Jewish Tradition

When the Temple in Jerusalem fell in 70 CE, something remarkable occurred. Rather than abandon the sacrificial system altogether, the rabbis transferred it. The altar became the table. The offerings became the meals. The priests became every Jewish family. What might have been catastrophic loss became distributed holiness.

The divine service was no longer confined to one building but scattered into every Jewish home across the earth. This is the genius of Jewish sacred food practice: the transformation of the ordinary into the holy through attention, blessing, and boundary.

The Framework of Kashrut

Kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws, begins with a fundamental insight: not everything that can be eaten should be eaten. This is Hunger's teaching institutionalised. The "no" that sets free operates through every kosher kitchen.

The basic categories are clear. Land animals must have split hooves and chew their cud. Sea creatures require fins and scales. Birds follow a list of forbidden species, mostly predators and scavengers. And meat must never mix with dairy: not in cooking, not in eating, not even in the same set of dishes.

Kashrut is not hygiene, though it may have health benefits. It is not arbitrary, though some reasons remain obscure. It is discipline: the daily practice of restraint that creates space for intention. When automatic eating becomes impossible, conscious eating becomes necessary.

The separation of meat and dairy creates a particularly powerful structure. Two complete sets of dishes, utensils, and often separate sinks. Waiting periods between meat and dairy meals, six hours in many traditions. This constant awareness transforms every meal into a decision, every bite into an acknowledgment of limits.

The Architecture of Shabbat

If kashrut teaches through restriction, Shabbat teaches through abundance. Every Friday evening at sunset, the ordinary week yields to the sacred seventh day. And food, beautiful, plentiful, carefully prepared food, marks the transition.

Challah

Jewish | Floor + Sun | 3 Hours | Makes 2 Loaves

Two loaves grace the Shabbat table, recalling the double portion of manna that fell on Friday in the wilderness. The braids represent unity and interweaving; the egg-rich dough recalls Temple showbread. When you pull apart challah at the Sabbath table, you participate in a practice that has sustained Jewish community for three millennia.

Before You Begin

Making challah is traditionally women's work, one of three commandments particularly associated with women. If you make a large batch using more than 1.2kg flour, you separate a small piece and burn it, the challah portion, recalling the priest's share. This transforms baking into offering.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white flour
• 7g instant yeast
• 60g sugar
• 1.5 tsp fine salt
• 180ml warm water
• 60ml vegetable oil
• 2 whole eggs plus 1 yolk
• 1 egg beaten for glazing
• Sesame or poppy seeds, optional

Method

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water with a pinch of sugar. Let stand until foamy, about five minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture, oil, eggs, and yolk.
3. Mix until a shaggy dough forms, then turn onto a floured surface. Knead for ten minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough should spring back when pressed.
4. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled, one to two hours.
5. Punch down the dough. Divide into three equal pieces. Roll each into a strand about 35cm long. Braid the three strands, pinching firmly at both ends and tucking underneath.
6. Place on a lined baking sheet. Cover loosely and let rise again until nearly doubled, thirty to forty-five minutes.
7. Heat oven to 180C. Brush the challah with beaten egg. Sprinkle with seeds if desired.
8. Bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes until deep golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

The Teaching

Challah's beauty matters. The gleaming braid, the golden crust, the tender crumb: all are offerings. Shabbat is not mere rest but celebration. The table should look like it expects the Sabbath Queen herself as guest.

The Friday night meal follows a precise liturgical structure. Candles are lit before sunset, usually by the woman of the house, who covers her eyes and recites the blessing, then opens them to see the light she has kindled. A beautiful inversion of ordinary sequence.

Then comes Kiddush, sanctification over wine:

After wine comes ritual handwashing: water poured from a two-handled cup, first over the right hand, then the left, three times each. A blessing is recited, and then silence is maintained until the bread is eaten. This pause, this deliberate gap, transforms handwashing from hygiene to ritual, creates a container of attention around the bread.

Cholent: Time Made Edible

No cooking is permitted on Shabbat. Yet the requirement for a hot meal at Saturday lunch remains. This seeming impossibility produced one of Jewish cuisine's most distinctive creations: the dish that cooks itself overnight.

Cholent

Jewish | Heat + Dark | 18 Hours | Serves 8

The name may derive from Old French "chaud-lent" (hot-slow) or Hebrew "she'lan" (that rested). Either etymology captures the essential truth: this is food that waits. Set on the fire before Shabbat, it simmers through the night and all morning, ready when the family returns from synagogue. Eighteen hours of gentle heat transform tough cuts and hard beans into silky, unctuous comfort. Cholent tastes of time itself.

