Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

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Category: food

Countdown to #Thanksgivakkah: What’s Cooking?

November 20, 2013 /
Latkes, sorta

I’ve come across many online offerings with recipe suggestions that bring together the best of Thanksgiving with the traditions of Hanukkah. But this link takes you to one of the most extensive offerings that left me with my mouth watering. Let me know if you try any of them, and which ones get the most thumbs up.
The idea of mixing holiday food traditions leave you squeamish? Just remember that just about every food tradition we have for Hanukkah is of central European or eastern European origin: latkes, donuts … none of these were prescribed by the Maccabees, or even by the Rabbis of the Talmud. So mix and merge this Thanksgivakkah at your dinner table – it’s totally kosher. But Turkey for eight nights? Maybe not.

Putting local food on your plate … when you can

July 31, 2011 /

I’ve just recently returned from a Summer vacation in Ireland (hence the lack of blogging for a while).  As I so often do when I’m away, I took advantage of eating local foods whenever I could. Its part of the joy of visiting another place to not only sample the regional cuisine, but to look for locally grown ingredients in the food too – its always the freshest and the flavors are almost always vastly superior.  In Ireland that included eating some of the juiciest, sweetest strawberries I’ve had in a very long time, from a local Kerry farm.  And it included the joys of eating fish that had arrived at the dock of the very town we stayed in (Dingle) the very day we were eating it.

Arriving back in Connecticut, its the heart of the Summer farm produce season.  The tomatoes on our own deck taste so much better than anything available in the supermaket, and the fresh basil and parsley is now in abundance.  Living on the second floor of an apartment, we’re not able to grow very much more of our own food at the moment, but we are not short of local places to buy.  There are farmer’s markets every week, plus local farms (especially in Easton) where you can go straight to the source.  There are also independent small stores near our home, like A and J Farm Market in Southport or the Double L Market in Westport.  Some people plan ahead and sign up to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs where they receive a weekly or bi-monthly delivery of fresh produce from a farm either delivered to their home or to a local pick-up point.  Its probably too late for this season, but you can learn more about these at local harvest (which also provides info on local farms and farmers markets in States across the country).

Buying local food is seldom the cheapest option, because we’re usually dealing with small scale producers that cannot compete with huge agribusiness.  But I find that the intensity of flavors and overall quality makes me much more appreciative of what I’m putting inside of me and, subsequently, I eat less and more healthily.  It also encourages more creativity at mealtimes with meals based on what is in season and what was coming from the farms this week.  At eatlocalchallenge.com they have a top 10 list of reasons to eat local.

There’s a lot of attention in the Jewish community these days to expanding our consciousness about food ethics.  I was reminded by a Jewish Youth Worker who I met at the URJ Kutz Camp this Summer who was from London that I’ve been teaching about Eco-Kashrut since the early ’90s.  (It turned out, as we introduced ourselves, that she realized that I had been her Religious School teacher when she was 10, 20 years ago, and this was one of the things she remembered about my classes!).  I was inspired by teachers like Rabbi Arthur Waskow at The Shalom Center, who had been writing about it even earlier than that.

Today inspiration comes from organizations like Hazon and programs for Jews to learn about sustainable farming in the context of Judaism at places like the Adamah Fellowship program at Isabella Freedman Center or the Kayam Farm at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Baltimore.  Many Jewish organizations and schools expose their children to Teva, which provides residential courses for youth to learn about Jewish environmental awareness and sustainability.

The CCAR Press (the publishing body for the Reform movement’s Rabbinic association) recently released ‘The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic‘, edited by Rabbi Mary Zamore.  It is a wonderful collection that takes spiritual consciousness and ethics around issues of food from many different angles, offering a contemporary lens through which we can all think more deeply about the consequences of our day-to-day food decisions.  At B’nai Israel we are looking forward to welcoming Rabbi Zamore at our Shabbat author’s series next Spring.

Manna is for real!

June 9, 2010 /
Photo by Erin Gleeson

In case you didn’t see it, today’s New York Times had a fascinating article about the modern-day existence and use of Manna.  What is fascinating is that the description of what Manna is, when and where it is found, how it is created in nature, its texture and its variety of tastes attributed to it, fits incredibly well with what the Bible tells us about the stuff.

