What is it about Jews and Chinese food?This oddly-passionate obsession has inspired scholarly dissertations,  cookbooks, multi-cultural festivals, and even affected international relations [this last link, btw, about Asian chefs in Israel going on an eggroll strike over the elimination of foreign worker permits, is worth a trip to Jewschool to read in its entirety]!

So when this article appeared recently in the NYTimes about the history of the fortune cookie, I immediately thought, “hmmm…what’s the Jewish connection?” The answer? The long Jewish tradition of bibliophagy (eating the written word). Find interesting examples of Jewish bibliophagy after the jump:

From Jeremiah 15:16-21

I found Your words and ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O Eternal God of hosts…Therefore, thus says the Eternal: “If you return, and I bring you back, you shall stand before Me; and if you bring forth the precious out of the vile, you shall be as My mouth.”

From Ezekiel 3:1-3 

“And you, O Human (lit. “Son of Man”), heed that which I speak to you. Do not be rebellious like the rebellious ones (lit. “House of Rebellion”). Open your mouth and eat that which I give you.’  Then I saw, and behold! A hand was outsretched to me; and behold! In it was a scroll of parchment. God spread it out before me; it was inscribed within and without, and in it was inscribed lamentations, moaning, and woe. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ So I opened my mouth, and God fed me this scroll. And God said to me, ‘Son of man, feed your stomach, and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.’ Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.”

Even more fun with bibliophagy…

And the rabbi reads every letter of the alef-bet and the child repeats after him…And the rabbi puts a little honey on the slate and the child licks the honey from the letters with his tongue. And then they bring the honey cake upon which is inscribed “The Eternal God gave me a skilled tongue to know…” (Isaiah 50: 4-5), and the rabbi reads every word of these verses and the child repeats after him. And then they bring a peeled hard-boiled egg upon which is written “Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll… and I ate it and it tasted as sweet as honey to me” (Ezekiel 3:3). And the rabbi reads every word and the child repeats after him. And they feed the child the cake and the egg, for they open the mind…(Sefer Harokeah, R. Eleazar of Worms [1160-1230])