FOOD AND RELIGION
When it comes to the preparation of kosher food, the most impor-
tant law is that of the separation of meat and milk. The command in
the Bible not to “seethe the kid in the mother’s milk” has been inter-
preted to mean that meat and milk cannot be part of the same meal.
Even utensils for meat and milk are supposed to be strictly separated,
and meals of meat and milk must be eaten a certain time period apart:
six hours for Eastern Europeans, three for Germans, and one for
Dutch Jews. Despite the fact that the strict dietary laws of the Jews
gave them a sense of identity and acted as a barrier between Jews and
non-Jews, Jewish food throughout history has always reflected the
culture(s) of the surrounding region as well. In the Middle Ages, two
distinct Jewish food cultures evolved in Europe, one strongly in-
debted to the Mediterranean world, the other to central and northern
Europe. Those belonging to the former have come to be known as
Sephardim, and those belonging to the latter as Ashkenazim. The
Sephardic or Spanish Jews are steeped in the rich cultural mosaic of
medieval and early modern Spain, and their language, Ladino, is a
Spanish dialect. The Ashkenazim, by contrast, speak Yiddish, a late-
medieval German dialect with Hebrew words mixed in. While
Sephardic cuisine is full of foodstuffs the Arabs had introduced to Eu-
rope, eggplant, artichoke, and chickpea among them, Ashkenazi cui-
sine shows a preference for bagels, gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, and
the like. It is these foodstuffs and dishes, exported to the New World
by Jewish immigrants from central and eastern Europe, that today
have become synonymous with Jewish food.
Both groups, however, observe the same Jewish festivals, in which
food has an important ritual function. The Sabbath is the Jewish
counterpart to the Christian Sunday. It begins on Friday at sundown
and ends on Saturday at sundown. During this time work is prohib-
ited, and this includes kitchen work such as lighting fires, cooking,
curing, grinding flour, or baking.82 This means that the festive meals
for Friday evening and Saturday lunch, and the more modest meal on
Saturday evening, have to be prepared beforehand, with most dishes
normally eaten cold. Sephardic cuisine did develop a way for stews,
known as adafina, to cook overnight from Friday to Saturday in com-
munal ovens or buried in the ground. On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year, dates, figs, and pomegranates are traditionally eaten, as are
pastries with sesame. To achieve purity, white foods are eaten, and
golden ones, especially those colored with saffron, are supposed to en-
sure happiness. Sharp, bitter, and black foodstuffs are avoided. Ten
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