The story of Yochanan’s escape has been read for centuries as the founding myth of Rabbinic Judai... more The story of Yochanan’s escape has been read for centuries as the founding myth of Rabbinic Judaism. While its great political and theological ambivalence and flexibility has been used countless times to re-interpret the story in the light of various political and theological ideologies, few attempts have been undertaken to understand the literary mechanisms of metaphors of food and bodies the story uses to evoke this ambivalence, as well as to describe its possible ideological ‘derivatives.’ Yochanan’s story as it is weaved into the context of the stories of Martha and Zodok, is much broader in perspective regarding the chapter of Jewish history covered. With the female character of Martha, the humiliated and destroyed Jewish identity of the Judaism of the Temple, formerly proud and politically independent, acquires neither a priestly nor rabbinical, but rather a female face. Zadok, the former “priest of the Temple” and future “rabbi in Yavneh,” symbolizes the liminal state of Judaism in the period of transformation. The figure of Yochanan ben Zakkai might be read as a counterpart to Zadok. The story of evolving Rabbinic Judaism is told by means of metaphors of the body, of food (from meat to flour), of spacial movements (from the Temple to Yavneh), and of literary characters that need to be read as synecdoches for entire schools of thought.
Mediaeval European blood libels often accused Jews of murdering Christian children, and using the... more Mediaeval European blood libels often accused Jews of murdering Christian children, and using their blood for baking Passover matzot. Some accusations, however, centred on haroset, the reddish-brown dip eaten at the Seder. This was said to be made of the head and entrails of murdered Christian children. This paper traces a Jewish literary tradition connecting haroset with blood and dead babies, and a Jewish food tradition of eating animal entrails in the afternoon before the Seder. Both these traditions appear to date back to the fourth century. There is also evidence that fourth-century Christians accused Gnostics of eating dead babies in a haroset-like mixture. In light of this, the paper asks whether mediaeval accusations of Jewish cannibalistic feasts at Passover can now be traced back to the Christian fourth century.
Nurture: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2003 , 2004
This paper looks at the use of nuts in their social context in late antique Palestine and Babylon... more This paper looks at the use of nuts in their social context in late antique Palestine and Babylonia. From Jewish Talmudic sources it appears that adults ate nuts often as dessert or when travelling, but they seem to have been little used in cooking. Nuts appear, however, mostly in association with children. They were seen as desirable food for children, especially at festival time. Nuts would be used as bribes to get children to behave as adults wanted-by shopkeepers to entice them into their shops, by parents to keep them awake on Passover night, or to reinforce their memories of important rituals. Nuts are recorded also in testing children's development. For their part, children put them at the head of their 'wants' list, perhaps because after eating them they could also use the shells as toys. Contemporary Christian sources even imply that nuts were the currency of the child.
This paper looks at the ancient Jewish talmudic literature (fourth-seventh centuries CE) for info... more This paper looks at the ancient Jewish talmudic literature (fourth-seventh centuries CE) for information about fish and fish products in the ancient world, and compares it with information from classical sources and from archaeology. Analysis of the texts show that information about food, and in particular fish and fish products can be derived from texts originally written as religious regulations and moral narratives. Talmudic textual evidence, backed up by parallel archaeological finds, documents long-distance transport of preserved fish, including what is identified as Nile perch from Egypt and mackerel from Spain. Parallel papyrological evidence testifies to the import of the parrot wrasse. Graeco-Roman allec, a sauce made of macerated tiny fish, is identified by the Palestinian Talmud with tarit terufah, made of tiny chopped fish, and afitz, cf Greek afye, immature fish, often cooked as such. Remains of allec have been found archaeologically in Palestine. The Palestinian Talmud identifies tarit[a] with 1 E 2 5 tza ana, one of a trio of strong-smelling Babylonian fish-dishes eaten by the poor: the others are gildana and harsana. The varied material on these discussed here adds to our knowledge of ancient salted and/or fermented fish-dishes. The identification of 1 E 2 5 tza ana with ninth-to-tenth century 1 E 6 3 1 E 2 5 a na from Baghdad of the Caliphs and fourteenth-century Cairo appears very likely. Thus tarit/ 1 E 2 5 tza ana/ 1 E 6 3 1 E 2 5 a na appears to have been not very appetising processed fish food for the poor in Roman Palestine, Jewish Babylonia, Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphs and Mamluk Egypt, and it may be identified with allec. The talmudic literature also discusses reasons for failure of the preservation processes, as well as of potentially lethal effects of insufficient preservation. Introduction The Bountiful Sea Conference has shown us a great deal about the contribution ancient classical sources can make to our knowledge about fish and fish products in the ancient world. This paper adds another source of information, the ancient Jewish talmudic literature, and examines how the information derived from this can be dovetailed with the information from the Greek and Latin sources and local archaeology.
