“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos
Kodesh parshas Netzovim
27 Elul 5782/September
23, 2022
Avos perek 5-6
CHOLENT TALES
I must admit that my culinary
expertise is quite limited. In fact, aside for making macaroni and toast (I do
make a mean toast) I’m somewhat lost in the kitchen. But in the dining room is
a different story. I’m quite experienced at sampling foods served to me and I
must say that I “eat very nicely” (in Mommy vernacular).
But there is one thing I do pride
myself on in the kitchen, and that’s making the cholent for Shabbos each week.
In the hallowed halls of yeshivos,
it’s common for different students to make cholent. The cholent may be for late
Thursday night or Friday night or Shabbos.
I once heard a poignant observation:
Everyone in yeshiva eats cholent three times a week, besides Shabbos morning.
The unmarried yeshiva guy has cholent on Thursday night, Friday afternoon and
Friday night. The kollel guy has cholent for supper on Sunday night, Monday
night and Tuesday night.
In yeshivos, student-chefs pride
themselves on their secret ingredient and secret way of making cholent to give
it a distinctive taste. This ranges from hot sauce, potato chips, and even
beer. I’m sure there are stranger ingredients used that I’m not aware of.
During the years when I was the
general studies principal in Yeshiva Ohr Naftali there were a variety of
cholents cooking on Wednesday afternoon. Students explained to me that they
didn’t make cholent on Thursday because the yeshiva’s cook made cholent for
them to eat late Thursday night. Therefore, they moved their own cholent-cook
up a day. It seems that the cholent-cook was a definite before Shabbos. The
only question was how close to Shabbos.
A few students made cholent, and the
remaining students purchased a bowl of cholent from the cholent-merchant of
their choice. Late Wednesday afternoon, the large sink outside the yeshiva
bathroom was filled with soaking cholent bowls, and the drain was stuffed with
cholent debris (not sure what else to call it).
You can imagine that as principal,
Wednesday afternoons were my hardest day. I should’ve made a recording of
myself saying “you may not make cholent during class and you may not bring
cholent into class.” The students would offer the teacher an irresistible free
bowl of cholent thereby giving themselves justification to eat their bowls in
class. They offered me cholent as well. But there was no way I was going to eat
that stuff without knowing what they had put in there. Besides, I was afraid
that they would somehow deduct the cholent fee from my paycheck.
But in our home, I have been making
the cholent since before I was married. Actually, that isn’t really true. Prior
to our marriage I would make potato kugel for shabbos in my parent’s home each
week. In fact, when we were engaged, I would send a kugel to my kallah’s home
before shabbos. Some chassonim send flowers, I sent kugel.
But somewhere along the way, I felt
that making kugel was too time consuming and I switched to making the cholent
for Shabbos.
When I started making the kugel, I
really had no clue how to do anything other than peel potatoes. My mother had
to show me how to use the mixer. Actually, I think she had to start by showing
me how to crack a raw egg. So why did I bother with the kugel?
A number of years ago I heard Rabbi
Mordechai Finkelman relate that one year on the night of Erev Shavuos, he went
with a couple of his children to bring flowers to Rabbi and Rebbitzin Pam. The
Finkelman and Pam families shared a warm relationship and the Finkelmans were
bringing flowers as a gift for Yom Tov. When Rabbi Finkelman knocked on the
front door there was no response. He didn’t want to leave the flowers by the
front door, out of fear that they might be stolen. So, he walked with his
children to the back door, to leave the flowers there.
When they approached the back door,
the window shutters weren’t totally drawn. They were able to see Rav Pam
standing at the kitchen table with his sleeves slightly rolled up (he wouldn’t
uncover his elbows) and he was busily preparing food for Yom Tov.
It reminded me of the gemara
(Kiddushin 41a) that states that Rav Safra would cook the head of an animal and
Rava would salt the fish for the Shabbos meal. These great sages would take the
time to help prepare for Shabbos.
The story of Rav Pam inspired me to
begin preparing something for Shabbos as well. It’s over two decades later and
I have upheld that practice.
Rabbi Shimshon Pincus explains that
preparing for Shabbos is essentially honoring the Divine Presence. Whatever we
do for the honor of Shabbos is in actuality in honor of Hashem.
When considering how we can enhance
and elevate our personal service to Hashem this year, we should consider trying
to do more to prepare for Shabbos.
For those who are already maxed out
preparing for Shabbos each week, perhaps this can serve to mentally enhance our
efforts and remind us of how special it is to prepare for Shabbos. When we are
overly fatigued, remembering this can give us a little more mental energy.
Preparing for Shabbos affords us the
opportunity to serve Hashem in a unique manner, by beautifying our own homes
and meals in His honor.
When preparing for Shabbos, you can
have your cake/kugel/cholent, eat it too, and get a mitzvah. What a delicious
way to serve Hashem.
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Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Kesiva Vachasima Tova,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum