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Jewish Foods of the WorldBreaking Breadby Daniel RogovWhen people speak today of "breaking bread", their meaning is clear: they are talking about dining. However, the original meaning of this seemingly simple phrase, which dates back to Biblical times, actually referred to the physical act of breaking bread. Even in antiquity, bread was considered so essential to the maintenance of human life that there was no act more social than sharing one's bread with others. In those days, people did not use forks and knives, but ate with their fingers. Thus, bread was never sliced, it was literally "broken" - or torn apart - to be shared. In time, the sharing of bread became an important social ritual, and by the time of the reign of the first Kings of Israel, complex rituals had evolved as to precisely who would be the first at a table to break bread, about sharing one's bread with friends and strangers, and even about sharing one's bread with enemies. So important in the Holy Land was this food staple, and the rituals involved in eating it, that we find no less than 600 references to bread in the Old and New Testaments, and at least eighty such references in the Koran. Nor was there a shortage of different kinds of bread in the Holy Land. Although most people ate the most common kinds of flat bread, the rich could choose from among as many as forty different types of bread, some of which were round, some conical, some plaited, some made with honey, some with herbs, spices and even fruits; some were made with milk and yet others with eggs. Modern Israelis of all religions and ethnic backgrounds love bread, and eat a large variety of it. The national repertoire also includes a number of breads that are specially baked for use during holidays. Click here for bread recipes. Daniel Rogov is the restaurant and wine critic for the daily newspaper Ha'aretz. He is also the senior writer for Wine and Gourmet Magazine and contributes culinary and wine articles to newspapers in Europe and the United States. Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry and Rogov's Ramblings. Reprinted with permission.
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