{"id":28042,"date":"2009-05-20T23:03:58","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/holidays\/shavuot\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/"},"modified":"2016-05-09T09:30:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T09:30:33","slug":"judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? I asked Gil Marks, whose fascinating cookbook, \u201cOlive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World\u201d (Wiley Publishing), won the prestigious James Beard award for best vegetarian cookbook.<\/p>\n

\"Cheesecake\"\u201cThe use of dairy to celebrate this holiday is not a biblical injunction, nor is it mentioned in the Talmud,\u201d Marks told me. \u201cShavuot falls when the animals are beginning to be weaned away from the mother, so you have a surplus of milk and therefore cheese, yogurt and dairy products. Once you have a tradition, you will find biblical reasons for it. Even in pagan pre-Christian and post-Christian holidays you will find dairy products becoming traditional because they were so abundant at this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marks is a rabbi and historian as well as a chef, and his book offers 300 flavorful vegetarian recipes from Jewish communities around the globe \u2013 from Mediterranean mezes (appetizers) to savory pastries to tantalizing pastas and stews – and chronicles the fascinating culinary history of such diverse communities as India, Alsace, Greece and Uzbekistan, offering menus and interesting commentaries about the Jewish holidays and deepening our understanding of their historical context.<\/p>\n

We learn, for example, that herdsmen of almost 6,000 years ago stored milk in the waterproof stomachs of animal (the first \u201cbottles\u201d). These ancient people discovered that when the milk separated, it coagulated into curds – the first fresh cheese \u2013 which not only tasted good, but lasted longer than milk. (Blintzes would come much later!)<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember, for most of history people didn’t drink milk straight,\u201d Marks explained, \u201cbecause, until pasteurization, it was dangerous unless it came straight from the animal. So fermented forms like yogurt, cheese and butter, which have a longer shelf period, are what people ate. To the Greeks, for example, one of the signs of a barbarian was somebody who drank milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

More importantly, Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mr. Sinai. \u201cNo Jews existed before the giving of the Torah,\u201d Marks said. \u201cTechnically speaking, Israelites before then were not Jews. One of the new laws concerned keeping kosher, and since their utensils and any meat products they had produced before were no longer kosher, for the first Shavuot they had to eat dairy products.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, the tradition exists that while they were at Sinai receiving the Torah, when they came back to camp, their milk had curdled into cheese, so you have a variety of mystical and somewhat biblical reasons that developed for the association with dairy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take blintzes, for example. \u201cWhen you put two cheese blintzes together on a plate,\u201d Marks observed, \u201cit looks like the two tablets of the law. Somebody says, \u2018Hey, it’s the Ten Commandments.\u2019 It’s a beautiful way of taking the mundane and elevating it into something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only food that is actually connected biblically to the holiday is leavened wheat bread, Marks noted. \u201cThere are only two times that leavened bread, leavening of any sort, is allowed in the Temple. One is for the Thanksgiving offering and the other is for Shavuot, when two special loaves of raised wheat bread are brought in and literally raised up. Shavuot marks the end of the barley harvest and beginning of the wheat harvest, so a lot of traditional foods evolved because of what was available. The holidays have both a historical and a nature angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the years the tradition developed to decorate both the synagogue and homes with greenery and flowers for Shavuot, Marks said. \u201cThis is in recognition of both the harvest as well as the tradition that trees flourished on Mount Sinai. The Sephardim in particular developed the use of roses, nicknaming the holiday the Festival of Roses, so they use rosewater and rose petal preserves with meals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book of Ruth is read in the synagogue at Shavuot, he said, because according to tradition, Ruth was the great-great-grandmother of King David, who was born on Shavuot. \u201cI was born on Shavuot too, by the way,\u201d Marks added, \u201cwhich makes it one of my favorite holidays!\u201d<\/p>\n

