In the early days of commercial flight, when a transatlantic plane trip could take you 20 hours, there wasn’t much to do but read, nap, and eat. There was no in-flight movie to stare at and try to lip read because you refused to purchase headphones. You could look at the clouds, I guess.

 To keep passengers entertained, airlines copied other modes of transportation—trains, boats—and turned to food. It was not uncommon, in the post-World War II era, to be served a multi-course meal on a flight. A fancy one, too. We’re talking carved roast beef, lobster, prime rib. Real glassware, not those plastic cups filled with those ice cubes that have inexplicable holes that we get now. Airlines were falling all over each other trying to offer special dining experiences to passengers.

  

 “The other entertainment was, of course, to drink,” says Guillaume de Syon, a professor of history at Albright College who has researched the history of airline food. “These propeller aircraft were not always very reliable. If [passengers] knew they’d have to land in Reykjavik to have the engine checked, they’d be happy because they knew they could stock up on booze. It was not uncommon to have passengers come off transatlantic flights completely drunk.”

 As flying got cheaper and easier, these airborne boozehounds soon found themselves with more company in the cabin, and airlines found themselves with more mouths to feed, making that level of fine dining unsustainable.

 “It gets more expensive,” de Syon says, “flight technology gets better, it gets faster, and you can carry more people. You no longer have the same economies of scale. If you’re trying to feed 60 passengers, it’s one thing, but the moment you’re trying to feed four flights of 150, you have yourself a huge logistical problem.”

 And thus, in 1952, economy class was born, and with it came a decline in the quality of the food for the masses. While at first airlines tried to compete by continuing to offer special food in economy class, the International Air Transport Association quickly stepped in to regulate what could be offered, to the point of reprimanding an airline for providing an extra roll of bread.

 First class fliers, then as now, could still get an elaborate meal, since they paid for the privilege. But their enjoyment of their food likely declined with the advancement of airplane technology as well. Though old-timey flights were slower and bumpier, when it comes to dining, they had one distinct advantage: The planes weren’t pressurized.

Today’s planes, which reach altitudes of 35,000 feet or more, are pressurized so you only feel like you’re about 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. This helps keep you, you know, breathing at those high altitudes, but it also numbs your taste buds, making food taste blander. Older aircraft didn’t fly as high, meaning the prime cuts of steak being served on those early flights tasted more like they would have on the ground.

 Other aspects of the airplane environment make it less than gastronomically ideal—cabin humidity is typically lower than 20 percent (as opposed to the 30 percent or more that is normal in homes), which can dry out your nose, weakening your sense of smell. And smell is inextricably linked to taste. (The dryness of the cabin makes you thirsty, too.) Also, the air in the cabin is recycled about every two to three minutes. That, plus air conditioning, can dry up and cool down food very quickly, according to de Syon.

 Sauce protects the meat from sawdusting out when reheated and served in the bone-dry airplane cabin.

 French chef Raymond Oliver is credited with devising this strategy for modern airline food. In 1973, French airline Union de Transports Aériens asked Oliver to design its menu, and he suggested three staple items: beef bourguignon, coq au vin, and veal in a cream sauce. All of these dishes are covered in sauce, which protects the meat from sawdusting out when reheated and served in the bone-dry environment of an airplane cabin.

 This “wetter is better” theory is still largely adhered to, even for meatless dishes. So that takes care of moisture, but the question remains: How best to flavor food so that we might have a chance of tasting it with our papery, lifeless plane-tongues?

 Luckily, the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany is on it. They have a “simulated aircraft cabin environment” that is literally the front half of an old Airbus plunked into a low-pressure chamber. Scientists can manipulate the air pressure, humidity, temperature, noise, vibration, and lighting, to make being in the simulator feel just like cruising up in the wild blue yonder, as long as you don’t look out the window.

 In a paper published in 2010, the institute had a handful of subjects take a simulated flight and tested their ability to smell and taste different flavors. Researchers dissolved the compounds in water, in increasing concentrations, to test how much of a smell or flavor would need to be present before subjects could detect it.

 Salty and sweet tastes are significantly impaired in the air. Bitter and umami tastes survive better.

 The study found that “at low pressure the detection and recognition thresholds of…odorants are higher,” confirming that sense of smell is impaired in the air. When it came to flavors, the threshold for detecting salty and sweet tastes was much higher in low pressure, while bitter tastes weren’t noticeably affected. The threshold for monosodium glutamate (MSG), the additive commonly associated with “the fifth taste,” umami (or savoriness), was only slightly higher.

