Food Tourah – Shemini
April 20, 2025 in Food Tourah
Because life so often happens around food, we’re spending the year exploring the weekly parshiot and finding connections to each week’s Shabbat menu. 26 parshiot down, 28 more to go!
The name of the parsha, Shemini, means eighth and refers to the eighth day at the end of the ordination ceremony, when Aaron and his four sons start functioning as priests. The parsha includes chapters nine, ten, and eleven of Leviticus. The first chapter covers more detailed descriptions of the sacrifices, which Aaron and his sons are learning to offer correctly. Chapter ten opens with two of the sons, Nadav and Avihu offering sacrifices with an “alien” fire. They are immediately consumed by fire themselves. Much conjecture has been written about what specific capital offense they committed. Due to the inclusion a few verses later of a prohibition against drinking wine while offering the sacrifice, some commentaries say they were drunk. Moses tells Aaron and the remaining two sons not to engage in mourning customs for their offspring and siblings. Later when Moses chastises Aaron for allowing the sons not to eat the sacrifice in the Tabernacle, Aaron reminds him that God might not want him to enjoy meat on the day his sons were killed.
Chapter eleven is all about food, specifically what animals are kosher to eat: only mammals that have cloven hooves and chew their cud, fish with fins and scales, no birds of prey or reptiles. Generally insects are considered non-kosher, but a select few are actually allowed. If you would like to investigate further, you can buy kosher locusts from the Biblical Museum of Natural History.
As I sit to write this entry, we have not yet finished Passover, so all I can think about is doughy, yeasty treats. You will be happy to learn that Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough is Kosher and Parve so it can be used for either of these stuffed dough delicacies. We are separating the milk from the meat. You have to decide which side you are on. If you are in the meat eaters section, here is a recipe for “deli roll” – cold cuts and mustard rolled up in puff pastry. For the dairy lovers, you can never go wrong with cheesy bourekas. And for just the kind of Shalom Bayit (peace in the house) that Moses and Aaron will need to reconcile after the loss Nadav and Avihu, here is a delicious dessert (tahini banana bread) that could work for a meat meal or a dairy meal.
B’tayavon and Shabbat Shalom,
Alison (Baraf) & Sarah (Roark)
To read past installments of Food Tourah – Click Here.
For a more in-depth look at this week’s parsha, visit Sefaria.com.