Before You Begin

Traditional cholent is cooked on a blech (metal sheet covering the stovetop) or in an oven set to its lowest temperature. Modern slow cookers work perfectly. The key is sustained, gentle heat over many hours. Do not open the pot until ready to serve. Every peek releases precious heat.

Ingredients

• 1kg beef chuck or brisket, in large pieces
• 250g dried white beans, soaked overnight
• 100g pearl barley
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
• 2 large onions, quartered
• 6 cloves garlic, whole
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp honey or sugar
• Water to cover
• Optional: 4-6 eggs in shell, marrow bones

Method

1. Drain the soaked beans. Layer them in the bottom of a large, heavy pot or slow cooker.
2. Add the barley, distributing evenly over the beans.
3. Place the meat in the centre. Nestle the potatoes and onions around it. Tuck garlic cloves throughout. If using eggs in shell, nestle them in gently. They will become hamin eggs, brown throughout from the long cooking.
4. Sprinkle with paprika, salt, pepper, and honey. Add water to cover by about five centimetres.
5. Bring to a boil on the stovetop. Skim any foam that rises.
6. Reduce heat to the lowest possible setting. Cover tightly. For traditional preparation, some seal the lid with a ring of dough to prevent any steam escape.
7. Cook for eighteen to twenty-four hours. Do not stir, do not open. Trust the process.
8. Serve hot Saturday midday. The meat should fall apart at a touch, the beans creamy, the potatoes infused with the deep flavours of the long-cooked broth.

The Teaching

Cholent teaches patience and trust. You set the conditions, then you let go. No adjustments, no interference. This is rest's teaching: sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. The pot does its work while you pray, sleep, and gather with community.

The Calendar of Feasting and Fasting

The Jewish year creates a rhythm of abundance and restriction, celebration and mourning. Each festival carries its own foods, its own flavours, its own teachings.

Passover and Freedom

For eight days, seven in Israel, all leavened grain disappears. No bread, no cake, no pasta, no beer. In its place: matzah, the unleavened bread of haste, recalling the exodus from Egypt when there was no time for dough to rise. The absence of chametz (leaven) creates a profound reset. Different dishes emerge from storage, the entire kitchen transforms, eating patterns shift completely.

Charoset

Jewish | Hunger + Floor | 15 Minutes | Serves 12

On the Seder plate, charoset represents the mortar Hebrew slaves used in Egypt. Yet it is sweet. A mystery the rabbis have pondered for centuries. Perhaps suffering remembered from safety can be acknowledged with sweetness. Perhaps the teaching is simpler: even bitter experiences contain the seeds of sweetness, and freedom can redeem the worst of memories.

Ingredients

• 3 medium apples, a sweet-tart variety
• 120g walnuts
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2-4 tbsp sweet red wine
• 1 tbsp honey, optional

Method

1. Core the apples but do not peel them. Chop finely by hand or pulse briefly in a food processor. The texture should be chunky, not smooth.
2. Chop the walnuts coarsely. You want pieces you can see and taste, not walnut dust.
3. Combine apples and walnuts in a bowl. Add cinnamon and mix well.
4. Add wine gradually, stirring after each addition. The charoset should hold together but not be wet. Start with two tablespoons and add more as needed.
5. Taste. Add honey if desired for additional sweetness.
6. Refrigerate until the Seder. The flavours will meld and deepen.

The Teaching

At the Seder, charoset is eaten with bitter herbs. Maror, usually horseradish, placed on matzah, then dipped in the sweet mixture. The combination is the teaching itself: bitterness and sweetness together, slavery and freedom in the same bite. Neither negates the other. Both are true.

Yom Kippur and Emptiness

Twenty-five hours of complete fasting. No food, no water. This is Hunger as teacher in its most demanding form. The body empties so the soul can fill. Physical discomfort creates space for spiritual work. The fast is bracketed by meals: before, a satisfying but not heavy supper; after, a break-fast of easily digestible foods, often dairy and pastries, the sweetness of having survived the judgment day.

Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls

Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls

Jewish | Heat + Silence | 4 Hours | Serves 8

Jewish penicillin, they call it. The remedy for colds, flu, heartbreak, and every ailment of body or spirit. Maimonides himself prescribed chicken broth for the sick. The golden colour comes from slow simmering, from coaxing every particle of flavour from bird and vegetable into the liquid. The matzo balls floating in the broth are the Ashkenazi contribution, transforming simple soup into something approaching the sacred.

