Stuffed Full of Blessings
The harvest holiday of Sukkot does not have a mascot food like Chanukah and Purim; the closest it comes is the tradition to eat stuffed vegetables. We know why we make latkes and hamentaschen, but why do we stuff vegetables (and everything else) on Sukkot?
The most traditional reason given for stuffing foods is that the stuffing symbolizes the bounty of the harvest yet for most of us, this is not the time of year in which the harvest is most bountiful. Many of the foods that are harvested at this time of year, such as apples, grapes, and potatoes are actually foods that can be eaten during the long winter ahead and do not bring about the same youthful, unrestrained joy as do sweet corn and juicy peaches in July and August.
Rather than this traditional explanation for stuffing, we must instead look towards Sukkot’s placement in the calendar year in order to understand this food tradition. Sukkot comes just five short days after Yom Kippur, a day in which no food is eaten and in which we examine every aspect of our lives. From this perspective, as a celebratory harvest holiday, Sukkot stands in direct opposition to Yom Kippur. Rather than putting a magnifying glass to our lives and times when we’ve “missed the mark,” Sukkot gives us the opportunity to step back to revel in our lives and the bounty we have been given.
If we think of each grain of rice in the stuffed zucchini or pepper and each piece of meat wrapped up in the cabbage standing for individual blessings wrapped up in our lives, then we not only have the harvest to be grateful for (after all, sitting in a sukkah with gourds hanging over our heads seems to do a pretty good job of that), but we can literally eat our blessings and be thankful for the blessings of family, friends, health, home, and life.
Perhaps we stuff foods on Sukkot to remind us of the harvest and abundance in the fields, as well as the multiple blessings we have been given in life.
Rachel Saks is a personal chef and Master’s candidate at NYU for Nutrition and Dietetics. She lives in New York with her husband, Ari, who is a rabbinical student at JTS.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
