Syrian Culinary Superstitions

I also learned that some superstitions I thought might be regional were actually specific to Syrian Jews. For example, growing up, I was always told to salt my eggs or risk invoking bad luck. A Syrian Jewish elder suggested that Jews salted the korban (sacrifice) in the days of the temple. She also said, “When in mourning, you eat a hard-boiled egg in Syrian bread and you don’t salt it.”

This tradition was unknown to my non-Jewish interviewees, but upon digging into the subject, I discovered a possible explanation—the Shulchan Arukh notes that eggs are considered meals for mourners, at least in part due to their round shape. Rashi states: “mourning (sorrow) is a wheel that revolves in the world (it touches everyone sooner or later as a revolving wheel touches every spot in turn)” (Bava Batra 16b).

When asking other interviewees about salt, I came across an unrelated but interesting story with historical roots pointing to how empire and imperial expansion impact language. A Syrian Muslim interviewee told me about the roots of the Syrian slang word, toz.

“People used to traffic salt from Turkey to Syria during the Ottoman Empire, so if you’re only transporting salt, you won’t have to pay tax on it. So you would just tell the border policeman ‘toz’ [note: toz = Turkish word for salt] meaning ‘it’s only salt.’ And after a while, this word became in Arabic ‘I don’t care.’ So if someone says, ‘I’m going to do this to you, I’m going to tell your mom about what you’re doing,’ you’re just going to say, ‘Toz.’”

To synthesize these early findings, I created a dinner/showcase where I played audio clips from different interviews, cooked Syrian dishes (including kanafeh and the possibly-first-ever hummus recipe from 13th-century cookbook Kitab al-Wuslah ila l-habib), and displayed art I created as inspired by my research. Some interviewees were unable to attend in person but connected via video or were sent photos and recordings of the event. 

Future goals include deepening my research into whether and how the revolution has impacted this subject, as well as how traces of occupation or colonization (French, Ottoman, etc.) may tie into specific superstitions. Thinking about this subject ethnically and regionally, as opposed to nationally, is also part of my goal in combating both nationalist and Zionist ahistorical overlays onto a complex system.

I also hope to do my next round of interviews, ideally representing Syrian Kurds, Alwaites, and Christians, in Syria إن شاء اللّه