Like most kids in the 70’s, my mother packed me the same lunch every day for elementary school – a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a small baggie of chips (which by today’s standards would be a microscopic portion) and a Ding Dong. You remember Ding Dongs – individual chocolate cakes with a “cream” filling, a hard chocolate exterior wrapped in a shiny foil. I ate the Ding Dong first. Sometimes I only ate the Ding Dong. I recently looked up the ingredients in a Ding Dong (a mistake). Here they are:

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sugar, water, enriched bleached wheat flour (flour, barley malt, ferrous sulfate (iron), B Vitamins (niacin, thiamine mononitrate [b1], riboflavin [b2], folic acid), partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (palm kernel, coconut, palm), high fructose corn syrup, cocoa processed with alkali, palm oil, corn syrup, soybean oil, partially hydrogenated vegetable and/or animal shortening (soybean, cottonseed and/or canola oil, beef fat), contains 2% or less of modified corn starch, soy flour, DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, cornstarch, mono and diglucerides, soy lecithin, leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), salt, calcium and sodium caseinate, cellulose gum, xanthan gum, ploysorbate 60, sweet dairy whey, soy protein isolate, glucose, whole eggs, egg yolk, natural and articicial flavors (caramel color), sorbic acid (to retain freshness.)

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Remember are blessings for yesterday. Go back and review them and then decide which one we should say before eating a Ding Dong. Our general rule is that the predominant ingredient dictates which blessing we say. However, there is a special rule: If the food has the “five species of grain” and it is not bread, we say Blessing 5 Borei minei mezonot, regardless of whether the grain is the predominant ingredient or not. The five species of grain are those grains that are Chametz and cannot be eaten on Passover. The five species are wheat, spelt, barely, oats and rye. In the case of our Ding Dong, the third ingredient is wheat flour, which apparently contains both wheat and barley malt. Therefore, I should have probably said the Borei minei mezonot blessing over my Ding Dong (note, however, that I am not sure the Ding Dong was kosher).

When learning these rules we hear another story of the politically savvy Rabbi Gamliel. You will remember that Rabbi Gamliel was deposed as Nassi (prince) of his academy for publicly shaming other Rabbis. Akiva was one of Rabbi Gamliel’s students. Rabbi Gamliel and Akiva were at a banquet with other important persons. At the banquet, dates were served. Dates are one of the “seven species” (not to be confused with the “five grains”). The seven species are the products for which Israel is praised in Deuteronomy 8:8 (“a land of whet and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and [dates]”). Rabbi Gamliel held that if we eat any of the seven species, we must say the full grace after meals rather than the abridged version. Rabbi Gamliel’s view was a minority view. Most scholars agreed that the full grace after meals need only be recited if bread is eaten. Rabbi Gamliel asked Akiva to recite the grace after meals. Akiva, in accordance with the majority opinion and against Rabbi Gamliel’s opinion, recited the abridged version. Rabbi Gamliel publicly rebuked Akiva. Rabbi Akiva defends himself by pointing out that Rabbi Gamliel taught him that in matters of dispute, we follow the majority opinion.

At the end of our Daf, we discuss various types of bread and which breads require a tithe before we eat them. Again, our Daf describes a particular bread which it calls, “D’heend’kah” – the bread of the Hindus. I am fascinated by the level of knowledge the Jews of Babylonia had of Hindus and Indians in the 4th Century of the Common Era. I did some research on the Internet. I could find nothing concerning the encounter between Jews and Hindus in Talmudic times. If you know of a resource, please let me know.