From
Eve’s apple to grandma’s tzimmes: reflections on Jewish food, cuisine, and
culture
Bob Hutkins
Bob Hutkins
Presented
at Tifereth Israel Synagogue
July
27, 2013
A Synagogue
finds itself in a dire financial situation – its very survival is at
stake. Knowing this, a congregant calls
on the Synagogue Board. “I am prepared
to make a substantial donation to the Synagogue” he tells the President - “One
million dollars”. “All I ask in return
is one small request. As you know, I am
the CEO of the Goldman’s Pickled Herring Company. Our company has been, thanks to Hashem, very
successful. Thus, I am prepared to write
a check to the Synagogue at this very moment for 1 million dollars. All I ask in return is one small request – that
you change the traditional Kiddush blessing over the wine to a blessing over
the pickled herring."
The President
was floored by this request. "For thousands of years, our people have been
making the blessing over wine and now, just like that you want me to go against
this age old tradition? I don't think I can do this."
The CEO was
undaunted. "You drive a hard bargain. Alright, I will donate 2 million
dollars".
The President
said, “No way, besides, our Rabbi will never agree to this”.
“Okay then”, the
CEO said, "my final offer - 5 million dollars."
A few days
later, a full congregational meeting is called.
The Board President stands to speak.
"I have
good news and I have bad news. The good
news is the Synagogue is saved - we have just received a 5 million dollar
donation. The bad news – we’ve lost the Manischewitz account!"
I tell this joke
because when I informed my wife I was going to present a lunch and learn
lecture, she suggested that since my Jewish Humor lecture went so well, that I
should give a Jewish Humor Part 2 lecture.I told her I
knew about other subjects, especially food, which she eventually conceded was
within my sphere of expertise. I have
not yet told her that I was planning my next Lunch and Learn for another topic
for which I know a lot about – “Sex after 50”.
However, I have decided to defer to someone else who claims to be an
authority on this subject.
The main
question I wish to raise in this lecture today is “why has food been so
important to Jews throughout their long history, perhaps more so than other
religions or cultures?” In other words,
how did this relationship between Jews and their food evolve over 3,000 years
to be such a major part of Jewish life and culture?I will try to address
these questions with first a short answer, and then a longer answer.
It is said that the history of the Jewish people can be described in just 9 words:
“They tried to
kill us. We won. Let’s eat.”
Now for the long answer which I’ve organized into 2 main parts.
First, I will
try to put this discussion in the relevant historical context and describe how
food and procurement of food has driven human evolution, led to the formation
of civilizations, become a major part of religion and ritual practices, and
even today shapes and influences contemporary culture. Indeed, the procurement, preparation, preservation,
and eating of food are among the most important activities associated with
human life.
Next, I will get to the main part of my lecture, namely how food and food themes are not only central to many of the stories in the Bible, but have influenced Jewish culture far beyond just what we eat.
First, some discussion
questions for you to consider:
1. Socrates said
“Thou should eat to live; not live to eat" - Which best describes your
attitude toward food: Do you eat to live
or live to eat?
2. If you could
satisfy all of your caloric and nutritional requirements by a single pill, and
thereby eliminate the need for food shopping, preparation, serving, and
cleaning, would you?
1999 survey: U.S. women 32% (men
22%); in France < 10%
3. How many
times a day do you think about the following:
your next meal? sex? sleep? your
spouse? your children? Work? money? God?
One published study showed that men
think about sex on average of 35 times/day; Sleep= 29 times and Food = 25 times.
The range were Sex = 1 - 388; Sleep
= 3- 253; Food = 3 -111 (clicker?)
Women were about half for each
category.
In another survey in Ladies Home Journal, women were asked if they would rather have a great meal or great sex – more than half preferred the food over the frolic.
The point is
that we think a lot about food, despite the fact that we are surrounded by food
and hardly ever really hungry. Imagine
how much we would think about food if we were really without?
4. How long does
it take to make home-made chicken soup? Geflite fish? Kugel? Challah?
Spanokipta?
How much time (hours per day) does
the average family spend on meal preparation and cleanup?
1920 – more than 6 hours per day
1965 – 1 hour
2010 – half-hour
Some young adult professionals spend
0 time preparing meals. Why?
Because they eat every meal out or as pick up.
Because they eat every meal out or as pick up.
We also spend less time as a family
at the dinner table
Does this affect our attitudes
toward food?
Now before
talking specifically about Jewish food and culture, I want to briefly talk
about why food is so important to all humans, not just Jews. Before there was a Friedman or a Goldman,
there was a Caveman. What did Myron
Caveman eat and what was his relationship with food like?
Obviously, Myron
and his family needed food to survive.
