Rena Rossner was inspired about ten years ago while eating a hot bowl of red lentil soup. That fateful soup began a journey for Rena that culminated in her first cookbook, Eating the Bible. Eating the Bible takes us through the weekly Torah portions with quoted verses and a little bit of commentary that connects us to a recipe. Rena find connections similar to the way I do in our Shabbat Menus and I had fun going through and finding new ideas I had never thought of before. I also love the way Rena explains her connections going into just the right amount of detail and adding alternative recipes options as well as questions to help keep the conversation moving from cooking to table. Let’s learn a bit more about Rena and preview a few recipes here:
The red lentil soup served to you the same week we read about the one Esau sold for his birthright inspired your journey. What else inspired you through the whole process?
Well, first, I think that creating these recipes gave me a reason to read the Bible/Torah much more closely. My husband was always reading and learning and connecting to the Torah every week, and this gave me a reason to spend as much time, if not more time, analyzing the texts. But I was doing it in a way that was interesting to me, and I was looking for something completely different – not erudition, but rather, nutrition! It was fascinating not just to see how food played a part in people’s lives in Ancient times, but also which food items were critical to their lives and which types of food played (often a really important part!) in these stories.
Did you always think you would write a cookbook?
No. Never. I love food and I love cooking and baking. My mother is an amazing cook and baker, and so was my grandmother, and I grew up cooking at their elbows, but I never thought that what I did was different or special enough to warrant a cookbook. When I got married and finally had a kitchen of my own I got tons of cookbooks for my bridal shower and I started creating elaborate menus and trying recipes I’d never had the opportunity to try before. Creating a meal for me became something like an artform. I didn’t realize then that as I worked my way through nearly every recipe in these books that I was actually taking everything to the next level.
HERB-ROASTED BEEF IN SALT CRUST
Herb Roasted Beef in a Salt Crust
What is your earliest memory of cooking?
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Wow. That’s a good question! I think it must be watching my mom make birthday cakes. My mom is an amazing cake decorator, and for every birthday she always made something fabulous. I learned to decorate cakes just by watching her, and I remember every cake she ever made for me. I think something in that speaks to what I’m trying to do with EATING THE BIBLE. Why do I remember those birthday cakes? Because they were tactile memories. And I want EATING THE BIBLE to create those memories for everyone, so that people don’t just have tactile memories that they associate with holidays (think Turkey=Thanksgiving,) but also tactile memories of the Bible. How cool would that be if your mouth watered every time you read your favorite Bible stories? That’s what I want to do. To make it come alive.
Did you find that your study of Torah was enhanced when you looked at it with this food lens?
Yes, absolutely. It was a way for me to connect with the texts in my own way – to bring the stories alive in a way that spoke to all of my senses. Also, from a historical/academic perspective one of the things that was most fascinating to me was creating the index of food items mentioned in the Bible that’s found at the back of the book. What I discovered was amazing – the Bible can also be a blueprint for healthy eating! Wheat was surprisingly a mainstay of the Biblical diet, goat’s milk (which is supposed to be healthier for you that cow’s milk,) dates, olives, figs, and very little meat. Meat only on special occasions. It’s really very interesting if you think about it.
Seven Species Harvest Chicken
How do you expect/want your readers to enjoy your book?
I’d love people to use my cookbook to enhance their weekly tables and to help them bring meaning to their meals. I’d be even more excited if people loved my recipes so much that they returned to my cookbook to make the recipes again and again, just because they taste good!
Now that it is out there, have you thought about writing any other cookbooks?
Oh, well that is the big question! I have enough recipes from all my weekly columns to put out a second cookbook (Eating the Bible Revisited?) and many of my friends joke around with me about it giving new suggestions: Drinking with the Prophets? Eating Ecclesiastes? But in all seriousness I think it would be fascinating to take a look at the Prophets or at the Song of Songs. There’s lots of rich language in there and I think it would be a poetic and culinary challenge. Who knows. We’ll see!
BRICK-SHAPED TURKEY MEATLOAF WITH CRANBERRY CHAROSET
Brick Shaped Turkey Meatloaf
Which was more difficult for you, creating the recipes or finding a connection to the parsha?
Definitely finding the connection. Some weeks were super easy. I could write an entire cookbook just about certain chapters – Genesis alone has enough for hundreds of recipes. I actually thought Leviticus would be the hardest when I first started doing this, I thought it would be all meat from the sacrifices, but it was easy! So many of the sacrifices involved grain and oil and spices that it wasn’t a challenge at all. Deuteronomy was actually the most challenging – there were many chapters there that had absolutely no connection to food and I admit that sometimes it was a stretch.
Are all the recipes easy to make and good for Shabbat?
Most of them, yes. One of my main goals in creating this cookbook and these recipes was to make things that I myself would make easily and be able to bring to my table. But, because I know that not everyone finds cooking and baking as easy as I do, I also added “Alternatives” in a sidebar that give “quick and easy” ideas so that everyone, no matter what experience they have in the kitchen, can find a way to bring more meaning to their meals and help bring the Torah/Weekly Portion to life. Admittedly there are one or two recipes that are quite involved – The Gingerbread Tabernacle is a prime example, but I think every cookbook needs one or two challenge recipes in it, don’t you?
I like Deborah, she was my Torah portion for my Bat Mitzvah. I like that strong women are represented in the Torah! I love the idea of this book, it brings new light to Torah study!
