Berakhot 44

I am about 6 weeks into the daily Talmud readings, and am beginning to question why I am spending so much time reading about the order in which to say blessings and which foods are primary and secondary. I get that it is important to honor what we are given in this life and the fruits of the earth, but it takes a lot of digging each day to find meaning that is relevant to my life. 

So what did I learn today? Rabbi Yohanan has a voracious appetite for fruit. He ate an inordinate amount of fruit and was still not satiated. Were all those sardines present in King Yannai’s kingdom in order to cut all the sweetness from the figs with saltiness, in order to create proper balance? Do both tales present a message about balancing the sweet with the salty in our lives and partaking in everything with moderation? 

Eggs are an important measure of volume in the Talmud and the text today suggests that they are a superior food in terms of the order blessings are said: “Anything that is an egg’s equivalent, an egg is superior to it.” 

The litany of foods that have medicinal benefit continues. Meat of the spleen is beneficial to tooth health. Leeks are detrimental to the teeth but beneficial to the spleen. Eating food whole, such as fish, nourishes the soul while beets are beneficial for healing and cabbage is nourishing. But oh dear- turnips are targeted as harmful for a household (although we are not told why) and eating raw vegetables turns one’s face pale. 

We should stay away from anyone who eats raw vegetables early in the day due to pungent breath. (This may be why I gravitate to sweets in the morning with my coffee. I wouldn’t want to offend my family, friends and colleagues with bad breath, and I like starting my day with something sweet.)  There is also a warning against eating anything that has not reached its full size, which presumably would include the eating of lamb, which I consider a truly cruel practice. “Anything close to the soul restores the soul” is a lovely concept except within the context of this reading, which refers to eating the neck of animals. And evidentially, a small under-cooked fish has the capacity to kill unless it is washed down with beer. (Does this include eating lox and sturgeon?)

We are given a prescription for overcoming illness today through food: cabbage, beets, chamomile, water, honey, stomach, heret (I don’t know what this is) and liver. I am currently sick with a sinus infection and although I don’t have an appetite for eating an animal’s intestines, I am sipping chamomile tea with honey and making sure I am properly hydrated. I am not willing to test if eating an animal’s intestines can cure an infection.

The focus on trees in this chapter reminded me that my grandparents would give me a certificate on my birthday indicating that a tree was planted in Israel in my name. I have lost sight of those certificates, but the gesture of contributing to the Israeli tree fund did create a sense of affinity for me with the state of Israel. Somewhere really far away there were trees with my name on them (I never checked to see if that was actually true) that were rooted in the Jewish homeland. This was a powerful strategy for creating a connection with Jews who lived in the Diaspora with the state of Israel. 

https://www.nationaljewishmemorialwall.com/plant-a-tree/