Shabbat part 18

We come home. The food is ready to be served. Kiddush over wine or hard liquor is recited. If kiddush was recited in synagogue, most will forgo saying it again, while others will say it (I do), a practice stemming from a careful reading of the Talmud. Others refrain, based on many alternative interpretations.  If any family members were not present at synagogue, it must be recited. Whereas in most traditional, rather than Orthodox families the Friday night meal is the central family observance of Shabbat, Orthodox Jews make the daytime meal the most lavish. Many sit around the table for two hours or more, not only eating, but also singing and sharing words of Torah. The blessing on the bread is recited, with most having fish for the first course. Here too, different fish recipes are enjoyed in different communities. Moroccans make a wonderful dish called "schenah"; fish baked in a sauce of tomatoes and peppers. Most Ashkenazim have gefilte fish. Many types of Hasidim will again have a sweet and a vinegary fish dish. After the fish, some liquor is served (Russians will have Vodka, Polish will have whiskey, Mid Eastern Jews will have Arak, essentially the same as the Greek Ouzo.) Women often will imbibe liqueurs, while many prefer not to drink alcohol in front of men because of modesty concerns. Singing ensues. Afterwards, the main course(s) are brought out. As I have mentioned before, a common feature of Jewish heresies has been the abstaining from hot food on Shabbat. Therefore, we go out of our way to partake of hot food, as a way of disassociating ourselves from those who distort the Torah. Ashkenazim have a dish called "chulent". There are numerous, fanciful explanations for the name. Actually, it comes from the Italian "Caldo", meaning "hot" (English speaking tourists in Europe often get a nasty surprise when they turn on in the shower what they believe is cold water, because it is labeled caldo). Why would Polish, Russian, Hungarian, German Jews give their Shabbat dish an Italian name? Few are aware that the origins of Ashkenazi Jewry go back to Italy before about 800 CE, when Charlemagne invited Italian Jews into Franco Germany. The dish is at least as old as that! Basically, it is a casserole of meat and beans, which has been sitting on the blech since before Shabbat. Russian Jews also put potatoes in their chulent. Hungarian Jews serve a soupy chulent. Sepharadic Jews serve a variety of dishes, called by the collective name "Hammin", also meaning "hot". (The plural ending "in" often replaces "im" in post-Biblical Hebrew). This can be dishes of meat with pasta, beans, or various kinds of grain, either left on the blech, or cooked before Shabbat, and placed on the blech that morning. The traditions of various communities that I wrote about in relation to the Friday night meal are here repeated. A difference is seen in some Hasidic communities, where a variety of dishes are served that are intended to represent the ten Sefirot; the mystical attributes of G-d. These include eggs with onions, jellied calf's foot, kugel (a pudding made from noodles, bread, or potatoes.) It may be sweet or savory, kishke (animal intestines, cleaned and stuffed with fat and flour, well seasoned). No one walks away hungry from such a meal. More singing, more talking, and it's time for a Shabbat nap.