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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] resource material was chalal-perforate/pierce?

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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] resource material was chalal-perforate/pierce?
  • Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:27:06 +0300

Isaac Fried wrote:

I looked up TWOT and saw that he suggests that XALAH [of the famous
rhyme: I baked a little xalah, I baked it by myself, I put it in the
oven, I put it on the shelf,...] is some kind of bagel or pretzel
since its name implies that it is 'pierced'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University



Shavua Tov Isaac,

The fact that the what we call Xallah today is a sweet braided loaf does not mean that the Xallah used in the Temple looked the same. While there are other theories about the original meaning of the word Xallah (the Arabic cognate, for example, means "sweet"), this one is certainly possible.

Do you know that our Matzah, with its rows of holes and its cardboard-like hardness, is a fairly modern invention? Have you ever seen a traditional Yemenite or Samaritan matzah? They look much more like what is now called an Iraqi Pita (the big soft kind without the "pocket".

Yigal Levin




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