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

[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.