Evolution tell us that for a species to survive, it must above all,
propagate itself – to do so means that that species must (1) successfully avoid
predators and hostile environments; (2) attract mates and reproduce; and (3)
last but not least, procure food and water.
Ultimately, it
is fair to say that our success finding food was instrumental in our early
evolution and history that eventually gave rise to human society and
civilization.
What really
changed things for humans was not just that we learned how to make fire or fashion
tools, what really advanced our species the most occurred only 12,000 years ago
when human beings domesticated plants and animals – what we now call
Agriculture. This was arguably the most
important development in human history.This was so
momentous an event that it is mentioned in the very first chapter Bereshit,
line 19 of our Torah - God said, "Behold, I have given you every seed
bearing herb, which is upon the surface of the entire earth, and every tree
that has seed bearing fruit; it will be yours for food.
Agriculture not
only made food more available, but even created the possibility of food
surpluses - surpluses that incidentally necessitated the need for food
Preservation. Hence, cultures that
learned, for example, how to store grains had advantages over other cultures (e.g.,
the Joseph story, which I will get to more in another minute).
Eventually, our
early ancestors realized that food was not just for survival, but, in contrast
to other animals, humans also learned that food also had a social
function. Over thousands of years, we
learned to acquire, prepare and consume food according to a complex system of pre-defined
rules and rituals. Of course, these
rules and rituals were first codified in our Torah.
Throw a piece of
meat to a pack of wolves, for example, and they will fight over it like, well a
pack of wolves. Place a roasted chicken on
the dining room table, and most civilized humans will eat in a mannerly
order. In fact, the Hebrew word for
order is? Seder (also Siddur).
There is also
another very important dimension to eating collectively and using manners. Indeed, for most children, the table is where
please and thank you and using appropriate manners are first learned. It’s also at the table where children first are
exposed to food rules and rituals, where they first hear blessings giving
praise to God both before and after a meal.
We also learn about family hierarchy and “group dynamics” (i.e., Woody
Allen’s Annie Hall).
It’s also
crucial to this discussion to appreciate that it wasn’t just the availability
of food that influenced our attitudes about food, but perhaps even more
important was the phenomenon of hunger and famine in the ancient world.Indeed, for most
of human existence, famine and hunger were the rule. Most of us have little or no appreciation for
what it means to be hungry. How often do
we say “I’m starving”? Have any of us
actually experienced starvation?
While we read
repeatedly about hunger and famine in the Torah, it’s easy for us to think
hunger and famine are ancient phenomena, not relevant in more modern times. The reality is that famine and hunger have
not disappeared. There have been
thousands of famines since the Exodus from Egypt. Moreover,
just as famine influenced the course of history 3,000 years ago, so have they
in modern times.
One well-known example was the Irish Potato famine in the middle of the 19th century, when in just 7 years, 1 million people died and another 1.5 million people left Ireland (most to the U.S.)
In our own country, in the 1930s the
Dust Bowl led to score of thousands of hungry and displaced people.
Even more recently, were the famine
and food shortages that plagued the former Soviet Union in the 1980s. Indeed, the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991 was in part due to food shortages, famine, rationing, and lines for bread
and meat.
One Gorbachev confidant stated” “If
grain cannot be obtained somewhere, famine may come. Moscow has probably never
seen anything like this throughout its history - even in its hungriest years.”
I believe one of
the main reasons why Jews have formed and supported hunger relief organizations
such as Mazon is because of our collective memory of this part of our history.Now, I would
like to move onto the second part of this talk – namely how food and food
themes are not only central to many of the stories in the Bible, but have
influenced Jewish culture way beyond just what we eat.Of course, there
are many important and recurrent themes in the Torah - monotheism, holiness,
honoring and trust in God, good and evil, mercy and redemption, remembering the
covenant, observing mitzvoth and Tzedakah, but I would argue that Food is woven
into the fabric of the Bible as much, or even more so than any other topic
Of the 613
commandments in the Torah, 25 deal directly with food, forming the basis of
kashrut.
Another 48
describe feeding the hungry and the poor, caring for animals, tending to the
land, agricultural practices, and even when to eat and not to eat.
However, for a
major part of the Bible, food and the procurement of food is the driving force
for much of the action. Let’s look at a
few prominent examples:
Garden of Eden
and Eve’s apple – “When the Lord forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree, He
started, according to writer Isaac Rosenfeld, something that has persisted
throughout our history – the attachment of all sorts forbidden meanings to food
and the use of food in a system of taboos”.
When Abraham
prepares a special meal for strangers/angels, curds and whey, this, you can
imagine is the first time food is used to honor guests
Previously,
famine in Canaan had led Abraham and his family to leave Israel and settle in
Egypt, our first, but not last time in Egypt.