When West Met East: The Encounter of Greece and Rome with the Jews, Egyptians and Others: Studies Presented to Ranon Katzoff in Honor of his 75th Birthday, edited by DM Schaps, U Yiftach, D Dueck (Trieste: EUT, 2016), 2016
The story of Yochanan’s escape has been read for centuries as the founding myth of Rabbinic Judai... more The story of Yochanan’s escape has been read for centuries as the founding myth of Rabbinic Judaism. While its great political and theological ambivalence and flexibility has been used countless times to re-interpret the story in the light of various political and theological ideologies, few attempts have been undertaken to understand the literary mechanisms of metaphors of food and bodies the story uses to evoke this ambivalence, as well as to describe its possible ideological ‘derivatives.’ Yochanan’s story as it is weaved into the context of the stories of Martha and Zodok, is much broader in perspective regarding the chapter of Jewish history covered. With the female character of Martha, the humiliated and destroyed Jewish identity of the Judaism of the Temple, formerly proud and politically independent, acquires neither a priestly nor rabbinical, but rather a female face. Zadok, the former “priest of the Temple” and future “rabbi in Yavneh,” symbolizes the liminal state of Judaism in the period of transformation. The figure of Yochanan ben Zakkai might be read as a counterpart to Zadok. The story of evolving Rabbinic Judaism is told by means of metaphors of the body, of food (from meat to flour), of spacial movements (from the Temple to Yavneh), and of literary characters that need to be read as synecdoches for entire schools of thought.
Mediaeval European blood libels often accused Jews of murdering Christian children, and using the... more Mediaeval European blood libels often accused Jews of murdering Christian children, and using their blood for baking Passover matzot. Some accusations, however, centred on haroset, the reddish-brown dip eaten at the Seder. This was said to be made of the head and entrails of murdered Christian children. This paper traces a Jewish literary tradition connecting haroset with blood and dead babies, and a Jewish food tradition of eating animal entrails in the afternoon before the Seder. Both these traditions appear to date back to the fourth century. There is also evidence that fourth-century Christians accused Gnostics of eating dead babies in a haroset-like mixture. In light of this, the paper asks whether mediaeval accusations of Jewish cannibalistic feasts at Passover can now be traced back to the Christian fourth century.
Nurture: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2003 , 2004
This paper looks at the use of nuts in their social context in late antique Palestine and Babylon... more This paper looks at the use of nuts in their social context in late antique Palestine and Babylonia. From Jewish Talmudic sources it appears that adults ate nuts often as dessert or when travelling, but they seem to have been little used in cooking. Nuts appear, however, mostly in association with children. They were seen as desirable food for children, especially at festival time. Nuts would be used as bribes to get children to behave as adults wanted-by shopkeepers to entice them into their shops, by parents to keep them awake on Passover night, or to reinforce their memories of important rituals. Nuts are recorded also in testing children's development. For their part, children put them at the head of their 'wants' list, perhaps because after eating them they could also use the shells as toys. Contemporary Christian sources even imply that nuts were the currency of the child.
