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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Judaism is like Tofu

Or so says Jordan Rosenblum, rabbinics specialist and food guru in the UW Hebrew & Semitic Studies department.

"Tofu has texture, texture is the tradition. Then you have the flavor. Put [the tofu] into the pan and the flavor ... of a time and location interacts with the texture of tradition. We can't say there's one Judaism. The tradition takes on the flavor of the location."

I think this is a great quote and a great analogy. I haven’t verified its accuracy with the man himself, but it lines up nicely with the podcast on Hellenistic Judaism that I listened to today by Michael Satlow (From Israelite to Jew Episode 14).

2 comments:

  1. The man himself verifies the accuracy of the tofu quote (though I was misquoted about Chinese food - not ALL Chinese food is kosher!).

    Jordan

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  2. I was wondering how sweet & sour pork could be kosher, but I thought maybe there was a special exemption for ALL Chinese food. I thought maybe it was a tongue in cheek remark, not meant to be taken seriously.

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