Holiday Foods
Foods associated
with holidays depend on geography.
By Rabbi Steven M. Fink
Reprinted with permission from Gates of the Season: A
Guide to the Jewish Year (Central
Conference of American Rabbis)
Theholiday spirit is a complicated web of feelings
and expectations. The crispness of the air, the best china on the table, the
cleaning of the house, and the new suit of clothes are all important elements
of preparation for the festival we are
about to celebrate. The delicious aroma of holiday foods transmits wonderful
memories and ethnic consciousness. The honey cake just out of the oven tells us
it is Rosh Hashanah; the crisp, slightly oniony smell of potato latkes reminds
us it is Hanukkah; the making of matzah balls and charoset heralds
the beginning of Pesach.
Holiday foods enhance and elevate our festival celebration.
By reserving certain distinctive foods for special days, each holiday meal
takes on its own joyous and familiar character. Festival foods reinforce the
meaning of the holiday and add to the celebratory mood of the diners. Every
Jewish family has its favorite holiday foods. Through time these foods have
become imbued with beautiful associations and warm memories. They have acquired
a uniqueness and even a sanctity of their own which are handed down from generation
to generation. These special recipes are part of our rich cultural and
religious heritage.
Holiday foods are as different and varied as the Jewish
people. Wherever Jews have lived they have adopted and embellished foods from
the local culture. Foods from ancient Egypt and Rome, medieval Germany and
Spain, and nineteenth-century Russia and Hungary grace the holiday table. The
spicy and aromatic cookery of the Sephardic Jews is as rich and diversified as
that of Ashkenazic Jewry.
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Among Ashkenazic (Eastern
European-descended) Jews, gefilte fish is a traditional holiday and Shabbat
food.
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The traditional Sabbath eve meal often consists of chicken
soup with kreplach (meat filled dough), chopped liver or gefilte fish,chicken or fish prepared in any number of ways, a kugel (noodle or
potato pudding), and vegetables. The traditional dish for Shabbat afternoon in
Eastern Europe was cholent (meaning "hot"). Potatoes, kasha(groats), and the little meat available were placed into a pot and cooked
for twenty-four hours in the community oven before being carried home by a
child for the noon meal. In this country, a typical cholentincludes
brisket, onions, lima beans, and barley or potatoes. It is a perfect dish for
crock pot cooking. Sephardic dishes for Shabbat would include various
vegetables, such as carrots, zucchini, or eggplants stuffed with ground meat,
or delicious rice-based dishes.
Sweet foods, symbolizing the anticipated sweetness of the
year ahead, are prominent among the delicacies that constitute the Rosh
Hashanah festive meal. Apples dipped in honey, lekach (honey and spice
cake), tayglach (honey and nut pastry), and honey cake are eaten for
dessert. The challah is baked in a round shape (reminding us of
eternity) instead of a braid and is enriched with extra eggs, sugar, and
raisins to signify the promise for a sweet and rich year. Gefilte fish, chicken
soup with three-cornered kreplach (said to symbolize the three patriarchs),
carrot or prune tzimmes, and meat or fowl would complete the meal.
On the eve of Yom Kippur, it is important to serve a filling
meal without provoking thirst. The meal is similar to that of Rosh Hashanah
less some of the sweets. The meal is eaten before the onset of Yom Kippur. It
is called seudah mafseket, the concluding meal before a fast. There is
no kiddush, and the festival candles are lit after the meal and before
going to the synagogue. A light dairy dinner is often eaten after the fast,
consisting of assorted fish, eggs, and salads.
The Sukkot table is laden with the fruits and vegetables of
the fall harvest. Stuffed foods of all kinds are served to symbolize the
richness of the harvest. Cabbage filled with ground beef in a sweet and sour
sauce, holishkes (or gefilte krult), are popular among Ashkenazic
Jews. Israelis stuff eggplants (chatsilim) and green peppers (pilpel
memula). Strudel stuffed with apples, peaches, or other fruits is served
for dessert.
Hanukkah is celebrated by eating foods cooked in oil, such
as potato latkes(potato pancakes) and sufganyot (jelly
doughnuts) to symbolize the miracle of the oil. It is also customary to eat
dairy dishes in remembrance of the story of Judith in the Apocrypha.
Hamantaschen, a three-cornered pastry filled with
prunes, poppy seeds (muhn), apricots, or other fruits, is the most
popular of Purim foods. It is three-cornered, tradition says, to look like
Haman's ears or like the purse he wanted to fill with the Jews' gold. Haman's
ears are a favorite Purim dessert. They are a fritter-like pastry, deep-fried,
and sprinkled with sugar or honey. They are known as Hamansooren in
Holland, Orechie de Aman in Italy, Oznei Haman in Israel, and Honuelos
de Haman in Spanish-speaking countries.
The sederis a celebration and learning experience
shared by all present. The special foods served enhance the beauty and the
meaning of the night. Passover foods vary in Sephardic and Ashkenazic
communities. Ashkenazim exclude rice while Sephardim serve rice. Ashkenazim
also exclude millet, corn, and legumes (beans and nuts). The Rabbis thought
that the seed inside the bean would "rise" like leavening. Since no
leaven (chamets) may be used, matzah is the main ingredient of Passover
cooking. There is a rich variety of foods made from matzah and matzah
meal. Ashkenazic favorites are kneidlach (matzahmeal dumplings),
matzah brei (fried matzahwith egg and onion), and kremslach (matzah
meal fritters), which recall the meal cakes offered as sacrifices in Biblical
times. Matzahmeal or potato flour is used instead of flour.
Sephardic dishes are pahthut, a Yemenite soup stew
made with matzahmeal, and Turkish minas and mahmuras, layers
of matzahfilled with vegetables, cheese, or meat.
Dairy foods are served on Shavuot. According to legend,
after our ancestors received the Torah on Mt. Sinai, they returned to their
tents too hungry to wait for meat to be cooked so they ate previously prepared
dairy dishes. Milk, cheese, and honey are the favorite foods of this festival.
The sweet dishes made from cheese and honey symbolize the sweetness and
richness of the Torah. Popular dishes are blintzes stuffed with cheese,
cheese-filled Strudel, beet Borsht served with sour cream, kugel(noodle
pudding), and cheese cake. Sephardic Jews serve dishes like shpongous (a
cheese-spinach bake), sometimes using salted ewe's milk.
Our festivals are always enhanced through the rich tastes
and textures of the holiday foods. The beauty and delight of these specially
prepared meals add a great deal to the Hidur Mitzvah, the aesthetic
enjoyment of our holidays.
Steven M. Fink is rabbi at Temple Oheb Shalom in
Baltimore