This paper looks at the ancient Jewish talmudic literature (fourth-seventh centuries CE) for info... more This paper looks at the ancient Jewish talmudic literature (fourth-seventh centuries CE) for information about fish and fish products in the ancient world, and compares it with information from classical sources and from archaeology. Analysis of the texts show that information about food, and in particular fish and fish products can be derived from texts originally written as religious regulations and moral narratives. Talmudic textual evidence, backed up by parallel archaeological finds, documents long-distance transport of preserved fish, including what is identified as Nile perch from Egypt and mackerel from Spain. Parallel papyrological evidence testifies to the import of the parrot wrasse. Graeco-Roman allec, a sauce made of macerated tiny fish, is identified by the Palestinian Talmud with tarit terufah, made of tiny chopped fish, and afitz, cf Greek afye, immature fish, often cooked as such. Remains of allec have been found archaeologically in Palestine. The Palestinian Talmud identifies tarit[a] with 1 E 2 5 tza ana, one of a trio of strong-smelling Babylonian fish-dishes eaten by the poor: the others are gildana and harsana. The varied material on these discussed here adds to our knowledge of ancient salted and/or fermented fish-dishes. The identification of 1 E 2 5 tza ana with ninth-to-tenth century 1 E 6 3 1 E 2 5 a na from Baghdad of the Caliphs and fourteenth-century Cairo appears very likely. Thus tarit/ 1 E 2 5 tza ana/ 1 E 6 3 1 E 2 5 a na appears to have been not very appetising processed fish food for the poor in Roman Palestine, Jewish Babylonia, Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphs and Mamluk Egypt, and it may be identified with allec. The talmudic literature also discusses reasons for failure of the preservation processes, as well as of potentially lethal effects of insufficient preservation. Introduction The Bountiful Sea Conference has shown us a great deal about the contribution ancient classical sources can make to our knowledge about fish and fish products in the ancient world. This paper adds another source of information, the ancient Jewish talmudic literature, and examines how the information derived from this can be dovetailed with the information from the Greek and Latin sources and local archaeology.
When West Met East: The Encounter of Greece and Rome with the Jews, Egyptians and Others: Studies Presented to Ranon Katzoff in Honor of his 75th Birthday, edited by DM Schaps, U Yiftach, D Dueck (Trieste: EUT, 2016), 2016
While every culture's cuisine tells a story, there are few foods that carry as much history and m... more While every culture's cuisine tells a story, there are few foods that carry as much history and meaning as do those on the Passover Seder plate. Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History is the first book ever written about this traditional Passover seder food. In a captivating historical journey, food historian Dr. Susan Weingarten traces the development of this ancient dish through a tapestry of social, religious and cultural contexts. She shows how perceptions of haroset, as well as its actual ingredients, have developed through the generations, from the first hints of its existence in the Second Temple period and its development in rabbinic literature, through the blood libels of the Middle Ages and the pogroms in Eastern Europe, to its role in the gender issues and modern food trends of today. By examining a wealth of written sources, oral histories, recipes and customs from around the world, Weingarten reveals a rich narrative through this otherwise unassuming food and provides a unique and fascinating perspective on the diversity of Jewish tradition, experience, and culture. DR. SUSAN WEINGARTEN is an archaeologist and historian. Born in England, she studied at Oxford University and received her PhD in Classical Archeology from Tel Aviv University. As a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Weingarten began to concentrate on the history of Jewish food, more specifically on food in talmudic literature. She has published over forty papers in journals such as the Journal of Jewish Studies, Revue des Études Juives, and Food and History. She received the Sophie Coe Prize in Food History at the 2003 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Oxford University Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. For more information and media inquiries, contact Yehudit Singer: pr@tobypress.com THE TOBY PRESS | PO Box 8531 New Milford, CT 06776 | 203.830.8508| www.tobypress.com New for Passover 2019 from The Toby Press An intriguing exploration of one of the most mysterious symbolic Passover foods. Haroset A Taste of Jewish History Susan Weingarten Hardcover | ISBN: 978-1-59264-516-9 | 157 pp US $24.95 | CAD $30.95
Spices appear to have been used in earlier times for smelling, rather than eating. Jewish rabbini... more Spices appear to have been used in earlier times for smelling, rather than eating. Jewish rabbinic sources from late antiquity to the present refer back to the Bible as well as relating to their own contemporary situation. They can thus be used, together with classical sources, as a way of tracing the journey of spices from fragrance to food. Cinnamon is taken as a paradigmatic example.
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