Riddles, Donkeys, Wormy Cheese, and Much More

Included in the cheese platter of a supervised public kosher dinner was wormy cheese in which one could see the worms jumping around! Even though creepy-crawlies are strictly forbidden according to the kosher food laws, an exception are those found in cheese which has been made to certain kosher specifications. Another course served at this meal was fried locusts, a delicacy enjoyed by some Jewish communities in the world. The soup course contained amongst other things miniscule sparrow’s eggs. For the main course the waiter brought in a swordfish whose long sword was clearly visible, and this was sliced up and served to the guests. The dessert was a creamy cake covered in a pig bone gelatin to prevent the cream from oozing out. A nearby kosher butcher, in addition to selling the regular items of beef, lamb, and chicken, had on its list of products, giraffe meat, cloned pig meat and nightingales. A detailed paper in this book analyses and discusses the kosher nature of these and many other unconventional foods. This paper accordingly enables the reader to learn many of the laws concerning kosher food in a novel way. Needless to say, for Divine worship one requires a clean environment. It is therefore forbidden to pray in an area where there are excretions from humans and/or from some animals. In addition, sometimes there are bad odours emanating from a human or animal or other source, and likewise one is forbidden to pray in such an area. One example is the odour of a donkey which has just come in from a long journey. An interdisciplinary paper deals with unpleasant odors as discussed in Rabbinic literature with the accompanying scientific background. Etrogim for the Festival of Sukkot come in all shapes and sizes, but the uniqueness of the Chinese Etrog is that it has fingers! A paper in this book discusses this Etrog, both botanically and according to Jewish law, and whether it is kosher for use on Sukkot.  For those wanting to entertain, for example, pupils or members of a youth club, in an educational constructive manner, there is a section containing 250 riddles on Jewish religious subjects. In addition to the answers for each riddle, additional explanatory material is given, and also the source of the information so as to enable the teacher or youth leader to look up the original material. This section also includes some Torah records of the 'Guinness record type.' There are many occasions when a Rabbi or teacher puts his lesson on the internet and invites readers to add their own comments. One such case is a Rabbi in Yeshivah University in New York and the book contains 250 comments of a varying nature which I made on his lessons. Every seventh year the holy soil of Eretz-Israel has its Sabbath - the Shemitta.  In a chapter of this book, I discuss my choice of source for the vegetables to be purchased during this period. There is also a chapter giving the text of sermons which I delivered in a Synagogue in Liverpool England in the 1970s, and a chapter on the letters I wrote to the magazine Mishpacha. For 700 years, Jews were prevented from entering the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and were only allowed to ascend the first seven outside stairs. It was in the 1930s that a great Rabbi visiting Israel 'dared' to go beyond the seventh stair. A chapter of the book describes this incident and the rumpus which followed! In summary, this book is a 'mixed salad' of papers.