 This lends credence to the (only anecdotal) observation that many people seem to order tomato juice (or tomato juice’s boozy cousin, the Bloody Mary) on planes. Tomatoes are chock-full of umami, and if their flavor is strong where others’ are weak, it stands to reason that they’d be more appealing above the clouds than beneath them.

 There’s some evidence that planes’ white noise, as well as their low pressure, could contribute to reduced taste. Research has shown that white noise in a non-airplane context suppresses some basic tastes, and considering that, as well as research that shows umami is the most intense of the five tastes, a recent op-ed published in Flavour suggests researching whether umami is a taste that withstands the white noise effect.

 The Fraunhofer study recommends that airline caterers spice food more to make it more palatable—curries tend to survive well, and also follow the cardinal rule of wetness. But adding more salt and sugar to meals to make up for the muting of taste buds in the air would make the meals less healthy, and they’re already not great for you.

 Dr. Charles Platkin, a lecturer at Hunter College and the City University of New York School of Public Health does an annual analysis of the calorie count of foods offered on major airlines. His 2013 analysis found that the average number of calories per food item was 360, down from 388 in 2012, and while some airlines are moving toward healthier food, he says that overall, progress has been slow.

  “One of their missions is to increase the tastiness of the food,” Platkin says. “But there are so many things popping up [on land] that are focusing on healthy foods, and the airlines generally aren’t doing that.”

 He also notes that making the food taste better could reflect negatively on the airlines in another way.

 “Many scientists have found that food directly impacts mood,” he says. “When somebody is in the air traveling and they eat a lot of fat and sugar, it affects them in a negative way.” Feeling bad after a salt and sugar-heavy meal, even if it’s delicious, could make passengers grumpier about the entire travel experience.

 But though food has been an essential part of that experience since passengers first packed themselves into flying metal tubes to get from one place to another, it’s becoming increasingly less so. As complimentary meal service disappears from more flights, on anything shorter than an international flight, you’re likely to have to make do with peanuts or a sandwich bought for extra off a cart. De Syon says airlines are shifting from food-as-entertainment to, well, entertainment-as-entertainment. Hence the personalized movie screens on the back of the seat in front of you, and the push to install Wi-Fi on more planes.

 While installing these technologies might be a large initial investment, once they’re there, passengers are placated with no further effort required. Considering the cost and logistical issues involved in serving food on planes—food the passengers might not even like much of the time—de Syon says it makes sense.

 “Passengers are happier spending two hours watching a movie than getting bored of the food, or getting too drunk,” he says. “A big problem airlines encounter is that the drunkenness often leads to air rage. [Better to] have them focus on a screen or enjoy themselves on the Internet.”

 

http://www.airlineupdates.net/why-airplane-food-is-so-bad/ 

 

 

The Red Heifer in Synagogue: Purifying Israel from Sin.

 

Ezekiel 36 uses Priestly “purification” imagery similar to that of the red heifer ritual to describe God’s future reconciliation with Israel, inspiring the rabbis to choose this passage as the haftara for Parashat Parah… (Ethan Schwartz).

 

The Red Heifer Purification Process.  Artist YoramRaanan.com with permission.

 

The Special Readings for Shabbat Parah.

 

The Shabbat three weeks before Passover is known as Shabbat Parah. It derives its name from a special liturgical feature: the additional Torah reading (maftir) drawn from the purity rite of the red heifer (Numbers 19).^[1] This practice goes back to the Tannaitic period (late 2^nd century C.E.) and is referenced in the Mishnah (m. Megillah 3:4):

 

     

בשניה זכור בשלישית פרה אדומה ברביעית החדש הזה לכם בחמישית חוזרין לכסדרן.

On the second Sabbath [after the start of Adar they read] “Remember” (Deut. 25:17). On the third [they read] the red heifer. On the fourth [they read] “This month shall be for you” (Exod. 12:1). On the fifth they return to their [usual] order.[2]

 

The choice of the reading is based on the fact that all Israelites were required to partake in the pesach (Passover) sacrifice, and to do so required that the person be ritually pure.^[3] Even though sacrifices were no longer brought in rabbinic times, the reading is a remnant of the paschal sacrifice, and a nostalgic wish for its return. In addition, the theme of cleansing makes it a natural fit in the weeks of pre-Passover cleaning.