Here is the biblical description (text from Mechon-Mamre) – then click here for the NY Times article.

 וַיְהִי בָעֶרֶב–וַתַּעַל הַשְּׂלָו, וַתְּכַס אֶת-הַמַּחֲנֶה; וּבַבֹּקֶר, הָיְתָה שִׁכְבַת הַטַּל, סָבִיב, לַמַּחֲנֶה. 13 And it came to pass at even, that the quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew round about the camp.
יד  וַתַּעַל, שִׁכְבַת הַטָּל; וְהִנֵּה עַל-פְּנֵי הַמִּדְבָּר, דַּק מְחֻסְפָּס–דַּק כַּכְּפֹר, עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 14 And when the layer of dew was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness a fine, scale-like thing, fine as the hoar-frost on the ground.
טו  וַיִּרְאוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל-אָחִיו מָן הוּא–כִּי לֹא יָדְעוּ, מַה-הוּא; וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, אֲלֵהֶם, הוּא הַלֶּחֶם, אֲשֶׁר נָתַן יְהוָה לָכֶם לְאָכְלָה. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: ‘What is it?’–for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them: ‘It is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
טז  זֶה הַדָּבָר, אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה, לִקְטוּ מִמֶּנּוּ, אִישׁ לְפִי אָכְלוֹ:  עֹמֶר לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת, מִסְפַּר נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם–אִישׁ לַאֲשֶׁר בְּאָהֳלוֹ, תִּקָּחוּ. 16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded: Gather ye of it every man according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, shall ye take it, every man for them that are in his tent.’
יז  וַיַּעֲשׂוּ-כֵן, בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל; וַיִּלְקְטוּ, הַמַּרְבֶּה וְהַמַּמְעִיט. 17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.
יח  וַיָּמֹדּוּ בָעֹמֶר–וְלֹא הֶעְדִּיף הַמַּרְבֶּה, וְהַמַּמְעִיט לֹא הֶחְסִיר:  אִישׁ לְפִי-אָכְלוֹ, לָקָטוּ. 18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
יט  וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, אֲלֵהֶם:  אִישׁ, אַל-יוֹתֵר מִמֶּנּוּ עַד-בֹּקֶר. 19 And Moses said unto them: ‘Let no man leave of it till the morning.’
כ  וְלֹא-שָׁמְעוּ אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, וַיּוֹתִרוּ אֲנָשִׁים מִמֶּנּוּ עַד-בֹּקֶר, וַיָּרֻם תּוֹלָעִים, וַיִּבְאַשׁ; וַיִּקְצֹף עֲלֵהֶם, מֹשֶׁה. 20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and rotted; and Moses was wroth with them.
כא  וַיִּלְקְטוּ אֹתוֹ בַּבֹּקֶר בַּבֹּקֶר, אִישׁ כְּפִי אָכְלוֹ; וְחַם הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ, וְנָמָס. 21 And they gathered it morning by morning, every man according to his eating; and as the sun waxed hot, it melted.
כב  וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי, לָקְטוּ לֶחֶם מִשְׁנֶה–שְׁנֵי הָעֹמֶר, לָאֶחָד; וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל-נְשִׂיאֵי הָעֵדָה, וַיַּגִּידוּ לְמֹשֶׁה. 22 And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
כג  וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם, הוּא אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָה–שַׁבָּתוֹן שַׁבַּת-קֹדֶשׁ לַיהוָה, מָחָר:  אֵת אֲשֶׁר-תֹּאפוּ אֵפוּ, וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר-תְּבַשְּׁלוּ בַּשֵּׁלוּ, וְאֵת כָּל-הָעֹדֵף, הַנִּיחוּ לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת עַד-הַבֹּקֶר. 23 And he said unto them: ‘This is that which the LORD hath spoken: To-morrow is a solemn rest, a holy sabbath unto the LORD. Bake that which ye will bake, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.’
כד  וַיַּנִּיחוּ אֹתוֹ עַד-הַבֹּקֶר, כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה מֹשֶׁה; וְלֹא הִבְאִישׁ, וְרִמָּה לֹא-הָיְתָה בּוֹ. 24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not rot, neither was there any worm therein.


