Spring Break
Professors debate holiday food
by Lydia Flier
News | 1/15/08
Posted online at 5:10 AM EST on 1/15/08
The pointed arguments of Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS) flattened the well-oiled speech of Prof. Reuven Kimelman (NEJS) at the first-ever Brandeis hamantashen-versus-latke debate on Hanukkah, Dec. 6.
Hillel and the Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society hosted the event in the Lurias room in the Hassenfeld Conference Center. Sarna argued on behalf of hamantashen, jam-filled cookies served at Purim and associated with Haman, the villain of the holiday, and Kimelman argued the merits of latkes, fried potato pancakes often served with sour cream or applesauce during Hanukkah. Following the debate, the audience voted to give hamantashen sweet victory and feasted on both holiday treats.
Sarna opened the debate by using gematria, the numerology of the Hebrew alphabet, to reveal that the numerical value for latke is 270, corresponding to rah, the Hebrew word for evil.
Sarna then broached his three-point argument of history, linguistics and semantics. His strongest contentions involved the hamantashen's symbolic importance. The three points of its triangular shape represent God, Torah and Israel, and the 180 degrees of the triangular shape is 10 times 18, the numerical value of chai, the Hebrew word for life. The many possible fillings of hamantashen illustrate "the pluralism of the Jewish people," Sarna said. "The magic of the hamantashen is the magic of the Jewish people itself," he added, explaining how two hamantashen superimposed on each other form the Jewish star, whereas one latke on top of another "forms only hardening of the arteries."
He ended his speech, declaring, "The hamantashen is the king of all foods, may it reign now and forevermore, amen."
Kimelman began his defense declaring, "If one latke is rah, two latkes is rah-rah!" He went on to say, "The quicker you go through hamantashen, which are prune based, the quicker they go through you."
"Hamantashen are loaded in their own dough and self-importance," stated Kimelman, aligning himself with what he termed the "pro-latke-teriat." According to Kimelman, the debate boils down to "the glorification of evil versus the glorification of good."
Audience member Kim dela Cruz '11 said, "I've always been a die-hard latke fan, but the hamantashen win didn't bother me too much because I was well-fed."
And as anyone familiar with Jewish food knows, it's hard to argue with that.
-Lydia Flier
Hillel and the Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society hosted the event in the Lurias room in the Hassenfeld Conference Center. Sarna argued on behalf of hamantashen, jam-filled cookies served at Purim and associated with Haman, the villain of the holiday, and Kimelman argued the merits of latkes, fried potato pancakes often served with sour cream or applesauce during Hanukkah. Following the debate, the audience voted to give hamantashen sweet victory and feasted on both holiday treats.
Sarna opened the debate by using gematria, the numerology of the Hebrew alphabet, to reveal that the numerical value for latke is 270, corresponding to rah, the Hebrew word for evil.
Sarna then broached his three-point argument of history, linguistics and semantics. His strongest contentions involved the hamantashen's symbolic importance. The three points of its triangular shape represent God, Torah and Israel, and the 180 degrees of the triangular shape is 10 times 18, the numerical value of chai, the Hebrew word for life. The many possible fillings of hamantashen illustrate "the pluralism of the Jewish people," Sarna said. "The magic of the hamantashen is the magic of the Jewish people itself," he added, explaining how two hamantashen superimposed on each other form the Jewish star, whereas one latke on top of another "forms only hardening of the arteries."
He ended his speech, declaring, "The hamantashen is the king of all foods, may it reign now and forevermore, amen."
Kimelman began his defense declaring, "If one latke is rah, two latkes is rah-rah!" He went on to say, "The quicker you go through hamantashen, which are prune based, the quicker they go through you."
"Hamantashen are loaded in their own dough and self-importance," stated Kimelman, aligning himself with what he termed the "pro-latke-teriat." According to Kimelman, the debate boils down to "the glorification of evil versus the glorification of good."
Audience member Kim dela Cruz '11 said, "I've always been a die-hard latke fan, but the hamantashen win didn't bother me too much because I was well-fed."
And as anyone familiar with Jewish food knows, it's hard to argue with that.
-Lydia Flier
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
jordan pollack
posted 1/15/08 @ 12:28 PM EST
That couldn't have been the FIRST such debate, because I represented Latkes several years ago with Andreas Teuber!
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