The Foodie Challenge

Foodie in training

Dear friends,

It’s all about food at the end of the day. All the big concepts, the word of God, four thousand years of history, Holocausts and survival, all of it boils down to what we eat or don’t eat. Matzah, latkes, cheese cake, Hamantaschen, challah, round challah, fish head, fish tail, matzah balls, brisket, apples and honey, dried fruit, first fruits, brisket, salt water, hard boiled egg, peas, chicken wing, chicken soup, orange, leek tart, spinach tart, blintzes, wine, grape juice, jelly donuts, merengue, dates with butter, manicotti, Jachnun, celery, Haroset; these are some of the foods I’ve eaten ritualistically in Jewish settings. Every single one has its time and place, and most carry a specific meaning as well.

Rosh Hashanah (coming up in just 3 weeks!) is that rare holiday that omits the first two parts of “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” It goes straight to the table without pretending to live elsewhere. Everyone is familiar with apples and honey, but the opening of the Jewish year is a culinary celebration of symbols and flavors that goes far beyond honey for a sweet new year. At my grandmother in law, Sheila’s, an Egyptian Jewish household, the feast begins with wine (after the daily sunset Scotch of course), moves on to leek tart, spinach tart, peas, fish head, fish body, pomegranate seeds, and finally apples and honey. And challah (round if possible). And then dinner. Each of the pre dinner foods has its own blessing, related to something we wish upon ourselves this year.

Sheila didn’t make up any of these blessings or foods. They’ve come down the generations as the family moved from Syria to Lebanon to Palestine, Egypt the US and Canada. Each of them has a specific symbolism to match the blessing it is meant to evoke. The pomegranate seeds, for example imply fruitfulness. Each fruit has hundreds of beautiful, red seeds. The head of the fish is for leadership - “may you be like a head, not a tail.” The rest of the fish is because the head is gross, and for fertility. The round challah is for wholeness. The peas, those little green nuggets are for money. And so on and so forth.

Some of you were at the beautiful Queens County Farm two years back for our Rosh Hashanah service during which the news broke about Justice Ginsburg’s - her memory is a blessing - passing. I still remember her name called out during Kaddish, and tears. If you were there you might also remember a certain saffron honey cake concocted by a certain tall, handsome Yemenite, who explained the intricacies of the symbolism of this cake, and why the 108 strands of saffron he used in the cake represent the exact blessing that we need this year. I remember the sweet taste of the cake better than the explanation, but the year that followed indeed carried the elegant, sweet grace of those saffron strands, despite its challenges.

This Rosh Hashanah we are going to kick the year off with food. After our evening service, once we’ve taken in some sweet music and set some intentions for the holiday season, we will flex our community’s creative culinary muscles. I invite you all to the following challenge: Come up with a dish that symbolizes the very blessing we need this year. It could be a brand new concoction, a riff on a traditional dish, or even a traditional family dish that you think embodies our current need. Prepare it. Bring it in on the 25th and share it with the rest of us. If you're game to take on this challenge, let Susan know at susan@newshul.org.

Let’s start the year off just like our ancestors have taught us, as weird spiritual foodies.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Misha