Eating Jewish – Values we can all believe in?

November 18, 2009 /

Please take a look at this wonderful article in this week’s ‘The Jewish Forward‘ by Jay Michaelson,
‘Magen Tzedek: Model of the Jewish Future or Show Without an Audience?  


‘Magen Tzedek‘ is the name given by the Conservative movement to a seal on food that  ‘… would certify conformity not to the ritual particulars of kashrut, but to the deeper and more profound requirements of Jewish social justice law.’


It’s an excellent article and I commend it not specifically for how the Magen Tzedek seal seeks to emphasize the ethical values of Judaism (although I think it is an important and meaningful contribution to Jewish food consciousness), but because Jay raises some incredibly thought-provoking questions about the commitment of non-Orthodox Jews to obligate themselves to live by a specific code that raises our consciousness about the food we eat, how it is delivered to us, the treatment of the workers who helped to produce it, and the environmental and health consequences of certain kinds of food choices. 


Rabbi Eric Yoffie introduced the question of how Reform Jews engage with a range of Jewish food ethics in his Biennial address just a couple of weeks ago, and you can read more about the URJ initiative, ‘Just Table, Green Table’ here.  That initiative is less specific than the Magen Tzedek seal – it does not lay out one specific path to conscious and ethical eating, but does call upon all Jews to actively engage and think about how they eat as an aspect of what it means to walk a Jewish path through life, guided by the wisdom and ethical values that are grounded in our own tradition.


Jay points out that, in the USA, many of those who choose to purchase kosher food are not Jewish.  They make this choice because of an assumption that a religious seal on food means that the food is healthier – perhaps it conforms to higher ethical standards too.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case, as was evident in the travesty of ethical and criminal breaches that took place at the Postville meat processing plant in Iowa, owned by the Rubashkin company, primarily with regard to the treatment of employees.


But Jay asks: ‘Imagine if Jews were known in America to be the super-ethical people instead of the super-ritual ones. We’re the people who won’t eat a hamburger unless the workers at the restaurant are paid a fair wage. We’re the ones who consider environmentalism to be a matter of religious concern. Because doing the right thing matters to God.’  


As Jay points out, this is a Judaism that can thrive and survive not because of endogamy, but because Judaism offers meaningful ethics, values and practices that appeal to a wide range of people.  And that’s a Judaism that I want to be contributing my part to.  How about you?
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

14 Tishrei. Harvesting life and nourishing our prayers

October 1, 2009 /

May all the foliage of the field, 
All grasses, trees and plants, 
Awaken at my coming, this I pray, 
And send their life into my words of prayer 
So that my speech, my thoughts and my prayers will be made whole, 
And through the spirit of all growing things. 
And we know that everything is one, 
Because we know that everything is You. 

(excerpt from a prayer by Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav; lyric interpretation by Debbie Friedman). 


Sukkot, like so many of our Jewish Festivals, is multilayered with significance and meaning. I sometimes love the ‘archeological’ exploration of our Holy days. Like uncovering the strata of time, seeing multiple generations of civilization down through the centuries as we dig at a historical site, so we find historical layers to the Festivals. Often, as with Sukkot, agricultural roots, then the historical narrative of association with the Exodus from Egypt, then the stories of the Temple rituals associated with the holiday in Jerusalem, then the metaphorical layers added to the symbolism of shaking the lulav and the etrog, and then some of the contemporary connections spurring us to social action, such as the focus on homelessness.

All of these layers are drenched with potential for us to draw close to the ritual forms and practices of the holiday, and find something that resonates deeply within us. This year, I am focusing on the historical origins of the holiday, the earliest layers – the celebration of the end of the Fall harvest, and the focus on rain for the land. For Jewish farmers, this layer of meaning is directly experienced and deeply lived. But most of us are not Jewish farmers. How do we tap into a deeply felt experience of land, produce, and water?