 

The Haftarah
This special maftir is paired with a prophetic reading (haftarah) from Ezekiel’s depiction of the restoration of Israel from the Exile (Ezekiel 36).^[4] The prophet opens with YHWH recounting that because Israel’s sins defiled their land, He exiled them––only to realize that this had sullied His reputation in the eyes of the nations. Therefore, He resolves to restore them for His own sake, purifying them of their defilement and spiritually reinvigorating the covenant. The haftarah closes with a vision of the glorious renewal of Israel, both the people and the land.

 

The Red Heifer Ritual

 

The Torah presents the ritual of the perfectly red heifer as an antidote to the impurity contracted from contact with a corpse^[5]—the most serious type of impurity in ancient Israel.^[6] The cow is slaughtered and immolated, and although the process renders the officiants themselves impure (Num. 19:3-8), its ashes are used to create a cleansing agent:

 

     

במדבר יט:ט וְאָסַף אִישׁ טָהוֹר אֵת אֵפֶר הַפָּרָה וְהִנִּיחַ מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה בְּמָקוֹם טָהוֹר וְהָיְתָה לַעֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת לְמֵי נִדָּה חַטָּאת הִוא.

Num. 19:9 A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for cleansing.

 

The second half of the chapter details the use of this “waters of lustration” (מי נדה) in a variety of scenarios involving contact with a dead body.^[7]

 

A Priestly Ritual
Although it does not take place at the altar, the rite of the red heifer is suffused with Priestly language and conceptions.^[8] The special role of the priest as officiant is emphasized right from the beginning. He is charged with a set of complex rules involving the slaughter of an animal, which is typical of ritual throughout the Priestly Source.

 

The fundamental focus of the ritual is removing impurity and restoring purity, a major concern of the Priestly legislation. The root טהר (“pure”) occurs five times in this chapter, its counterpart טמא (“impure”) a striking eighteen. Tellingly, there is no obvious moral valence to these categories; a person becomes impure through contact with a corpse, not through sin.^[9] Impurity is mysterious, but it is not metaphorical. It is a fact of the Priestly world.

 

The ritual function of blood, which is emphasized repeatedly, is also a central Priestly motif. Commentators, including both Jacob Milgrom^[10] and Baruch A. Levine,^[11] have suggested that the theme of blood stands behind the call for a specifically red heifer.^[12] The cow’s redness serves as a visual representation of the blood, symbolically increasing the amount of blood that goes into the cleansing agent.

 

Prophets versus Priests?

 

If the red heifer seems at home in the religion of the priests, then it might initially seem impossibly remote from the religion of the prophets, whose attitude toward ritual is encapsulated in the inaugural vision of Isaiah.

 

         

ישעיה א:יג לֹא תוֹסִיפוּ הָבִיא מִנְחַת שָׁוְא קְטֹרֶת תּוֹעֵבָה הִיא לִי חֹדֶשׁ וְשַׁבָּת קְרֹא מִקְרָא לֹא אוּכַל אָוֶן וַעֲצָרָה.	Isa. 1:13 Stop bringing vain offerings! Incense is an abomination to Me; new moon and Sabbath, calling convocation—I cannot bear iniquity with assembly.
ישעיה א:יז לִמְדוּ הֵיטֵב דִּרְשׁוּ מִשְׁפָּט אַשְּׁרוּ חָמוֹץ שִׁפְטוּ יָתוֹם רִיבוּ אַלְמָנָה.	Isa 1:17 Learn to do good! Seek justice! Do right by the wronged! Vindicate the orphan! Defend the widow!

 

Amidst social injustice, cultic worship itself becomes an abomination to God. This strong language notwithstanding, it would be overly simplistic to imagine that the prophets were diametrically opposed to the priestly cult. They all recognize the cult as a fundamental, if easily corruptible, component of Israel’s relationship with God.^[13]

 

Ezekiel: A Priestly Prophet

 

Biblical scholars have long recognized that Ezekiel has a close relationship with the main Priestly source, P, and especially with the Holiness Collection, H.^[14] He is, after all, a priest himself:

 

     

יחזקאל א:ג הָיֹה הָיָה דְבַר יְהוָה אֶל יְחֶזְקֵאל בֶּן בּוּזִי הַכֹּהֵן…

Ezek. 1:3 The word of YHWH came to Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest…