Another reason for the emphasis on milk is its purity, so white foods, such as rice and white corn, are eaten in some communities at this time. Romanians, for example, will prepare mamaliga \u2013 their beloved cornmeal mush \u2013 with white corn meal instead of the usual yellow on Shavuot.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilk suggests the purity of the people having received the Torah,\u201d said Marks, \u201cnot just having received it, but having accepted it and having agreed to become a holy nation, and so the idea of white fits into the whole theme of the holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

To many, Shavuot is the \u201ccheesecake holiday,\u201d and no observance of the festival would be complete without this luscious dessert. But so many cheesecakes, so little time! How to choose?<\/p>\n

I turn to \u201cThe Cheesecake Bible\u201d (Robert Rose) by George Geary, with 200 delectable cheesecake recipes, from White Chocolate Cr\u00e8me Br\u00fbl\u00e9e Cheesecake to Carrot Cake Cheesecake \u2013 there are 20 chocolate cheesecake recipes alone! \u2013 to no-bake and savory varieties, sauces and even cheesecake bars, plus tips and techniques that eliminate the intimidation factor.<\/p>\n

After much deliberation I chose Banana Split Cheesecake, made with cream cheese, sour cream and whipped cream topping \u2013 three good reasons to celebrate Shavuot!<\/p>\n

\n

Judy Bart Kancigor<\/b> is the author of \u201cCooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family\u201d and can be found on the web at www.cookingjewish.com. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? I asked Gil Marks, whose fascinating cookbook, \u201cOlive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World\u201d (Wiley Publishing), won the prestigious James Beard award for best vegetarian cookbook. \u201cThe use of dairy to celebrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":39052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shavuot"],"yoast_head":"\nThink Shavuot, Say Cheese - Jewish Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? Several historical and halachic explanations have been given.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese - Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? Several historical and halachic explanations have been given.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrthodoxUnion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-09T09:30:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"695\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Judy Bart Kancigor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Judy Bart Kancigor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/\",\"name\":\"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese - Jewish Holidays\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-09T09:30:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/46cc08c98ec634be55f01adb1dbc1531\"},\"description\":\"When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? Several historical and halachic explanations have been given.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg\",\"width\":1040,\"height\":695,\"caption\":\"Cheesecake\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/\",\"name\":\"Jewish Holidays\",\"description\":\"Learn about Jewish holidays\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/46cc08c98ec634be55f01adb1dbc1531\",\"name\":\"Judy Bart Kancigor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/204c7c26f069b61862e6e3057def365b24bb16c2ac921cd49a8b5013c2db62f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/204c7c26f069b61862e6e3057def365b24bb16c2ac921cd49a8b5013c2db62f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Judy Bart Kancigor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/author\/judy_bart_kancigorou-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese - Jewish Holidays","description":"When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? Several historical and halachic explanations have been given.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese - Jewish Holidays","og_description":"When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? Several historical and halachic explanations have been given.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/","og_site_name":"Jewish Holidays","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrthodoxUnion","article_published_time":"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-05-09T09:30:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1040,"height":695,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Judy Bart Kancigor","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Judy Bart Kancigor","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/","name":"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese - Jewish Holidays","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg","datePublished":"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-09T09:30:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/46cc08c98ec634be55f01adb1dbc1531"},"description":"When we think of Shavuot, we think of cheese, but how did this tradition begin? Several historical and halachic explanations have been given.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Cheesecake-e1462707989914.jpg","width":1040,"height":695,"caption":"Cheesecake"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/judy_bart_kancigor_think_shavuot_say_cheese\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Think Shavuot, Say Cheese"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/","name":"Jewish Holidays","description":"Learn about Jewish holidays","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/46cc08c98ec634be55f01adb1dbc1531","name":"Judy Bart Kancigor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/204c7c26f069b61862e6e3057def365b24bb16c2ac921cd49a8b5013c2db62f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/204c7c26f069b61862e6e3057def365b24bb16c2ac921cd49a8b5013c2db62f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Judy Bart Kancigor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/author\/judy_bart_kancigorou-org\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28042"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39184,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042\/revisions\/39184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}