My favourite story is of how David was chosen to be king
Sounds like a really cool cookbook. I’d love to win it!
What a great idea for a cookbook! I love all the stories of Bereishis, but I also like the story of Matan Torah and the chet ha’egel. While it isn’t exactly a “light” topic, there’s so much to learn from it, especially the extent of Hashem’s love for us, no matter how many times we sin.
Sounds interesting its a great way to have kids try to find the connection and open a discussion at the shabbas table. We always make lentil soup when appropriate and my MIL makes Marble (Mabul) cake on parhat Noach
Inspirational!
Eating the Bible is a fabulous cookbook and inspires much ‘food for Jewish thought.’ Highly recommended!
I like making lentil soup the week that is in the parsha
Must check out this cookbook!
Looks like a very interesting cookbook!
Always looking for ways to grow in my education of personal values, cooking, creating. Thank you for a better way of eating.
What an interesting idea and fresh approach.
My kids want me to reenact the 180 feast of Achashverosh! I think that the Purim seudah being just a one day version will be a good start.
looks like a lovely cookbook
The akedah. A Reform Rabbi told me if I didn’t like the story I could just ignore it. I was so upset that a rabbi told me to ignore something in the Torah… so upset that the rabbi told me that maybe Reform Judaism wasn’t right for me if I wasn’t comfortable ignoring parts.
I would really enjoy a cookbook like this. It endorses eating healthier.
I would love this cook book and cherish it.
What a great cookbook. It would be a great family activity.
What a fantastic idea!
the story of yosef reveling himself to his brothers is definitely the most suspenseful
Great way to study Bible.
I always liked the story of yo heaved and miriam risking their lives as midwives in Egypt.
As we are coming closer to Purim, I have always loved the story of the Megillah – the intrigue and the twisting plots tops any popular thriller novel around.
Would LOVE to have this for my Shabbat table! Favorite story is that of Creation…can always find new ways to learn it.
This is a cool idea, I’d love to get the book.
I also make red lentil soup for Parshas Toldos, but would love other ideas for incorporating the parsha into the Shabbos meal.
Love the idea!! We do weekly Torah Lunch and Learn and try to occasionally tie in food to our study . Would live to win! Jonah is my favorite.
I love the moment Yaakov and Yosef are reunited after many years of separation.
What a great way to help my children remember the parsha!!
A truly PHENOMINAL topic that corresponds to the sidrot, and applying that to cooking!
I think the stories in Genesis are all great, starting from the creation to the death of Jacob. Each have their own significance. I would love to share the recipes with my students, cooking dishes corresponding to each of the stories. It would be so creative to ensure that it is a living Torah that is also practical.
What a fun thing this would be to do
Torah is life and I love that it has been shared through a cookbook!! Tizku l’mitzvot rabot!!
I love the story of creation, especially as seen through my children’s eyes
This is a wonderful idea, a way for us to cook and learn. Kol HaKovod.
I love the story of Ruth. This cookbook looks amazing. Thank you for the opportunity.
I’ve recently become pretty obsessed with cooking and am really excited to check out this cookbook. What a beautiful story & sentiment; nourishing bodies and minds!
The love story between Jacob and Rachel…how he met her, was willing to work for her double time, shared in her infertility pain, mourned her terribly and loved her till he died.
I can’t think of one favorite, I love how the 12 stones turned to a ladder for Yaakov, the story of Avram and all of his convictions, the story of Moshe….
Hannah praying for a baby in Shiloh.
wow what a fascinating topic. i really like the idea of connecting to torah through food.
I really love the story of Nehemiah. It would be interesting to prepare a meal based on all the food he mentions he provides every day. Looking forward to this book!
As a science teacher, who happens to love to cook, I love the story of creation. I love meshing the thoughts of the Rabbis and the scientists into something that actually makes sense. This cookbook looks great! It would help with the siyumim my kids have when they need to connect what they bring in to the parsha.
It would have to be Cain and Abel. Love the idea for the cookbook!
Hmmmm… what is my favorite “story?” Probably learning about the Mishkan. I often teach hilchos Shabbos, whose laws are derived from how we built the Mishkan.
I’m so interested in seeing the recipes for each parsha. One of my daughters makes treats for her children each week connected to the parsha.
It’s also interesting to note which are the halachically derived real “Jewish foods” we eat: MATZAH, which we are commanded to eat on Pesach, CHOLENT, which was created by the rabbis as a response to the Karaim who did not accept the Oral Torah, and ate cold food on Shabbos, GEFILTE FISH which was created to avoid the problem of “borer,” and CHALLAH — derived from the manna and the “lechem haponim.”
Probably Yitzchak and Rivka – though I don’t know what recipes would be associated with them – challah?
My mother would always make something connected to the parsha for the first bit of bereshit…I told her to write a cookbook but I couldn’t think of anything past the toldot! 🙂
I think I connect most with Yosef’s story…
This cookbook sound great. I always loved the idea of connecting cooking to that weeks torah portion.
Eating The Bible cookbook would be such a great way to involve the family in studying the Bible. I can’t wait to see the recipes on Leviticus – sounds fascinating!
I find all of Genesis fascinating, because of the parenting insights. Maybe that should be MY book–Parenting the Bible. But I am most engrossed by Yitzhak and especially Rivka. The choices she had to make, her intense relationship with her husband, her ability to be silent or speak up, as necessary. All of this provides me with, well, food for thought. 🙂 I’d love to win a copy of Rena’s book!
This cookbook looks very interesting