raphael@crystal.ARPA (03/15/84)
Ritual slaughter of the latke
Raphael Finkel
Purim, 1984
(Latke-Homentash Debate, Madison)
It is well known that our tradition surrounds the most impor-
tant actions in life with ritual. The importance of life-cycle
rituals and holiday-cycle rituals underscores their stature. On
the other hand, there is no particular ritual for, say, hunting
boars. The Jewish tradition has nothing much to say about it,
except that hunting bores.
Eating has long held a fascination for the Rabbinic mind, not
to mention the Rabbinic stomache. We are all familiar with some of
the rituals involved with food: Washing the hands before going to
Kohls, checking for the uO, reciting "Who brings the can opener out
of the drawer", and the injunction to leave a little food in the
can for the cat. In the Talmud, there is a dispute whether search-
ing diligently for the uO itself fulfills the mitsvo of "bedikas
hekhsher" or whether one needs to also know the rules for affixing
the uO, over which one recites "lehagboa hekhsher". For example,
did you know that according to Rashi, the uO must be in the upper
third of the label, and must be vertical, whereas according to Rab-
benu Tam, it must be sideways?
This attention to detail is the hallmark of importance that we
attribute to food. I want to raise your conciousness (and maybe
your gorge) and explain to you the Torah-true Halakhic way in which
latkes must be prepared, according to Rambam's "Sefer", so called
because each chapter begins with the word "Sefer". In particular,
Chapter 23 is called, "Seyfer example you want latkes. Another
chapter, dealing with food poisoning, is "Seyfer ways to can
latkes". You may not be surprised to hear that there is no mention
whatsoever of Homentashen in this standard reference. They just
don't rate. In fact, the only reference I could find to Homen-
tashen in the whole Rabbinic literature, which I read through yes-
terday (in the Cliff's notes edition), was in a chapter on spinach
homentashen in the justifiably obscure responsa of Poppy, the
seltzer man.
Say for example you want latkes. The potato must be healthy.
Any potato unable to swim upstream with the current is considered
sick, and you have to wait until it recovers before you can use it.
You have to properly slaughter the potatoes. You need a knife
sharp enough, in the words of the Rambam, so that it can cut 30
bunches of krokhmal in 10 strokes. I expect that's pretty sharp,
even though I haven't any idea what krokhmal might me.
You slaughter the potato with a quick double cut, holding the
knife so the blade is facing up, attacking the potato from under-
neath.
If there are any eyes on the potato, they must be facing up,
so the potato doesn't see the knife coming. The stroke must sever
at least the main artery of the potato, although according to Ram-
bam, this is difficult with our modern potatoes, which have no
arteries, and it suffices to cut at least .357 inches beneath the
skin.
Any potato juice that come out within the first spurt is
treyf; you must let it pour on the ground and stomp on it, quoting
meanwhile from Deuteronomy, "thus be done to the manna whom the
king delighteth to honor."
You then check the dead potato for health. If there is a hole
between the veena and the keyba, the potato is trayf and may not be
eaten, although it may be used for a paperweight. If you carve a
dreydl out of it, the dreydl is kosher, but hte knife may only be
used as a screwdriver from then on. If there are any adhesions on
the skin, the potato is glat trayf and must be discarded.
You must remove the eyes (in Yiddish, this is known as
"eyebering"); as long as they are not removed, the outer part of
the potato is trayf (litterally, "the eyes have it".) Modern latke
factories don't bother with the extremely time-consuming removal of
the eyes, so they sell the outer part of the potato to non-Jews.
You must be very careful if you are making a large batch of
latkes not to slaughter two potatoes from the same plant on the
same day. The Bible explicitly says, "You shall not slaughter it
and its plant-mate on the same day". The Talmud tells of a thief
who stole two potatoes and slaughtered them on the same day. As
you know, the penalty for stealing is that you must pay back dou-
ble. But if you steal a potato and slaughter it, you must pay back
5-fold. The Talmud records a discussion about whether, when the
thief slaughtered the second potato, he was obligated to pay the
5-fold penalty or not, since he was by that same act guilty of the
"two on the same day" rule, and was thereby sentenced to the
harsher punishment of juggling 5 eggs and cleaning up the mess.
Let it be a lesson to you: Buy each potato from a different store,
and you'll never have a problem.
If you peel the potatoes, you are obligated to donate one
twelfth of the potato peels to a Cohen, assuming you have peeled at
least 20 potatoes, and you have gotten at least 1/4 cup of peels
from each. The best way to do this is to put the peels in an
envelope and mail it to the first Cohen or Katz you find in the
phone book. It is also acceptable to stop people on the street,
ask them if they are Jewish, and if so, talk them into performing
this important mitsvo "putting out the peelings" themselves.
I could go on, and I will.
Remember to salt the potato and leave it to drain for at least
24 hours. We do this in memory of Lot's wife Latke, who was turned
to salt. Use a lotta salt, in memory of Lot's daughter, Lotta.
You may wonder why Sephardic Jews don't eat latkes. It stems
from two differences of interpretation. The Torah speaks about a
"Poroh Aduma", a red potato without blemish. The Sephardim con-
sider red potatoes too holy to eat, so they avoid latkes. On the
other hand, the Ashkenazim thik only Swiss cheese is too holy to
eat. They liken "Poroh Aduma" with "Pereh Odom", the common per-
son, and consider a red potato glatt kosher. Airline meals made
with potatoes therefore always specify "red potatoes".
The other difference of opinion is the meaning of "you shall
not yoke them together". The Sephardim read this as a prohibition
of mixing eggs and potatoes. The Ashkenazim say, and I quote "Love
and Knishes", the authoritative cookbook, "So nu, use two eggs al-
ready. You want more, so you should use more."
Let me warn you about applesauce. Its proper preparation is
just as complex as latkes themselves. It is best to consult a com-
petent authority.
One last warning. You may remember that the Megilla tells us
that the Persians cast latkes, which they called Pur, from which we
get the name Purim. You must fry the latkes to make them kosher.
Let them burn a bit, in memory of the burnt offerings. But don't
do like the Persians. Don't cast them. If you cast them, they'll
turn out Pur for you, too.amigo2@ihuxq.UUCP (John Hobson) (03/16/84)
You forgot to mention the onions. Remember what the Besht said, "Latkes without onions are unpleasing to the Malek Haolam (Blessed be He)." Of course, the Vilna Gaon disagreed, and the Lubavitcher and the Bratislaver Chassidim have been having a major disagreement over whether or not one should dance around the kitchen waving the onion every time latkes are made or only on Succos. John Hobson AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2