Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food

by Aaron S. Gross (Editor), Jody Myers (Editor), Jordan D. Rosenblum (Editor), Hasia R. Diner (Foreword by), Jonathan Safran Foer (Afterword)

Overview

How Judaism and food are intertwined

Judaism is a religion that is enthusiastic about food. Jewish holidays are inevitably celebrated through eating particular foods, or around fasting and then eating particular foods. Through fasting, feasting, dining, and noshing, food infuses the rich traditions of Judaism into daily life. What do the complicated laws of kosher food mean to Jews? How does food in Jewish bellies shape the hearts and minds of Jews? What does the Jewish relationship with food teach us about Christianity, Islam, and religion itself? Can food shape the future of Judaism?

Feasting and Fasting explores questions like these to offer an expansive look at how Judaism and food have been intertwined, both historically and today. It also grapples with the charged ethical debates about how food choices reflect competing Jewish values about community, animals, the natural world and the very meaning of being human. Encompassing historical, ethnographic, and theoretical viewpoints, and including contributions dedicated to the religious dimensions of foods including garlic, Crisco, peanut oil, and wine, the volume advances the state of both Jewish studies and religious studies scholarship on food.

Bookended with a foreword by the Jewish historian Hasia Diner and an epilogue by the novelist and food activist Jonathan Safran Foer, Feasting and Fasting provides a resource for anyone who hungers to understand how food and religion intersect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479827794
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,094,415
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Safran Foer (Afterword by)
Jonathan Safran Foer is Lillian Vernon Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at NYU, and author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Everything is Illuminated, and Eating Animals.

Aaron S. Gross (Editor)
Aaron S. Gross is an Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of San Diego, and the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit advocacy organization, Farm Forward. He is the author of The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications.

Jody Myers (Editor)
Jody Myers is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program at California State University, Northridge. She has written on modern religious thought and expression. She is the author of Seeking Zion: Modernity and Messianic Activism in the Writings of Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer (Littman Library, 2004) and Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Center in America (Praeger, 2007), as well as more than two dozen articles.

Jordan D. Rosenblum (Editor)
Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author and coeditor of several books including Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us About Rabbinic Literature.

Hasia R. Diner (Foreword by)
Hasia R. Diner is Professor Emerita at the Departments of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History. She is the former series editor for our Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish History. Among her many books are Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962, and Immigration: An American History, with Carl Bon Tempo.

Table of Contents

Foreword Hasia R. Diner xi

Introduction Aaron S. Gross 1

Part 1 History

Introduction to Part 1 Jody Myers 29

1 Food in the Biblical Era Elaine Adler Goodfriend 32

2 Food in the Rabbinic Era David C. Kraemer 59

3 Food in the Medieval Era Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus 83

4 Food in the Modern Era Jody Myers 110

Part 2 Food and Culture

Introduction to Part 2 Jordan D. Rosenblum 143

5 A Brief History of Jews and Garlic Jordan D. Rosenblum 147

6 Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Perspectives on Food and Jewishness David M. Freidenreich 157