I would like to suggest a practice that could just as easily be a personal, silent contemplative meditation, or a group sharing and discussion. Some of us buy our vegetables from a CSA; some from local farm stands; some have grown our own fruits and vegetables this year in our gardens; some have or will take our families to go apple or pumpkin picking. Thinking about those experiences more deeply, we can bring to mind or verbalize our response to the miracle of growing things, the colors, the textures, the tastes, the feeling of harvesting the fruits of our labors, or having met the people who grew and harvested our food. We can share stories about having been traveling somewhere and seeing a field full of something growing – perhaps something we hadn’t seen before (my first experience of seeing date palms in Israel, and orange groves in Florida, with the incredible smell that fills the air, will remain with me forever). Or perhaps our attention is turned to the miracle of water – seeing a particularly gorgeous or spectacular body of water, seeing the miracle of drip irrigation systems literally turning parts of the desert green in Israel, the incredible innovation of the aqueduct and the transportation of water, the time when we were caught in the fiercest of torrential downpours, being made aware of the incredible power of water…

Taking time to think about these experiences – the ones that we have lived, the things that are part of the flow of our everyday lives, and then picking up the lulav and etrog to say the blessings, or then reciting the blessing for sitting in the sukkah – we, like the words of Rabbi Nachman’s prayer, send the life of the earth into our words of prayer. No longer the perfunctory performance of ancient rituals and words, they now become ripe with the experiences of our own lives. We energize our daily experiences with spiritual consciousness, and we energize the rituals of Jewish living by attaching them to meaningful life experience.

Chag Sameach
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

3 Tishrei. More than Matzo Balls

September 21, 2009 /

This is a cross-posting of an article sent out to our congregation via email.  A wonderful interview with congregant, Adele Josovitz about Break Fast at the end of Yom Kippur.  Future editions of this series will also be cross-posted here on the blog for all to enjoy.

Today we’re introducing a new, periodic column to share with the Congregation B’nai Israel community. It will discuss something we all enjoy….food! It will feature interviews with different B’nai Israel members conducted by a congregant who prefers to be called Aunt Blanche. If enough people want it to continue, the column will appear periodically around Jewish holidays. Please send us an email and tell us what you think and what you’re interested in reading about. Our first column features an interview with longtime temple member Adele Josovitz of Fairfield.

Aunt Blanche: Your break fast meals at the end of Yom Kippur are legendary. I hear you have more than 40 people to your house. What’s your first memory of breaking the Yom Kippur fast?

Adele: Well, I don’t have any early memories of breaking fast but my younger sister is quite adamant that our mom fasted. Our dad didn’t fast because he had to work 24/7 since we lived on a chicken farm in New Jersey. Chickens don’t know the difference between one day and the next.

For me, however, the most important thing about holidays was being with our family. It was eating together and being together: aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. I do remember walking with my family to a=2 0very small Orthodox shul – The First Hebrew Farmers Association of Perrineville. This was where all of the Jewish chicken farmers in the area went to pray

Aunt Blanche: So Adele, you mean you have never fasted at Yom Kippur? I’m shocked.

Adele: I actually don’t remember whether or not I fasted before I went to college, though my sister insists that we did fast. However, I absolutely remember fasting while I was in college. I definitely didn’t fast when I was pregnant. That was a bonus of being pregnant!

Aunt Blanche: Does fasting serve a purpose?

Adele: It makes me remember and think about our Jewish heritage. It also reminds me of the pai n and suffering of our ancestors. Do I have to fast to think about these things? No. But I do it because it’s Yom Kippur and that’s what Jews do.

Aunt Blanche: What do you really think about when you fast?

Adele: I think about many things, including the meal I’m preparing for our family and friends who will be descending upon our house!

Aunt Blanche: Most people have a few people over to their home, maybe six or 10 people. You have 40 or 50 and you do it every year. That’s crazy.

Adele: I just invited 10 more people yesterday. Shhh, don’t tell my husband, he doesn’t know yet. However, he won’t be surprised, becau se this is what always happens. We invite the stragglers – the people who have no place to go. Our children invite people and our friends invite people, so I never know who will be coming. It’s always a pleasant surprise to see who will be arriving at our doorstep. It’s very important that everyone has somewhere to go during the holidays.

Aunt Blanche: So Adele.. What are you serving this year at your break fast?

Adele: Well, there are two halves. There’s the dairy half and the meat half. People can pick what they want to eat. Since I’m not kosher, I have the flexibility to do the meal my way.

