly the idea of

non-grain cereal is problematic and not recommended in cases of use as a food.

Our last question is, are we required to eat breakfast cereals? Is it actually a

mitzvah? If so, a positive command or negative? Is it always required, or is it like

tzitzis, where the command only applies if we choose to do something?

The Master of the Universe gave us grain as a staple of our diet. He commanded us

to eat this kind of food. We are to grow grain, mill it, make dough, and thank Him for

the bread. But, He did not specifically command us to eat grain in a processed form.

One can see the faith that Adam and his family had--would any of us plant seed,

water it, cultivate it, pull the new seed out from the plant, grind the seed, add water to

make a dough, then throw it in the fire, expecting from the beginning that this would

be edible? But this is not necessarily the kind of processing that breakfast cereals

undergo. We can conclude that, like the wearing of tzitzis where we are not commanded

to put such a garment on, there is no requirement to eat this product. Also like tzitzis, if

we choose to use this, these are the rules that must be observed.

Purim Sameach!