A Jewish rabbi employed a non-Jewish cook in his house, who for forty years prepared all his meals according to all Jewish dietary laws.
One day the stew spoiled and it was already time to eat. What did the gentile do? He went and cooked a rabbit, which is quick and easy to cook but is forbidden to eat.
When the rabbi ate the rabbit, he suddenly saw a toe from its leg and realized that it was not a rooster. He immediately called the cook and asked him to explain it to him. At first, the cook stammered and said it was a hen and not any other animal. But in the end, he admitted to the act and asked the rabbi’s forgiveness, saying that he would not repeat it.
The rabbi shook his head and said: “From this moment on you are fired from your job, because I have discovered that there is no faith in the gentile even after forty years of living together.”
Discussion of the Story
The storyteller, Flora Cohen, was born in 1921 in Cairo, Egypt. She immigrated to Israel in 1948. Most of her tales she heard from her father in her young childhood. Eighty-four of them are registered in her name at IFA, all recorded by her daughter, Ilana Zohar. This tale was filed in the archives in 1960.
This tale is woven around a very common proverb, “Do not trust a gentile even after forty years,” that appears in many Jewish folktales. The common issue in all of them is the constant failure of Jews who attempt to put their trust in gentiles. This tale describes two characters, a Jewish rabbi and his gentile cook, who collaborated for forty years, until finally the relationship of trust between them was undermined by the gentile’s actions.
The issue is presented in a very subtle manner because at the plot’s center stands a rabbi, a figure whose main responsibility is the observance of Jewish law, but who chose to entrust the cooking to a gentile. Kashrut forms a central part of Jewish law. Keeping a kosher home ensures that this is a space that allows a Jew to preserve his identity. This space is maintained when the cook, who is in charge of the kitchen, keeps kosher himself, and in order to ensure this, he must belong to the group. Therefore, when the cook does not “belong” because he is a gentile, one can reasonably assume that problems will arise. Any practicing Jew faces this issue. Ferris Cohen has studied this problem among American homemakers (Cohen Ferris 2015, 141).
Common Jewish directives forbid eating foods cooked by a gentile, if not attended by a Jew. For example: “A food that is not eaten when it is raw and is served at a kings table, to spread on bread or as a dessert, which was cooked by a non-Jew, even in the pots of Jews and in the house of a Jew, it is forbidden because it was cooked by a non-Jew” (Shulḥan Arukh Yoreh Deah 113, a).
This is eventually the case described in the tale. For an unexplained reason, cooking in the rabbi’s house is the responsibility of a non-Jewish cook, an ominous fact that he finally realizes is a mistake. For forty years, the cook performed his work faithfully and maintained a kosher kitchen, but despite the long time that elapsed and despite the cook’s great experience, when a problem arises and he is unable to serve kosher food, he cooks a nonkosher animal. The rabbit is forbidden to eat according to explicit statements in the Torah: “Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof. . . . And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you” (Leviticus 11:4–6). And in another almost identical phrasing: “Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you” (Deuteronomy 14:7).
Since it is clear that this is not an error stemming from the cook’s lack of knowledge, he is fired. The correctness of the proverb is proved once again. On a deeper level there is a criticism of the rabbi, who relied on an outsider to deal with a sensitive issue that concerns Jewish daily life. This criticism is reinforced by the proverb, which expresses collective wisdom that stands the test of time.
Taken from: “The Angel and the Cholent: Food Representation from the Israel Folktale Archives.”
