Many years ago a couple lived together in a small Polish shtetl . Though they were both basically good people, they had a disagreement they couldn’t resolve. In time their difference grew so severe that they were contemplating divorce. But before throwing in the towel they sought counsel from the local wise man who happened … Continue reading
Though nobody knows for certain whether Mother Sarah braided six strand challot in her tent, these lovely edible macrames have been featured on Ashkenazi Shabbos tables for centuries, maybe even longer. The number six is no accident. On the Shabbos table there are two loaves. That means if each one is fashioned from six strands … Continue reading
As far as I can tell there isn’t any mystical reason for eating gefilte fish with chrain, no kaballah about the fish being white as in mercy and the chrain being red as in judgment. The pairing is purely a matter of taste,-the sweetish relatively bland fish contrasting with the fiery sauce though it must be pointed out … Continue reading
I’m not a gefilte fish lover. I’ve been known to refuse the stuff even when it’s dressed up like a fishy petite four.But gefilte fish isn’t something to sneer at. It is actually a reflection of Jewish culinary genius.Since Shabbos means fish but the Sabbath laws forbid using a utensil to separate the bones from the flesh (you can … Continue reading
As far as I know there is no special reason to eat knaidlach on Succos. Knaidlach which are also called matzo balls actually belong to Passover though, amazingly some Hassidic Jews won’t eat them then because they are made from matzos which have come into contact with water. On Succos we don’t have any such rules. … Continue reading
While I grew up eating honey cooked carrots every Rosh Hashana, I never realized this was holy food until I read Rabbi Dovid Meisel’s account of the every day life of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the previous Satmar Rebbe. In case you’re unfamiliar with his story, the old Satmar Rebbe walked out of Bergen Belsen alive. … Continue reading
Until I learned about the simanim, the symbolic foods of the Rosh Hashana meal I had no idea that Jews ate black eyed peas. Like chitterlins and collard greens, I thought they belonged to the genre of African American cuisine known as soul food. Little did I know that this lovely legume feeds our neshomos too. … Continue reading
For years I looked at those women in the supermarket whose carts were piled high with margarine, sugar and flour with a mixture of awe and disgust. What could one possibly do with 12 sacks of flour, a dozen bars of margarine and enough white sugar to cause permament tooth decay and ADHD? Then I became … Continue reading
It feels like the summer has hardly begun but this Shabbat we usher in the month of Elul, the opening act to the High Holiday Season. Elul is a heavy time for Jews. Since Rosh Hashana is the Yom HaDin, the Judgment Day, Elul is the time to prepare for that judgment. The way to do this is … Continue reading
For some mysterious reason, it has become customary for the mother of a Bar Mitzvah boy to bake a tefilin cake. Not a cake shaped like a pair of tefilin , though I’m sure someone out there is baking one of those. What I’m referring to is a cake decorated with chocolate tefilin, an edible replica of the phylacteries, … Continue reading
