Five Species

Varieties of cereal, grain, or "corn" (dagan) indigenous to the Land of Israel which are subject to the biblical and rabbinic laws governing its agricultural produce (Ned. 7:2). When flour ground from any of these five "species" or "kinds" of cereal is kneaded into dough, a portion of ḥallah must be separated and thrown into the fire, since they constitute the "bread of the land" (Num. 15:19). According to the Mishnah (Ḥal. 1:1), these cereals are wheat (ḥittim), barley (se'orim), emmer (kusmin), oats (shibbolet shu'al), and spelt (shifon; now translated as "rye"). All five are also listed as the grains from which unleavened bread (Matzah) Can Lawfully Be Prepared (pes. 2:5), As They Are Subject to Fermentation.

apart from the Separation of ḥallah and the Preparation of Unleavened Bread, These Five Cereals Are Also Subject to Other Halakhic Regulations: When Used for Baking bread, a benediction must be recited before they are eaten (see Grace Before Meals) and other blessings must follow (GRACE AFTER MEALS). Their flour is categorized as leaven (ḤAMETS) on passover, and anything prepared from it may neither be used nor stored during the festival. In the talmudic period, Babylonian Jews made rice part of their staple diet and there were evidently some who believed that rice came under the biblical ḥallah law (Pes. 50b-51a). Unlike most sephardim, Ashkenazi Jews prohibit the use of rice on Passover, as well as any other cereals, apart from potato flour, that have not been specially supervised for Passover cooking. Nowadays, in practice, only wheat flour is used for making unleavened bread; since KARAITES regard it as "poor man's bread" (Ieḥem oni), they persist in baking unleavened bread from barley.

---