For the Soup

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.5-2kg
• 4 litres cold water
• 3 large carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
• 3 celery stalks with leaves, cut in chunks
• 2 medium onions, halved, skin on for colour
• 1 parsnip, peeled and cut in chunks
• Large handful of fresh dill
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns

For the Matzo Balls

• 4 large eggs
• 60ml schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) or vegetable oil
• 120g matzo meal
• 60ml seltzer water or soup broth
• 1 tsp salt
• Pinch of white pepper

Method

1. Place chicken in a large pot. Cover with cold water. Bring slowly to a boil over medium heat. This gradual heating helps clarify the broth.
2. As foam rises, skim it off with a spoon. Continue skimming for the first twenty to thirty minutes until foam stops forming.
3. Add carrots, celery, onions, parsnip, dill, salt, and peppercorns. Return to a gentle simmer.
4. Simmer uncovered for two to three hours. The broth should bubble lazily, never boil vigorously.
5. While soup simmers, make the matzo ball mixture. Beat eggs with schmaltz until combined. Stir in matzo meal, seltzer, salt, and pepper. The mixture will be loose. Cover and refrigerate at least thirty minutes. This is essential for proper texture.
6. When soup is ready, strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard vegetables, they have given all their flavour. Remove chicken meat from bones if desired for serving.
7. Return broth to pot and bring to a gentle boil. Wet your hands and form the matzo mixture into balls about the size of a golf ball. Drop gently into the simmering broth.
8. Cover and cook thirty to forty minutes. Do not lift the lid. The steam is what makes them fluffy. They should nearly double in size.
9. Serve hot: broth, matzo balls, and chicken meat if using. Some add fresh dill or thin egg noodles.

The Teaching

The great matzo ball debate: floaters (light and fluffy) versus sinkers (dense and chewy) has divided Jewish families for generations. The seltzer water and the hands-off cooking produce floaters. For sinkers, skip the seltzer and pack the balls more tightly. There is no wrong answer. Both are love made edible.

The Seven Teachers at the Jewish Table

How each Teacher manifests in this tradition of blessing and boundary.

F

Floor

Foundation

Floor appears in kashrut's clear boundaries. The firm edges between permitted and forbidden, meat and dairy. These limits create the container within which practice becomes possible. Without the boundary, there is no discipline. Without discipline, there is no freedom.

It refuses the boundaryless modern diet.

C

Cold

Resilience

Cold speaks through the fasts. Yom Kippur's twenty-five hours, Tisha B'Av's mourning. Controlled deprivation teaches what the body truly needs versus what it merely wants. The nervous system learns resilience through deliberate exposure to emptiness.

It refuses constant comfortable fullness.

H

Heat

Surrender

Heat manifests in Shabbat's warmth. Lit candles, warm challah, the embrace of family. The cholent cooking overnight is Heat's teaching made tangible: transformation through sustained, gentle warmth. Eighteen hours of slow heat turns tough into tender.

It refuses cold, efficient meals.

D

Dark

Interiority

Dark is the Sabbath itself. The cessation of creative work, the receptive rest, the container of stillness where restoration occurs. From Friday sundown to Saturday night, the doing stops. The being begins.

It refuses 24/7 productivity.

S

Sun

Vitality

Sun shines through every blessing. "Baruch Atah Adonai" acknowledges being seen by the ultimate Witness. The community at the table provides human witnessing; the blessing invokes divine attention. Every meal becomes an audience with the Holy One.

It refuses eating unseen and unblessed.

Q

Silence

Presence

Silence appears in the gap between blessing and eating, in the pause after handwashing before bread, in the moments of kavannah (intention) that transform mechanical action into worship. These are not empty spaces but full ones.

It refuses distracted consumption.

∅

Hunger

Clarity

Hunger teaches through every fast, every restriction, every "no" that kashrut requires. The discipline of refusal creates the freedom of conscious choice. When you cannot eat everything, you must choose. When you must choose, you become aware.

It refuses abundant availability.

Three thousand years of practice have refined these methods. They work not because they are Jewish but because they align with human biology, with nervous system needs, with the requirements of sustainable spiritual practice. The table becomes altar. The meal becomes offering. The kitchen becomes sanctuary. And eating, the most basic human act, becomes worship.

Sources & Further Reading

• Roden, Claudia. "The Book of Jewish Food." Knopf, 1996.
• Nathan, Joan. "Jewish Cooking in America." Knopf, 1994.
• Marks, Gil. "Encyclopedia of Jewish Food." Wiley, 2010.
• Waskow, Arthur. "Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life." Morrow, 1995.