 

Ezekiel devotes far more time to transgressions in the priestly realms of cult and ritual than do the other Israelite prophets. As Tova Ganzel notes, “The theme of the book [of Ezekiel] is holiness: of the people of Israel, the land of Israel, the Temple, the Sabbath, and the divine name.”^[15] Yet this does not mean that moral concerns are absent in Ezekiel.^[16]

 

Michael Fishbane, in his commentary on the haftarot, explains,

 

The prophet’s priestly orientation is marked by his presentation of moral sins as causing impurity to the Land. Similarly, the purification of the nation is portrayed in cultic terms…. The punishment for exile is thus presented here as recompense for ritual-moral crimes.^[17]

 

“The prophet is a person, not a microphone,” wrote Abraham Joshua Heschel. “He speaks from the perspective of God as perceived from the perspective of his own situation.”^[18] Ezekiel reaches for the theological imagery of his Priestly background as he renders his prophetic encounters into human language.

 

Ezekiel’s Echoes of the Red Heifer

 

Synagogue attendees on Shabbat Parah, having just heard the recitation of Numbers 19, can readily detect what Fishbane notes: “The vocabulary of defilement, cleansing, sprinkling, and pure water [employed by Ezekiel] are all used in connection with the rite of the red heifer.”^[19] Although it is impossible to say for certain whether Ezekiel was thinking specifically of the red heifer in this prophecy, there can be no doubt that he draws from the well of Priestly language that the red heifer embodies.

 

Consider the opening of the haftarah:

 

     

יחזקאל לו:טז וַיְהִי דְבַר יְ-הוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר. לו:יז בֶּן אָדָם בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל יֹשְׁבִים עַל אַדְמָתָם וַיְטַמְּאוּ אוֹתָהּ בְּדַרְכָּם וּבַעֲלִילוֹתָם כְּטֻמְאַת הַנִּדָּה הָיְתָה דַרְכָּם לְפָנָי. לו:יח וָאֶשְׁפֹּךְ חֲמָתִי עֲלֵיהֶם עַל הַדָּם אֲשֶׁר שָׁפְכוּ עַל הָאָרֶץ וּבְגִלּוּלֵיהֶם טִמְּאוּהָ.

Ezek. 36:16 The word of YHWH came to me, saying: 36:17 O mortal, the house of Israel dwells on their land and defiles it with their ways and deeds; like the impurity of a niddah [menstruating woman] were their ways before Me. 36:18 So I poured out My wrath upon them on account of the blood that they shed upon on the land, defiling it with their filth.

 

Numbers 19 is concerned with the ritual impurity brought about by coming in contact with a dead body. In Ezekiel 36, the Israelites have become impure because of their wicked behavior, specifically bloodshed. In other words, whereas in Numbers, natural death ritually defiles, in Ezekiel, unnatural death (i.e. murder) morally defiles.^[20]

 

Moreover, in Numbers 19:13, the purifying concoction is called “waters of niddah,” whereas Ezekiel 36:17 describes Israel’s impurity as “like that of a niddah.” The implication of Ezekiel’s use of priestly language here is that just as the person, physically impure from contact with the dead, must go through a cleansing ritual, so too, the Israelites, impure from their wicked behavior, must go through a cleansing ritual.  

 

Purification and Covenantal Renewal

 

As the late Swiss theologian and Bible Scholar, Walther Zimmerli (1907-1983) notes in his commentary,  Ezekiel’s ritual of spiritual and moral cleansing has three-stages.^[21]

 

Stage 1 – God Purges Israel from Sin
In the first stage, Ezekiel makes heavy use of cultic language found in Numbers 19: The key words, ideas, and actions––sprinkling, waters of purification, and impurity––all appear.

 

     

יחזקאל לו:כה וְזָרַקְתִּי עֲלֵיכֶם מַיִם טְהוֹרִים וּטְהַרְתֶּם מִכֹּל טֻמְאוֹתֵיכֶם וּמִכָּל גִּלּוּלֵיכֶם אֲטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם.

Ezek. 36:25 I will sprinkle upon you the purifying waters, and you shall be purified; from all of your impurities and from all of your filth, I shall purify you.