Isaac’s son,
Esau gives up his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil soup
Jacob injures
his thigh wrestling with an angel, hence the dietary law that says the muscle
or sinew of the thigh must not be eaten unless the sinew is extracted from the
meat of the animal before it is can be sold as kosher meat. In many
communities, the hindquarters of an animal are simply not eaten at all.
Joseph and
Pharaoh’s dream – 7 healthy cows devoured by 7 lean and ugly cows; same with
the 7 ears of corn = 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine. Later in the Joseph story, his brothers in
Canaan are told to make the trek to Egypt.
Why?
Genesis 41 – 42.
“And the seven
years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, came to an end.
And the seven
years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said; and there was
famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
And all
countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn; because the famine was sore in
all the earth.
Behold, I have
heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither, and buy for us from
thence; that we may live, and not die
And Joseph's ten
brethren went down to buy corn from Egypt.
Eventually, we
have the Plagues (Ex 7:14), of which 9 of 10 are agricultural: Blood, Frogs,
Lice, Wild beasts, Pestilence, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Firstborn
Followed by the
Exodus – the paschal lamb and unleavened bread
Followed by Manna
in the Wilderness mentioned above.
Today’s Parsha
is especially revealing, as we hear that for Jews, food does more than simply
satisfy physical requirement, it also provides spiritual sustenance. Indeed, in this Torah portion, we read “And
He afflicted you and let you go hungry, and then fed you with manna, which you
did not know, nor did your forefathers know, so that He would make you know
that man does not live by bread alone, but rather by whatever comes forth from
the mouth of the Lord does man live.”
There are
several ways one can read these lines – one interpretation is that is that true
sustenance comes not by food, nor by the fruits of our labor, nor by any of our
earthly endeavors, but rather by God.
Another relevant
lesson from this line is that even when food is ample, when we’ve reached the
so-called promised land of milk and honey, and when we are no longer hungry for
“bread”, we still need more than material goods to fulfill our life. That is, while our bodies need food to
satisfy our nutritional needs, we also need, in the words of Rabbi Yossy
Goldman, to be spiritually satisfied, to know that our lives have meaning, that
we have made a difference, and that our work has lasting value.
Also in today’s
Parsha, we hear Moses tell the people that if they obey the commandments, the
Lord your God will bring you into a good land, a land with streams and springs
and fountains issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of
vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; a land where
you may eat food without stint (8:7).
And a few lines
down, we hear Moses tell the people that if they love God and serve God with
heart and soul, God would “give you the rain of your land in its due season,
the early rain and the late rain, that you may gather in your corn, and your
wine, and your oil. And I will give
grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be full. (11:14)
From this
Parshah also comes the Birkat HaMazon blessing after the meal - : "And you
shall eat and be satisfied, and bless Adonai your God for the good land which
God has given you”
In contrast as
we read just a few weeks ago, if the commandments are not followed, the people
will see poor harvests, attacks of wild beasts, pestilence, and famine
Given the
prominence of food in the Torah and how integral food was to the Biblical
experience of our ancestors, it’s no wonder that food became such an integral
part of Jewish life from generation to generation.
But even for
secular Jews, who did not keep Kosher, food has remained as their one anchor to
Jewish life.
Why is
this? Why does the act of eating
particular foods connect us to our Jewish roots, to our Jewishness more than
just about any other activity?
The answer is
right under our nose. Researchers have
shown that food, even the aroma of food, elicits profound and vivid emotional
memories.
We can all think
of examples of how this works. For me,
every time I make tzimmes for Rosh Hashanah or Pesach, I am reminded of my
Grandmother, and how such amazing delicacies, like Kreplach, Kishka, and Kugel,
came out of her unbelievably small Kosher kitchen and how my grandfather
speed-davened through Friday night and holiday services so we could all get to
the meal.
Sometimes it’s
not the food per se that elicits these memories – sometimes it can be a platter
or Kiddush cup that was handed down from your grandmother or grandfather. At Pesach last year, Nancy made a huge pot of
matzoh ball soup and mentioned how grateful she was that she had her mother’s
soup pot.
Food not only
reminds us of our past, we even communicate at the present through food:
When you make chicken soup for
someone who is ill – this says I care about you
When you make a special meal for
your spouse – this says I love you
When
Nanci Hamicksburg or Miriam Wallach, or the Corens or other congregants prepare
Kiddush lunches– this says this community is important.
The Sedar itself is really a meal
wrapped within a story of our history that we communicate
every year to our children.
