{"id":1509,"date":"2013-02-25T14:18:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T19:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/?p=1509"},"modified":"2013-02-24T14:20:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T19:20:30","slug":"drbr-12e-desserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/drbr-12e-desserts\/","title":{"rendered":"DRBR 12e: Desserts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>And now, dessert!<\/p>\n

Menu item 13: Frozen Squishies, \u05d0\u05e9\u05d9\u05e9\u05d9 \u05e7\u05e4\u05d0\u05d9\u05df. <\/p>\n

Explanation 13: Song of Songs 2:8 says \u05e1\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9 \u05d1\u05d0\u05e9\u05d9\u05e9\u05d5\u05ea, sustain me with raisin-cakes<\/i>. Jastrow says that ashisha<\/i> comes to mean any pressed kind of food, also a jug or contents thereof. So this might be a frozen raisin-cake, or it might be an ice-cream cake (if that isn’t horribly anachronistic) or it might be iced punch. <\/p>\n

Menu item 14: Stewed fruit.<\/p>\n

Explanation 14: Proverbs 31 says Give unto her the fruit of her hands<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Menu item 15: Tree fruit<\/p>\n

Explanation 15: This is a non-rabbinic one; the citation is the proverb “The fruit does not fall far from the tree.” Why a sudden non-rabbinic thing? I have an idea, which we’ll get to.<\/p>\n

Menu item 16: Grapes<\/p>\n

Explanation 16: (Sow) grape seeds with grapevines, says Pesachim 49a.
\nHere’s the context. The Talmud is talking about the desirability of marrying certain kinds of people (social commentary like whoa; go learn that whole section, it’s fascinating), and says: <\/p>\n

\u05ea\u05e0\u05d5 \u05e8\u05d1\u05e0\u05df: \u05dc\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05dd \u05d9\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05e8 \u05d0\u05d3\u05dd \u05db\u05dc \u05de\u05d4 \u05e9\u05d9\u05e9 \u05dc\u05d5 \u05d5\u05d9\u05e9\u05d0 \u05d1\u05ea \u05ea\u05dc\u05de\u05d9\u05d3 \u05d7\u05db\u05dd, \u05d5\u05d9\u05e9\u05d9\u05d0 \u05d1\u05ea\u05d5 \u05dc\u05ea\u05dc\u05de\u05d9\u05d3 \u05d7\u05db\u05dd. \u05de\u05e9\u05dc \u05dc\u05e2\u05e0\u05d1\u05d9 \u05d4\u05d2\u05e4\u05df \u05d1\u05e2\u05e0\u05d1\u05d9 \u05d4\u05d2\u05e4\u05df, \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 \u05e0\u05d0\u05d4 \u05d5\u05de\u05ea\u05e7\u05d1\u05dc. \u05d5\u05dc\u05d0 \u05d9\u05e9\u05d0 \u05d1\u05ea \u05e2\u05dd \u05d4\u05d0\u05e8\u05e5 – \u05de\u05e9\u05dc \u05dc\u05e2\u05e0\u05d1\u05d9 \u05d4\u05d2\u05e4\u05df \u05d1\u05e2\u05e0\u05d1\u05d9 \u05d4\u05e1\u05e0\u05d4, \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 \u05db\u05e2\u05d5\u05e8 \u05d5\u05d0\u05d9\u05e0\u05d5 \u05de\u05ea\u05e7\u05d1\u05dc. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is, it is taught in a baraita that one should sell everything he has and marry the daughter of a Torah scholar [and do<\/i> remember that it is sages writing this<\/i>], and marry his daughter to a Torah scholar. This is like planting grapes among grapevines; it is fitting and fruitful. And one should not marry the daughter of an ignoramus; this is like planting grapes among scrub, it is distasteful and not fruitful. <\/p>\n

So serving grapes at the wedding is commenting that this is a fitting and fruitful match involving a Torah scholar.<\/p>\n

Menu item 17 (note that 17 isn’t written \u05d9”\u05d6 as it usually is, it’s written \u05d8\u05d5\u05d1; I think that’s rather nice): Black coffee.<\/p>\n

Explanation 17: I am black and comely<\/i>, says Song of Songs 1.<\/p>\n

Menu item 18: Champagne.<\/p>\n

Explanation 18: This is another bit where you really really<\/i> need to go learn the whole section of Talmud (Shabbat 67a). It’s just fascinating; it’s talking about things which are and are not forbidden on account of being darchei ha’emori<\/i>–irreligious shtick non-Jews do, unfitting for Jews. For instance, peeing in front of a pot to hasten its cooking is forbidden because it’s darchei ha’emori<\/i>, but putting a chip of mulberry wood in it is fine. <\/p>\n

Saying “Wine and life according to the rabbis!” is another thing that’s not forbidden. Rashi seems to be saying that “Wine and life!” is a general thing the non-Jews say when drinking wine, but if you add “according to the rabbis” that makes it kosher. <\/p>\n

So the champagne course here wishes the couple a blessed and frum life.<\/p>\n

Note that the family have put in a lot of effort to get the number of menu items up to 18, to the extent of quoting a non-Jewish proverb for item 15. I assume this is because 18 is the number associated with life, luck, etc.<\/p>\n

ABD Wasserman said “I don’t know; was Chai a thing then?” and the answer appears to be yes it was; not the yud-chet symbol people wear on necklaces and whatever, but the idea that 18 is a good number, especially for donations, seems to have been around since the early chasids<\/a>, if not before. So 18 is probably no coincidence, and is yet another symbolic element on this menu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And now, dessert! Menu item 13: Frozen Squishies, \u05d0\u05e9\u05d9\u05e9\u05d9 \u05e7\u05e4\u05d0\u05d9\u05df. Explanation 13: Song of Songs 2:8 says \u05e1\u05de\u05db\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9 \u05d1\u05d0\u05e9\u05d9\u05e9\u05d5\u05ea, sustain me with raisin-cakes. Jastrow says that ashisha comes to mean any pressed kind of food, also a jug or contents thereof. So this might be a frozen raisin-cake, or it might be an ice-cream cake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dispatches-from-the-rare-book-room","category-general","category-talmud-and-halakha"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1515,"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hasoferet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}