Yuma, AZ - The ongoing battle for religious one-upmanship
between warring factions of New York’s Satmar has plunked a contingency of
ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the arid town of Yuma, Arizona, where, for seven
weeks, they have painstakingly overseen the harvesting of wheat which they hope
will allow them to lay claim to New York’s best matzoh.
A NEW YORK TIMES article profiling
the harvest reveals an operation that intricately weaves together strict
ultra-Orthodox religious guidelines, modern technology and the science of
farming, and if all goes well, the cooperation of Mother Nature.
On a farm owned by a Christian farmer Mr. Tim Dunn, , just
five miles from the Mexican border, the Satmar Rebbe, Reb Aaron Teitelbaum,
traveled to Yuma, last Monday to give his blessings to the newly harvested
wheat, specifically planted in the extremely arid western climate which rarely
sees rain in the springtime.
Two rabbis spent seven weeks camped out in trailers abutting
the wheat fields, overseeing the forty acres of wheat growing in the southwest
corner of Arizona, known for its low humidity and listed by Guinness World
Records as the sunniest place on the planet, in order to be able to give
assurance that the wheat had not come into contact with moisture of any form,
including rain, once it had matured.
Despite scorching temperatures, workers
were not allowed to carry water in the wheat fields and the unpaved roads could
not be washed down in order to ensure that the wheat stayed completely dry.
The decision by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum on Yuma began five
years ago after an exhaustive scientific search of national weather patterns
revealed Yuma to be one of the most arid spots in the U.S. during the wheat
harvesting season, and with his brother Rabbi Zalman still using wheat
harvested on the East Coast, it seemed a natural fit that the dry southern
Arizona climate would allow him a “leg up” in claiming that his matzoh adheres
to a more rigorous religious standard.
Despite the temperatures estimated to be at 108 degrees,
Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum the Satmar Rebbe was on site at the wheat fields on
Monday, June 24th, giving his blessing to the wheat as the harvest began.
The grain will be transported by train to
Elizabeth, New Jersey after being cleaned and packed into sealed containers and
once it arrives in New Jersey the grain will be sent to matza bakeries in both
Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, with baking set to begin five months before Pesach.
Rabbi Eli Hershkowitz, manager of the Rutledge Street Satmar
Central Matzoh Bakery, estimates that Brooklyn bakeries will produce 80,000 to
100,000 pounds of matza using the Yuma wheat.
Professor Samuel Heilman, a sociology professor at Queens
college whose research focuses on Orthodox Judasim described the decision to
use wheat grown in the dry heat of the west, instead of the rainy East Coast
climate as a form of one-upmanship between the two rival Satmar factions.
“One is always looking to be more authoritative than the
other and one of the ways they’re making this happen is over matza,” explained
Professor Heilman. “Our matza is more
kosher than yours, we’re more scrupulous and careful over matza baking than you
are.”
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