An Accounting of Punny Foods for the Rosh haShanah Feast, by Stephen Belsky

Contributor(s): Stephen Belsky

Shared on: 28 September 2011 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories: Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., festive meals, punning, סגולות segulot, סעודות seudot, סימנים simanim, symbolic foods

As חז”ל [Ḥazal] taught us, on ראש השנה [Rosh Hashanah] we elevate puns from the lowest form of humor to the highest religious experience.

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Contribute a translation	Translation (English)
	The foods suggested by our Sages had names in Aramaic or Hebrew that symbolized hopes for the new year — here is a list of foods with English names for those of us for whom English is our vernacular:
	SQUASH so that Gd will squash your enemies
	SAGE for wisdom
	TARRAGON so terror will be gone
	SUNFLOWER SEEDS for illumination
	AVOCADOS for divine advocacy
	CASHEWS for financial success (but some customarily do not eat nuts on Rosh Hashanah)
	PLANTAINS so all your plans will be attained
	SOLE for spiritual depth
	DATES for successful romance
	JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES for an end to exile and a rebuilt Jerusalem
	POMEGRANATES so we will be soft like pom-poms but tough like granite
	CHERRIES for a year of cheer
	GRAINS for brains
	PASSIONFRUIT for passion and/or compassion
	BERRIES to bury the past
	TURKEY or KEY LIMES to unlock a good future
	COFFEE to breathe easy
	MUSHROOMS for a speedy end to homelessness
	PEAS for peace
	LEEK for structural integrity or keeping confidence
	CORN for humor

: Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s “The Vegetable Gardener”

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“An Accounting of Punny Foods for the Rosh haShanah Feast, by Stephen Belsky” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Stephen Belsky

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Stephen Belsky is a graduate of the Yeshiva of Flatbush, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and the Educators Program of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He received semikha at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and while studying there held internships at Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut, and the International Rabbinic Fellowship. Before starting semikha, Stephen taught at the Schechter high school in Teaneck, New Jersey, and after ordination, he returned to education, teaching Jewish Studies in the middle and high school divisions of Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield, Michigan. In addition to classroom teaching, Stephen has taught and lectured both in his local community and in synagogues across the eastern United States.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=3969

Associated Image:

Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s “The Vegetable Gardener”

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Stephen Belsky.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=3969>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

Pocket Reddit Facebook Bluesky Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

2 comments to An Accounting of Punny Foods for the Rosh haShanah Feast, by Stephen Belsky

Stephen Belsky
2012-09-16 at 1:04 pm · Reply.
And here are some Hebrew ones from ערב ראש־השנה־ה’תשע”ג —
imported beef for a good livelihood: פר נסע = פרנסה
apricot sandwich for justice: משמש בפת = משפט
Shayna
2023-09-10 at 7:22 am · Reply.
Butter and toast to toast to a butter new year