Aunt Blanche: Tell me more.

Adele: We’ll put out my Aunt Sylvia=E 2s Chicken Fricassee, Matzo Ball Soup, Vegetable Soup, Bagels, lox, white fish, cream cheese, two kinds of noodle pudding (one without dairy for the “lactose people” as we call them! ) herring, gefilte fish, kasha varnishkes. Kapelstash (fried cabbage and noodle.) Then there’s tongue, pastrami, corned beef, turkey, salads, pickles and olives, roasted vegetables, tomatoes with basil and mozzarella. We have lots of desserts…pies, cookies, cupcakes, fruit salad and my other Aunt Sylvia’s Mandel bread. I had two Aunt Sylvias. Now, that’s a name that doesn’t come up too often in baby announcements!

Of course, people do bring food, even though I tell them not to. I do understand that it’s hard to come to a house empty-handed. So there is always an amazing assortment of food other than what I’ve made.

Aunt Blanche: But that’s insane. That’s like a bar mitzvah, a wedding and a bat mitzvah combined.

Adele: I know, I know. I’m trying to recreate my childhood memories of holidays I shared with my extended family eating together at a very long table in our playroom. So, I am creating memories for my children, just like our parents did for us. Actually, it doesn’t really matter what is served, it’s always people coming together and celebrating.

Aunt Blanche: So what should people serve?

Adele: You don’t have to serve a big meal. You could serve scrambled eggs, bagels, lox and cream cheese. The important thing is to share food with people.

Aunt Blanche: Where do you shop?

Adele: Well, we don’t have any more Jewish delis around here. I go to Stop and Shop and Trader Joe’s. I have a friend who stops at Rhein’s Deli in Vernon and brings me the kosher cold cuts. My son is a baker at Billy’s Bakery and we get all our baked goods there.

Aunt Blanche: How important is food to being Jewish?

Adele: Gosh. You can never have too much food! You always have to send people home with food, don’t you? Food is very important but it is the sharing that is more important. Come into somebody’s house and everyone moves to the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home.

Below is the Recipe for Adele’s Aunt Sylvia’s Mandel Bread
Aunt Sylvia Robbins Mandelbrot – also known as Mandel bread
Oven Temperature: 350 °

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
3 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup oil
2 tsp. &n bsp;baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ¼ cup chopped almonds/walnuts

Topping:
½ cup sugar
1 TBS. Cinnamon

Mix together

Mixing Directions:
Beat eggs.
Add sugar – mix thoroughly
Add oil – mix thoroughly
Add vanilla
Mix flour and baking powder together
Fold in flour/baking powder
Add nuts
Divide the dough into 3 balls
Refrigerate for 1 hour

Baking Directions:

Lightly oil baking sheet
Take each ball and shape into a flat, rectangular loaf –
approximately 1 inch high and 2 inches wide
Bake 350 ° – 20 minutes

Take each “loaf” out of the oven and cut into slices – this will determine the thickness of the mandel bread.
Put each slice on its side on the cookie sheet
Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar
Bake 400 ° – 8 – 10 minutes

Cool on a cooling rack and ENJOY!

Elul 21. A Break-fast that sustains body and soul

September 9, 2009 /

Preparing myself for the Days of Awe…it starts today with the ingredients sitting on my kitchen counter, ingredients waiting to be made into kugels, souffles, casseroles and quiches.  Into the freezer they’ll then go, and on September 28 out on the break-fast table they’ll be.  For the past 25 years, hosting break-fast has been our family tradition.  We are usually 30 – 40 strong, even after 24 hours of fasting.  We come together hungry, reflective, sometimes plainly satisfied, sometimes observedly solemn.  With open anticipation, we all crowd into the dining room.  


Our break-fast begins with our own family ritual, an assertive blast of the shofar.  The defining moment is when I raise my bagel for Hamotzi and look around at all the faces, the familiar faces of friends and family who are with us year after year, the faces of new lives and new friends, the missing faces.  It is at that moment that I realize, measure and find myself in awe of all that is the same and all that has changed.  It is at that moment that I take stock of the year that has passed and catch a glimpse of the year to come.  
L’Shanah Tovah, 
Elaine Chetrit

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