Coffee and Jewish Culture: A Caffeinated Journey Through History

What does Judaism have to say about coffee? Surely not much, right? Grab a cup of coffee and let’s delve into this intriguing topic.

Today, coffee is a morning routine we take for granted, whipped up in half a minute in many variations to kickstart the day. Throughout the day, we often find ourselves reaching for another cup during work breaks.

But rewind three hundred years, and nothing was assumed. When people were thirsty, they drank water, but it didn’t come from fancy dispensers or even basic taps. It was stored in various containers, often not clean. Historian John McManus described 18th-century Paris’s water issues: "The water was contaminated... complaints about linen residue or foam from oxen mouths in household water buckets were common, and without wells, village water had to be filtered through cloth. Any Parisian sensible about water quality would stick to wine."

Yet, relying on wine had its downsides. Taverns that sold it were infamous for a reason. The poor drank water; wealthier families stored wine at home, and common folk occasionally bought it at taverns. Then coffee entered the scene.

Coffee was hailed for its virtues and met with skepticism by authorities concerned about its societal impact—not just in Jewish circles, but broadly. Could coffeehouses become new dens of vice, fostering gambling, brawls, and worse?

The nature of coffee was mysterious. Its stimulating aroma wafted from the burgeoning coffeehouses of 18th-century Europe, rumored to be medicinal. Along with cocoa, these new drinks prompted debates regarding their nature and effects. Rabbi Yaakov Emden recounts a 1750 incident when a severe illness struck his family. His physician prescribed wine for him and cocoa for his wife. While the wine aided Rabbi Emden's recovery, cocoa worsened his wife's condition, but, by divine grace, she recovered despite the "remedy."

Even tea was a novelty in the West, despite its ancient roots in China, mainly gaining popularity in England. Rabbi Emden, after trying various new beverages, noted: "When I drank tea, I found a comforting joy in my heart akin to fine wine."

Jewish entrepreneurs were early coffee adopters. England’s first coffeehouse was Jewish-owned, and Jews were instrumental in promoting coffee in Germany, despite efforts by Frankfurt merchants to reserve the market for Germans.

In one account by David Liss, coffee, described as smelling of "earth and rotting leaves," seemed unappealing at first. Many latte lovers may sympathize; our acquired tastes started young, often disliking coffee as children.

Coffee met with both moral and social resistance, yet coffeehouses thrived across Europe, including Jewish-run establishments.

Rabbi Emden shared how, during a trip to England, he rested in a coffeehouse, where a London Jew questioned his propriety for drinking coffee there. Not recognizing him as a prominent scholar, the man's protest spread, fueling rumors that Rabbi Emden frequented coffeehouses. In his memoir, he explained his silent response to spare the coffeehouse owner from the repercussions of his prominent departure. He later received a halachic inquiry regarding coffee's kashrut, prompted by his public coffeehouse visits.

Rabbi Yaakov Reischer of Prague, author of Shevut Yaakov, was asked if a non-Jew could prepare basic needs like coffee for Shabbat when a Jew lacked them. He replied, "This coffee is a newfangled introduction... not considered an urgent necessity," suggesting one could manage without. Addressing questions around coffee and tea preparation during Passover and other rituals, he noted: "The earlier sages did not mention these laws, as such items were rare in those countries until imported recently from Turkey."

Over time, coffee became better understood, integrally woven into life with wisdom and accompanied by rabbinic rulings on its preparation—including kashrut, Passover, Shabbat, and non-Jewish cooking.