cold food, no lights, good vibes

There are a million and one rules about heating food on Shabbat. Aside from a dependable crockpot stew, I usually opt for a cold food lunch just to avoid messing up. When I found a text called “From Sinai to Ethiopia” I was delighted to see my cold-food-leaning validated. 

The text explains how the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish community) traditionally held that it is forbidden to leave a fire lit from Friday into Shabbat day. Meaning, they could not keep food warm, nor light candles to burn into Shabbat evening. A cold food, no light Shabbat sounds like a compelling break from the overstimulation of a regular week. Although most common Halakha permits certain ways of warming food, I like the way this Halakhic interpretation highlights a change in surroundings as a marking of Shabbat. Usually, I like to honor Shabbat by cooking a whole feast and lighting the candles, but some weeks marking Shabbat might look like eating bowl after bowl of lucky charms in the dark (I know lucky charms aren’t kosher, don’t @ me).

There’s a piece of Talmud where a few Rabbis are arguing over what one should do if they are in a situation where you can’t afford special food for Shabbat. Rabbi Akiva says, “…make your Shabbat like a weekday and do not be beholden to other beings; however, one should nevertheless perform some small alteration in his house to distinguish Shabbat from a weekday” (Pesachim 112a:8). There are so many ways of honoring Shabbat- warm food, cold food, a feast, or just a lot of snacking. The key is making it feel unique.

In honor of this text, I baked an Ethiopian Jewish bread called Dabo. It’s a sweet, dense bread that is eaten on the Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd and Shabbat. I love the shape and it is a fun bread to distinguish kodesh from chol (sacred from profane). 

And before I sign off, I want to note that it feels wrong to be posting anything right now when 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza. It feels bizarre to be cooking abundantly for Shabbat meals while Gazans are being starved to death, while Palestinians are being relentlessly killed and displaced, while Palestinians and Israelis are still being held hostage. My bracha is for the practice of Shabbat to give us the strength to continue demanding a ceasefire in the coming week.