Indeed, food is
an integral part of every life cycle event, from birth to death
Bris is followed
by meal – as Billy Crystal say, “snip snip let’s eat”
Bnai Mitzvah,
followed by Kiddush lunch; wedding followed by a meal
Of course, after
we bury a loved one, we have the Meal of consolation
Of course, food
and specific foods, in particular, are associated with all of our Jewish
holidays
a. High Holidays
– Challah and honey, fasting on Yom Kippur
b. Chanukah –
latkes, sufganiyot
c. Purim –
hamantaschen
d. Shavuot –
dairy
e. Pesach
f. Tu B’Shvat,
we are supposed to eat the 7 foods mentioned above
g. Shabbat –
I’ve been
talking a lot about Jewish food, but is it possible to define what is Jewish
food?
Food that is Kosher?
Food that grandma made?
Or a Pastrami sandwich from 2nd Ave
Deli in New York or a falafel from a stand on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem?
Lenny Bruce
famously stated: “Pumpernickel is Jewish
... white bread goyish; instant potatoes goyish; black cherry soda very Jewish.
Macaroons very Jewish; Fruit salad is Jewish. Lime jello is goyish”
According to the
Jewish Home Beautiful written by the National Women's League of the United
Synagogue of America, 1941, “If there is any one particular food that might lay
claim to being the Jewish national food, gefilte fish is that food”
Gefilte fish, like other foods, was
popular because it stretched the main and most expensive
ingredient, fish.
According to
Marks, after all is said and done, these are Jewish foods because they “evoke
the spirit of a Jewish community”
Ultimately, is
eating Jewishly connect us to our Jewishness any less than observing Torah,
lighting candles on Shabbat, getting married under a chupah, reading Torah at
13, observing mitzvot, or saying kaddish for a loved one?
Finally, before
ending, I would like to briefly mention some examples of how Jewish food has
also influenced American cuisine on a broader basis, beyond the ubiquitous
bagel.
Crisco – introduced by Proctor and
Gamble in 1911 as the first “vegetable shortening”. It was also the first widely distributed
product in the U.S. to advertise as kosher (“for which the Hebrew race has been
waiting 4,000 years”). Although many
women, taught to cook with lard or butter are reluctant to adopt this product,
it becomes very popular among Orthodox Jews.
P and G eventually issue a pamphlet and cookbook in Yiddish, and the
product goes on to huge success.
Danone – In 1919, Isaac Carasso, a
Sephardic Jew born in Eastern Europe but raised in Spain, opens a small yogurt
factory, and names the product after his son Daniel, or Danone, in
Catalan. He moves his factory from
Barcelona to Paris in 1929, and in 1941 emigrated to the U.S. to avoid Nazi
persecution. As a Sephardic Jew, his
assets are protected from Nazi seizure by Francisco Franco. In 1942, he partnered with Joseph Metzger, a
Swiss-born Jew and Zionist, and with financing from another Jew, Bernard
Baruch, they began production of Dannon yogurt in the Bronx. Daniel Carasso died at 103, presumably the
yogurt kept him going.
Maxwell House – Branded in 1886, and
thanks to the Joseph Jacobs Advertising agency and their “Good to the Last
Drop” campaign, by the 1920’s, it’s the most widely known coffee in
America. In 1932, Jacobs Advertising
convinces Maxwell House to publish and give away for free a Passover Haggadah,
which 50 million copies later has become the most widely read Haggadah in the
world (even used by Obama for recent White House Sedars)
Manischewitz – originates in 1888 in
Cincinnati by Russian-American baker and Rabbi, Behr Manischewitz eventually
with plants in New Jersey. His 4 sons
built the company to become the largest baker of matzoh and matzoh
products. Manischewitz also partnered
with other companies to become a major wine producer. The Manischewitz family funded a Yeshiva in
“Palestine” and were philanthropists to the arts and other social causes.
Heinz in 1923 introduces Vegetarian
Baked beans, the first product to be labeled with circle U hechsher.
In 1945, a New York wine maker named
Jacob Kaplan buys a well-known but struggling grape juice company called
Welch’s. Under his leadership, the
company prospers and Kaplan becomes one of New York’s most famous
philanthropists.
Nathan Cummings’ parents were
Lithuanian Jews who mistakenly got off the boat in Saint John, New Brunswick,
Canada, where he was born in 1896. He
was a poor traveling salesman, eventually was in a shoe business that went
bankrupt in the Depression. In the 1930s
he founded a food company that eventually became Sara Lee. When he died at
the age of 88, he left his $200 million estate to a philanthropic foundation
devoted to arts, nature, social justice, and Jewish living.
I close with a
quote from poet and essayist Wendell Berry, who is spiritual but not Jewish.
“The pleasure of
eating … means that you eat with understanding and with gratitude. The pleasure of eating is in one’s
consciousness of the lives and world from which food comes. Eating with pleasure … is perhaps the
profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. And it is in this
pleasure that we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for
we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot
comprehend.”
Good Shabbas.
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