Wednesday, July 8, 2009

About Jewish Food

I love going to shiurim as you can tell. It’s a way of getting a dose of Ruchnius put into my day. Monday night started a series of shiurim that will last throughout the summer. I’ve come to see many programs that have been started to keep the men busy and out of trouble in the city, while their wives and family are up in the country. I think such programs are great. But yet, when I have a family I can’t imagine leaving to the country and leaving my husband back at home, I think I would rather just stay in the city.

R' Zev Cohen Anyways, the shiur I went to on Monday night was by R’ Zev Cohen on the topic of Jewish Food. While I was listening to the shiur, it reminded me of different posts I had read, it gave answers to questions other bloggers have asked. So I figured I would write one post to answer all the questions and at the same time give an interesting summary of what the shiur was about.


Nissan is one of the first months of the Jewish calander. Pesach comes first, and the Karbon brought on Pesach was barley, which is animal food. Then 7 weeks later is Shvous and the Karbon brought then was wheat which is human food. Since by Pesach we are like animals, and then by Shvous we become like humans, after going through the 7 week process. Now this 7 week process is compared to a lady’s cycle, where at the end there is milk which symbolizes purity. That is why on Shvous we eat Milichigs. Now how did cheese cake come about? It came about because, Pesach we have matza which has no yetzer hora, while Shvous we have Lechem which symbolizes the yetzer hora. But yet Shvous we have milk which symbolizes purity. So when you have lechem with the milk it is showing that you have the yetzer hora and yet your pure. The only way this is possible is with the Torah. So once we got the Torah on Shvous then we are able to have lechem- the yetzer hora and yet have milk- be pure. So that’s where it got started to have cheese cake, it’s lechem with milk. 


Chanukah became a time when people buy those Jelly doughnuts, you may ask why it’s fitting for Chanukah. The reason according to R’ Shlomo Zalman Orbach is as follows. Al Hamichya is the only place that mentions the Mezbeach, in benching it doesn’t mention it, so therefore we need a mezonos. Now Al Hamichya is also the only place it mentions Peiros, and we need a tam peiros, so that’s why there is Jelly in the Jelly doughnuts. (This is based on a posuk where it says Mezbeach and Peiros, but I forgot what the posuk is).


Chulent is a Jewish food that is supposed to be specifically for Shabbos. R’ Cohen said he can’t handle beans in his chulent, so he has rice. He always felt guilty as though he wasn’t having chulent the right way, but then he came across a Russian custom where they have rice in their chulent - Dafina, and then he felt better about it.

19 comments:

lvnsm said...

That's interesting about cheesecake being lechem and milk together. I agree that eventhough we have a Y'H, we can still be very good if we choose to be

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Moshe said...

How is 7 weeks 9 months? Huh?
Cheesecake is not mezonos, it's shehakol and cheesecake was not invented by Jews.

Again, doughnuts is a new invention and are used because they're cheap. Most people don't even get jelly doughnuts. If this idea was true, people would eat fruit pies, not doughnuts.

There is no Russian version of cholent w/o beans. Dafina is Syrian. Cholent w/o beans may possibly be in eastern former Soviet Union, though more likely they ate pilav. Cholent was created because people wanted to have something warm shabbas day, no other significance.

You just gave a perfect example of why I can't stand non-data shiurim. Most of the stuff is made up and is based on unconfirmed rumors.

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Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

yea, Exactly!

Recent blog:=- About Jewish Food

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

I wasn't going to get all into it, but...
the 7 weeks is for the 7 days. That there's only one time a year when we can cut both our finger nails and toe nails, and that is before Shvous, same with a lady on her mikvah night she can cut both her finger nails and toe nails on the same day. Then there's also more stuff about 90 days and 92 days, that Shvaser B' Tamuz is 90 days after Pesach, and it takes 92 days for something which I forgot.

Right, so the real thing isn't to have cheese cake, but to have something that's mezonos with milk.

yea, of course there are other reasons too, I thought it was still interesting to hear.

Maybe you just had to be there to understand...

Recent blog:=- About Jewish Food

Moshe said...

There's no halocha that says you can't cut fingernails and toenails on same day. It's not even much of a minchag, just says that you shouldn't do it, not that it's forbidden. Same for order of cutting nails.

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Orthowatch said...

And here I thought all these things were just because Jews love to eat!

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someone said...

that's just one reason

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Leora said...

Um, isn't Dafina Moroccan? I've had it at Moroccan homes. I've never heard of it being Syrian. And they use chickpeas, which qualifies as a bean.

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Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

yea, I haven't heard about it till then. Turns out it's not a Halacha, but it's a matter of "should or shouldn't".

"Not to cut finger and toe nails on the same day (Mogen Avrohom 260). (Shulchon Hatahor recommends averting this problem by leaving one toenail uncut)."

It's also about preparing a dead body, you don't want it to be the same, so you do something different.

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Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

:-)
That's one way of looking at it.

I personally don't like cheesecake or Jelly doughnuts, and don't eat them.

I also don't like plain honey, and won't eat it on Rosh Hashonah, even though there is a reason for it.


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Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

what's one reason?

Recent blog:=- Stealing –> Kefira

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

Yea, you could be right. He didn't say it was called Dafina, I just assumed so, because I know Moshe has it and he's Russian, so I thought...

But he did say that there's a source for having rice in the chulent, maybe from the soviet union, I forgot. But I did see a post of yours about it being Moroccan, so it did make me wonder, so I'm not really sure.

Recent blog:=- Stealing –> Kefira

nmf #7 said...

Thanks for explaining the 7 weeks thing- I also wondered abou that.
And great post!

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

Your Welcome!
and Thanx!

Recent blog:=- Stealing –> Kefira

Auror said...

I like the jelly donut explanation! Gives a new perspective on al hamichya and I hope I remember this come Chanukah.

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

yea, I like these interesting perspectives too.

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בריאות הציבור said...

נראה מצווין הנה עוד מתכון

http://www.publichealth.co.il/128035/Horst-Gourmet-Sbzi

מתכונים said...

כנסו אחלה מתכונים

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