 

In Ezekiel, however, the concern is not a technical state of ritual impurity but the broader, moral defilement of Israel’s “filth.”^[22]

 

Using the expression כְּמָא ד , “like,” Targum Jonathan (ad loc.) makes the connection between purification and sin explicit:

 

     

וְאֶשְׁבּוֹק לְחוֹבֵיכוֹן כְּמָא דְמִדַכָּן בְּמֵי אַדְיוּתָא וּבִקְטָם תּוֹרָתָא דְחַטָאתָא וְתִדַכּוּן מִכָל סַאֲבָתְכוֹן וּמִכָּל טַעֲוָתְכוֹן אֲדַכֵּי יַתְכוֹן:

I will forgive your sins like the purifying of the sprinkling waters and the ash of the cow of the sin offering; you will be purified from all your impurities, and from all your errors I will purify you.

 

In both Ezekiel and the Targum, the transformation must be effected by YHWH, who takes on the role of priest. As Moshe Greenberg emphasizes, “The external origin of the purification of the exiles, not from a turn of heart, is underlined by imagery drawn from purgation rituals.”^[23]

 

Stage 2 – Israel is Granted a New Heart and a New Spirit
Here, we reach the climax of spiritual renewal as the technical cultic language falls away entirely.

 

     

יחזקאל לו:כו וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב חָדָשׁ וְרוּחַ חֲדָשָׁה אֶתֵּן בְּקִרְבְּכֶם וַהֲסִרֹתִי אֶת־לֵב הָאֶבֶן מִבְּשַׂרְכֶם וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב בָּשָׂר: לו:כז וְאֶת־רוּחִי אֶתֵּן בְּקִרְבְּכֶם…

Ezek. 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh; 36:27 I will put My spirit in you…

 

Having been the recipient of ritual ablutions, Israel is now, more fundamentally, the recipient of a “new heart” and a “new spirit”—terms which seem to refer to an inner transformation of Israel’s attitude to YHWH and the covenant.^[24] Importantly, the heart that they are to receive is specifically one of flesh. Even at his most spiritual, Ezekiel, still a priest, remains anchored in the concrete, bodily realm typical of the cult.^[25] There is not a trace of the later Hellenistic insistence on a diametric opposition between “spirit” and “flesh.” According to Ezekiel, they are integrated dimensions of covenantal life.

 

Stage 3 – Renewing the Covenant
From the heights of spiritual renewal, Ezekiel moves to a third and final stage: the renewal’s realization. Renewal is return—to covenantal obedience.

 

     

יחזקאל לו:כז …וְעָשִׂיתִי אֵת אֲשֶׁר בְּחֻקַּי תֵּלֵכוּ וּמִשְׁפָּטַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶם. לו:כח וִישַׁבְתֶּם בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם וִהְיִיתֶם לִי לְעָם וְאָנֹכִי אֶהְיֶה לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים.

Ezek. 36:27 …And I will make it such that you walk according to My statutes, and that you keep My laws, observing them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your ancestors; you shall be My people and I will be your God.

 

The technical language of cult that echoes the red heifer has given way to a broader notion of covenant, but one that still demands concrete obedience to particular “statutes” and “laws.” The language is reminiscent of the Holiness Collection (Leviticus 17-26), as well as Deuteronomy and Jeremiah.^[26] The culmination is a stirring instantiation of the classic covenant formulary: “You shall be My people and I will be your God.”^[27] The defiled have been purified. Israel is a consecrated people once again.

 

Creating Liturgical Intertextuality

 

The red heifer pericope is deeply reflective of priestly theology and ritual. Paired liturgically with Ezekiel, it accents the way the prophet, himself of priestly pedigree, mobilizes the language of ritual purity and impurity in his prophecy. Whereas Numbers 19 provides for the ritual purification of individual Israelites in order that they may dwell in the camp, Ezekiel imagines the spiritual and moral purification of the entire people of Israel in order that they may dwell in the land.

 

His prophetic reinterpretation of priestly ritual was evidently valued by the ancient rabbis, who were attempting to continue a religion based in a cult that no longer existed. Detecting the thematic and lexical affinities between these two texts, they brought them together in the liturgy, thereby bringing the priestly imagery and rituals that fuel Ezekiel’s prophecy into the life of the synagogue. Ezekiel confronts the Jewish worshipper as both prophet and priest—identities that, for him, are inextricable. Three weeks before Passover, he offers a powerful message of spiritual purification and the promise of a covenant renewed.

 

http://thetorah.com/the-red-heifer-in-synagogue-purifying-israel-from-sin/