7 How Ancient Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians Drank Their Wine Susan Marks 170

8 Jews, Schmaltz, and Crisco in the Age of Industrial Food Rachel B. Gross 189

9 The Search for Religious Authenticity and the Case of Passover Peanut Oil Zev Eleff 212

10 How Shabbat Cholent Became a Secular Hungarian Favorite Katalin Franciska Rac 235

Part 3 Ethics

Introduction to Part 3 Aaron S. Gross 253

11 Jewish Ethics and Morality in the Garden Jennifer A. Thompson 258

12 Ecological Ethics in the Jewish Community Farming Movement Adrienne Krone 273

13 Bloodshed and the Ethics and Theopolitics of the Jewish Dietary Laws Daniel H. Weiss 287

14 The Virtues of Keeping Kosher Elliot Ratzman 305

15 Jewish Ethics, the Kosher Industry, and the Fall of Agriprocessors Moses Pava 317

16 A Satisfying Eating Ethic Jonathan K. Crane 330

17 The Ethics of Eating Animals Aaron S. Gross 339

Afterword Jonathan Safran Foer 351

Acknowledgments 353

About the Editors 355

About the Contributors 357

Index 363

Editorial Reviews

10/07/2019

This informative anthology of 17 scholarly essays provides an accessible, detailed look at all aspects of Jewish food. The editors—who each work as Jewish Studies professors—divvy up the book into three sections: history, food and culture, and ethics. Myers’s section starts with an overview of the eating norms within the Hebrew Bible, including dietary restrictions, before considering contemporary standards (such as the evolution and spread of the eco-kosher movement) whose adherents require humane treatment of animals and the ethical treatment of the workers who produce kosher meat. Then, Rosenblum provides a survey of the cultural aspects of Jewish food across cultures, including many instances where recipes have become nationally known standards (such as in Hungary, where cholent, a traditional stew initially created to accommodate restrictions for cooking on the Sabbath, has become a popular, pork-infused staple). In the final section, introduced by Rosenblum, a range of ethical issues are addressed, including how Jewish food and traditions impact the global ecosystem, and provides an illuminating case study of a synagogue that addressed ethical concerns of its community by committing to sustainability and establishing a community garden during renovations. This rich, revealing collection will appeal to scholars and foodies alike. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Runs the gamut from biblical to contemporary Jewish food ways and includes both historical and ethical aspects of what, how, and why Jews eat."

University of Southern California Leah Hochman

"A fasci­nating look at food from a vari­ety of different angles … the essays were all well written and absorbing. Anyone interested in food studies or Jewish history will want to read this book."

Jewish World

"Feasting and Fasting is a fascinating look at food from a variety of different angles… Anyone interested in food studies or Jewish history will want to read this book."

The Reporter

"This wide-ranging discussion of the history, philosophy, religion, and origins of Jewish culinary traditions should be in any serious culinary and Jewish history collection."

Midwest Review of Books

"Drawing on a stellar cast of contributors, Feasting and Fasting combines an unparalleled overview of Jewish food practices from Antiquity to Agriprocessors with boundary-breaking essays on Jewish foods and foodways. This remarkable volume will excite scholars and be invaluable for adoption in Jewish history and food studies courses.”"

author of Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher a Roger Horowitz

"This is a spectacular set of essays on a wide and eclectic range of topics. They're accessible to a wide audience and further strengthen the evolving conversation about the nature of the interaction between Jewish life, food, and the wider world we live in."

Nigel Savage

"Anyone interested in Jewish food who reads these seven essays will emerge with plenty of points for further discussion [...] As a broad-based collection touching on many of the subspecialties, it should provide genuine 'food for thought' leading to further readings on specific topics."

Tradition

"A fascinating account of the history of Jewish food, within and outside of dietary laws. . . . Crisco is for Jews? Peanut oil caused such debates? Who knew. This book is a great read."

Marion Nestle

"The three courses of this book — history, culture, and ethics — are a tremendous feast, to be savored for a long time to come!"

Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff

"Gathers a dream team of Jewish studies scholars whothank you!raise their heads from texts to focus on the meanings, rituals, conflicts, power dynamics, and pleasures of the material of food in the Jewish diaspora. . . . The book that follows considers the diversity of complex and often fraught relationships among food, Jews, and Others, across time and place, from biblical to supermarket aisle. It serves to initiate scholars of Judaism in the world of food studies and, for food scholars, richly informs studies of Jewish foodways."

Co-author of Jewish American Food Culture Jonathan Deutsch

"Runs the gamut from biblical to contemporary Jewish food ways and includes both historical and ethical aspects of what, how, and why Jews eat."

"Gathers a dream team of Jewish studies scholars whothank you!raise their heads from texts to focus on the meanings, rituals, conflicts, power dynamics, and pleasures of the material of food in the Jewish diaspora. . . . The book that follows considers the diversity of complex and often fraught relationships among food, Jews, and Others, across time and place, from biblical to supermarket aisle. It serves to initiate scholars of Judaism in the world of food studies and, for food scholars, richly informs studies of Jewish foodways."

From the Publisher

"Gathers a dream team of Jewish studies scholars whothank you!raise their heads from texts to focus on the meanings, rituals, conflicts, power dynamics, and pleasures of the material of food in the Jewish diaspora. . . . The book that follows considers the diversity of complex and often fraught relationships among food, Jews, and Others, across time and place, from biblical to supermarket aisle. It serves to initiate scholars of Judaism in the world of food studies and, for food scholars, richly informs studies of Jewish foodways."

Jonathan Deutsch

"Runs the gamut from biblical to contemporary Jewish food ways and includes both historical and ethical aspects of what, how, and why Jews eat."

Leah Hochman

"Runs the gamut from biblical to contemporary Jewish food ways and includes both historical and ethical aspects of what, how, and why Jews eat."

Universityof Southern California Leah Hochman