Food and Tradition (Temple Beth Or)
Fall is here, and that can only mean one thing.
[An aside: Coming from a rabbi, you might—rightly enough—expect this “one thing” to be the Jewish High Holidays- Rosh Hashanah, the days of awe, and Yom Kippur. But that is not what we are to discuss here. Instead, that “one thing” is…wait for it…]
the pumpkin spice latte.
Yes, you read that correctly. We might think of the humble pumpkin spice latte as the harbinger of the fall: It forecasts a change in season and the start of a new Jewish year. However, it brings with it great controversy. While there are many who love the pumpkin spice latte, it also has more than a few detractors. The comedian John Oliver, making fun of it in 2014, called it “the coffee that tastes like a candle.” (And, it is worth noting, that Oliver clarified that he was not implying that these lattes taste how a candle smells, but rather that they taste the way candles taste.)
Regardless of your side in the great pumpkin spice latte debate, you should take stock of how culturally prevalent the flavor and scent of pumpkin is in the United States each fall. Even though most of us don’t spend much time around pumpkins as they grow (or even necessarily eat that much pumpkin), there is no denying that pumpkins are a strong symbol for fall-time.
The use of food to evoke emotions and thoughts about a specific time of year should be quite familiar to us as Jews. At its most basic level, Jewish culture has used food as a marker of Jewish uniqueness for, literally, thousands of years. The absence of pig bones at archaeological dig sites in Israel is one primary sign that a city—which might otherwise be unidentifiable from its millennia-old remains—was, in fact, an Israelite city. The laws of kashrut remain of significance to many, many Jews, and even Jews who do not keep kosher themselves often have some level of awareness of how their dietary choices factor into their religious and ethnic identities.
Beyond kashrut, there is another layer of food-awareness that pervades Jewish culture. The foods that we as Jews eat—whether they’re associated with a particular holiday or just are part of quotidian dining habits—help us to establish our distinct selves as an ethnic group. With this in mind, it is worth noting that virtually all “Jewish” foods are merely foods that Jews began to eat while situated in larger regional contexts. For instance, while Jews do (and should!) take their falafel and hummus seriously, these aren’t so much “Jewish” foods as they are foods of the Mediterranean that Jews have adopted- so too with bagels and babka, kugel and schnitzel, knishes and many, many more. Nonetheless, the conglomeration of foods that we as Jews have adopted through our history is something that we ought to take seriously as an aspect of our culture. As Jews have moved from one country to another throughout the centuries, we have embraced dishes from a variety of lands—in effect, our culinary diversity tells our storied history.
This year in Makor, we are emphasizing how important it is to learn about the various foods that make so-called “Jewish cooking” an important part of a Jewish life. This awareness will serve our children well, and it (the awareness that food plays an important role in our history and our greater Jewish selves) is a mindset I encourage for all those engaged in a Jewish living. And ultimately, regardless of the holiday-fare you choose to enjoy for Rosh Hashanah—whether a pumpkin spice latte or apples and honey—I would like to wish you a sweet and happy new year!