If you happen to walk into a Seder tonight and don’t find matzah ball soup, gefilte fish and brisket on the menu, chances are you’ve been invited by a Sephardic family.
The vast majority of us have European roots. While I wrote a two-parter about the differences between German Jews and those of Eastern Europe Jews, they are both united under the banner of Ashkenazic, that is those Jews of Western Europe, Russia, Poland and the countries associated with that part of the world. On the other hand, those Jews whose roots are in Spain and Portugal, Italy, Northern Africa and other countries on either side of the Mediterranean are Sephardic. In Hebrew, the word S’pharad means Spain.
Now there are differences between the two, but the only one I want to mention now relates to their Passover diet. Ashkenazic Jews are forbidden to eat rice and beans, kitniot in general. Kitniot include corn, green beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, peanuts, etc….in other words, legumes, But the Sephardic Jews are permitted to eat kitniot. I know quite a number of colleagues, Ashkenazic in origin, Ashkenazic for fifty-one weeks of the year, who are Sephardic during Passover. Now that’s magic!
Why the difference? It has to do with staples (not Staples, the office store, rather staples, the basic foods of the region). Ashkenazic communities had potatoes all over the place, but not the Sephardim. Their “potato” was rice, and the kitniot were far more numerous in those countries than the ones from which our ancestors came. Just as an Ostjud will not understand why bagels and lox will probably not be served at Sunday brunch in the home of a Yekkeh, so is the case in the Ashkenazic/Sephardic difference. Check out a Sephardic cookbook. Viva la difference!
(Foreign words and phrases for Sephardic Jews…and my parents:
Bupkes: nothing, something trivial, worthless
Cholent: potted meat and vegetable simmering overnight
Gatkes: long johns
Farfufket: befuddled, disoriented
Krechtzer: a complainer, someone who grunts and groans all day
Ken-a-hora: expression to ward off the evil eye
Kvell: to explode with pride
Vos is dos ?: what’s with this?
Bubba and Zayde: grandmother and grandfather
Zeesen: sweet….as in
I W I S H Y ‘ A L L A Z E E S E N P E S A C H…
And the best of health to you, your loved ones, and all humanity!