A parable.

[xiphias]

A man goes to his rebbe with a question:

"Rebbe, why is it that we eat kugel on Shabbos?"

"It is because the numerical value of the word 'kugel; is the same as the word 'Shabbos'." ¹

The man nodded, and turned to leave, satisfied. But before he got halfway home, he stopped, thought a moment, and ran back to the rebbe.

"Rebbe -- the numerical value of 'Shabbos' is MUCH greater than the value of 'kugel'!" he said.

"So, nu, have another piece."

¹ In Hebrew, each letter has a value, which is how Classical Hebrew tended to present numbers. That also means that you can add up the values of the letters in a word, to get the value of the word. And there is a common thing you do to take words of equal value, and connect them. In this case, the words are שבת, Shabbat/Shabbos (depending on accent), and קוגל, "kugel". Shin = 300, Bet = 2, Tav = 400, for a total of 602 for "Shabbat"; Kuf = 100, Vav = 6, Gimmel = 3, Lamed = 30, for a total of 139 for "kugel". Naturally, this means that you ought to have 4 ¹⁄₃ pieces of kugel on Shabbat.

Comments

[squid314.livejournal.com]

I'd hate to think how many inedible objects we would have to eat on various holidays if we followed the general rule "Eat anything whose numerical value is equal to the numerical value of the holiday."

[baratron.livejournal.com]

The part where you calculated that you should actually have 4 1⁄3 pieces of kugel on Shabbat possibly cracked me up even more than the original story. I'm not even sure i know what a kugel is, but that story is hilarious.

I get the impression, from things that you and others day, that an awful lot of rabbis, especially Reform rabbis, are extremely into Granny Weatherwax-style headology. Don't know the answer? It's not an important part of Jewish scripture? Make up something plausible! So as long as you give a nice placebo answer that satisfies the asker, that's just fine.

In fact, sometimes I swear that rabbis compete to come up with the most outlandish things possible and see how far they get!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

That's much more a part of the legendary part of the Chassidic tradition -- not what goes on today in the Chassidic communities, which include the scary ultra-Orthodox folks, but the 18th and 19th century Chassids, and more, the LEGENDS about them, which may or may not have historical basis.

Kugel is, obviously, a type of food. The two most common types of kugel are noodle kugel and potato kugel, and the two of them are nothing alike, to the point that I'm not even clear, in my own mind, what "kugel-ness" is -- what characteristics the two of them share.

They're both baked loaf-like dishes, I guess.

Noodle, or lokshen, kugel is a sweet dish of egg noodles, cottage/farmer's/ricotta cheese, raisins, eggs, and so forth, baked. Potato kugel is made of potatoes, onions, matzah meal, all grated/shredded/blended together, and baked.

What do they have in common? Well, they're both baked, and they're both delicious.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

And you should have 4 1/3 pieces of one of them or 2 1/6 pieces of each of them on Shabbos.

[linenoise.livejournal.com]

Seems like the same denotation of "pudding" as "bread pudding", which is a baked custard with substantial internal garnish in the form of stale bread. Bread pudding can be done savory or sweet. So "pudding" = baked custard used as binder for abundant other stuffs.

[(Anonymous)]

I beg to differ with your explanation. The real answer is only 3 pieces. He should have had two more pieces. You see only Litvaks spell קוגל with a vav - koogel. Everyone knows kugel is spelled קגל = eg 133. Of course, your parable suffered in the translation. You see, the original was not kugel, but chulent (or cholent if you're a Litvak). Then the Rebbe's answer made sense

dod

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Actually, that comes out to a total of 4½, not 3. Of course, it's much easier to have a half-piece of kugel than a third-piece, which is a strong argument that "kugel" is spelled without a vav.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I'm coming out with 399 for "cholent" (טשאָלנט).

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Further, how do you have a "piece" of cholent?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

("Funny, Rashi asks the same question. . . ")

[fauxklore]

Both lukshen kugel and potato kugel are made of starchy foods bound with eggs and baked. And there is savory non-dairy lukshen kugel, too, often with onions and mushrooms in it.

The word is usually translated as "pudding" which is rather confusing.

[gilana]

My mom also makes a sweet parve (non-dairy) kugel, sometimes with fruit in it.

Also, this story is hilarious, and I have just sent it to my whole family.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yes, of all the things that a kugel might be, it's NOT a pudding, either by the United States meaning OR the British meaning.

(The British meaning of "pudding" is "dessert", while, in America, what we call a "pudding", they call a "custard", and what we call a "custard", they call a "flan", and what we call a "flan", they call a . . . well, as far as I know, they call it a "flan", too. But our "flan" is specifically the one of Spanish origin with eggs that's served un-molded (or un-moulded) with orange sauce. "Kugel" does not fit ANY of these definitions, except that you could use SOME lokshen kugels as desserts, but they're generally used as side dishes, even if they're sweet.)

[fauxklore]

Actually, there is a precedent for a baked starchy dish being called a pudding in English. Namely, Yorkshire pudding, which is basically a large popover.

And then there is Indian pudding (and, as a New Englander, you may also be familiar with grape nut pudding) though that is sweetened. There's even hasty pudding which is, essentially, polenta. (Indian pudding is hasty pudding made with molasses and sweet spices added, at least in my admittedly limited experience.)

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

un-molded (or un-moulded) flan is the best - I do not like furry growths of minute fungal hyphae on my flan, or on any other foods, for that matter --

[ailbhe]

Black and white pudding are meat. And pudding is a *subset* of dessert as well as a synonym. Doughy bready bakedy fatty savoury things could definitely be pudding.

[nitoda]

I was wondering why I was feeling confused so googled kugel and came up with the same stuff you've been describing. So then I went for kugeln and here is a pic and article about the kind of kugeln I remember - Mozartkugeln! From Salzburg. Not at all the same thing, and probably why I had it in mind that a kugel would be a round thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozartkugel