Living with the a C Ho Lent Sha B B a T What's Cholent? Basically, It's a Stew That Cooks Overnight So There Can Be a Hot Meal on Shabbat Day
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Shabbat Parshat Chukat-Balak Living with the A C ho lent Sha b b a t What's cholent? Basically, it's a stew that cooks overnight so there can be a hot meal on Shabbat day. The idea is this: the Torah tells us not to light a fire or cook on Shabbat. But we are allowed to let R eb b e something cook by itself, or to keep warm if it is already cooked. The Sages in the Talmud and the later legal responsa explain how Adapted from the works of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson to do this in accordance with Jewish law: essentially the fire must be lit and the food at least partially cooked before Shabbat starts. In This week's Torah portion, Balak, opens with the Children of addition, the fire has to be covered so that one wouldn't adjust the Israel encamped near the borders of Moab. Balak, the king of flame higher or lower. Adjusting the flame would, of course, be an Moab, hired the famous gentile prophet, Bilaam, to curse the act of cooking. Jews and cause their defeat, but G-d frustrated his evil On Shabbat in many observant homes (at least in the winter!) you'll see a piece of metal (known in Yiddish as a blech) covering intentions. Instead of delivering curses, Bilaam was overcome the stove top, and a pot with cholent sitting on top. with a Divinely inspired mood of prophecy and perception of Why all of this preamble? To share with you an incident that goodness. Against his will, Bilaam heaped praise and blessings recently took place containing an insightful lesson: upon those he had intended to curse. Someone was sponsoring a "Kiddush" in the synagogue. After Our Sages taught that Bilaam's prophecy alludes to the end of services there was going to be a lunch in honor of a wedding. days and the Final Redemption that will take place when Naturally, the family made sure there would be a big cholent, specially spiced, with lots of stew meat, potatoes, and other good Moshiach comes. "There shall step forth a star out of Jacob, and things. Everyone walking by the kitchen breathed in the smell and a scepter shall rise out of Israel," Bilaam begins. Maimonides their mouths watered. explained that Bilaam's prophecy refers to two anointed kings - If a cholent is cooking and there's not enough water, it'll dry out King David, who saved Israel from her enemies, and the last and maybe even burn. And so about halfway through services, the anointed Jewish king, Moshiach, who will arise and save Israel in aroma changed, ever so slightly. You know that smell when the end of days. something's just a little bit overcooked, when it's not really burned By specifying that the Torah mentions Moshiach "in the portion but if left on too much longer it will burn? So what was the sponsor of the Kiddush to do? If he left the of Bilaam," Maimonides alludes to the underlying concept of cholent on the stove until after services, it might burn. If he took it transformation which will see its culmination in the Messianic Era. off now, it wouldn't be hot by the time services were over. While a "And G-d, your L-rd, did not desire to listen to Bilaam. And G-d, piping hot cholent, even in the summer, is delicious, cold stew is, your L-rd, transformed the curse into a blessing." Just as Bilaam's well... evil intentions were transformed into benedictions, so too shall For the rest of the service, he ran back and forth between the the inner positive nature of human suffering be revealed when kitchen and the sanctuary. He managed to time it just right. He took the pot off the fire Moshiach comes. before the cholent burned, and it remained hot enough until it was The Torah portion of Balak generally coincides with the fast of served. It was a great Kiddush and a delicious cholent. the 17th of Tammuz which commemorates the breaching of the Afterwards, the sponsor told the rabbi. "Oy, I just had a cholent walls around Jerusalem, the beginning of the destruction of the Shabbat." Holy Temple, and inaugurates a three-week period of mourning. The rabbi just smiled and said, "That might be a good thing." Yet, according to Maimonides, in the Era of Redemption, "all "What do you mean?" the man asked. "I was so worried about the fasts will be nullified... and will be transformed into festivals and cholent, I didn't concentrate on my prayers at all. I barely read the words." days of joy and rejoicing." When Moshiach comes, the entire "Well," the rabbi said. "Why were you worrying about the cholent? experience of exile will be seen from a different perspective. The Were worrying because you spent a lot of money, or that you might inner good of the exile will be revealed and appreciated as a be embarrassed? That's one kind of cholent Shabbat. And yes, you positive phenomenon. should have forgotten about the cholent and concentrated on your The coming of Moshiach will theretofore restore to the Jewish prayers. people a sense of completeness which cannot be experienced "But if you were worried that someone else might be embarrassed while in exile. Just as his ancestor King David did before him, - say the bride and groom - or you were worried about the visitors or about the poor people who, hearing there'd be a sponsored Moshiach will remove our spiritual blinders and enable us to live Kiddush, came for lunch and now might not have something to eat - a fully integrated Jewish life. well, then, that's a different thing altogether. And that," concluded the rabbi, "is what I would call a proper cholent Shabbat." L‘C ha im W eek ly N ewsletter remember how that attempt failed." The Rebbe continued in this manner to refute all their words. At that time, Nachmanson entered the room and related the The physical body of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth following anecdote: "Lulov, do you know that my parents were Lubavitcher Rebbe, was incarcerated in the infamous Spalerno childless until they went to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for a blessing? prison, but his indomitable spirit was completely unfettered. This is the man right here...and I am the child who was born." The In spite of severe physical and psychological tortures inflicted interrogators laughed hilariously at this irony. upon him by his cruel and coarse jailers, he never wavered in his The interrogation lasted late into the night. belief in G-d and devotion to Judaism. At the end, Lulov angrily blurted out, "In another 24 hours you will On the 15th of Sivan, after an endless night of torture he be shot dead!" This was a real possibility at the time. demanded that he be given his tefillin. "Forget about it!" laughed his Suffering excruciating pain from the beatings he had received, the torturers. "You'll never get them as long as you're here!" Rebbe continued his hunger strike until Friday, when his tefillin and "If that is so, I declare that I am undertaking a hunger strike. Until books were returned to him. you give me my tefillin, I will neither eat nor drink, and the prisoners At that time, the Rebbe announced that he would eat only food in my cell will be witness to my fast." brought from his home. That Shabbat, he was brought three whole The Rebbe stood in the dark cell praying in a loud voice, while his challahs baked in his home (an example of the new deferential cell-mates stood in silent awe of the scene. treatment he was to receive). Neither the terrifying surroundings nor the screamed profanities of The guard who had previously been so gratuitously cruel, now the guards could penetrate the Rebbe's profound meditations. went out of his way to accommodate the Rebbe. As the Rebbe had The Rebbe continued his hunger strike throughout the next two requested, the guard would knock on his cell door to indicate the days and nights. At ten o'clock that night he was taken to be time for evening prayer, and at the conclusion of that Shabbat, the interrogated. There were three interrogators: two Jews - Lulov and Rebbe was given two matches with which to make Havdala [the Nachmanson - and one gentile, Dachtriov. prayer marking the separation between the holiness of Shabbat and The room was large and the marble walls were lined with large the mundane week]. tubes which enabled the GPU agents in the adjacent room to hear On the 12th of Tammuz, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok was released from and transcribe the interrogation. prison and sure death. When the Rebbe entered the room he turned to his interrogators Thirteen years later, the Rebbe arrived in the United States. His and remarked, "This is the first time that I have come into a room arrival marked the inception of a new era in Jewish America. It had and not a single person has risen from his place!" been assumed that Torah could never flourish in America as it had in "Do you know where you are?" they asked him. Europe, but with his famous pronouncement, "America is not "Of course. I know that this is a place where it is NOT required to different," the Rebbe opened the way for a dramatic growth of put a mezuza. There are several such places, for example, a stable Torah observance on these shores.