Q: Why do we eat Gefilta Fish on Shabbat? It smells a little funny and feels a little slimy, wouldn’t regular fish be okay?

 

A: You can eat whatever fish you want (as long as it’s kosher) but there is a reason why your grandmother served Gefilta fish on Shabbat. The origin of this dish is a prohibition on Shabbat called “Borer–sorting.” What that means is that it’s forbidden to sort “bad from good.” For example, if I had a box with rotten apples and good apples I would not be allowed to remove the bad apples. So, fish presented a problem. How do I get the bones out of the fish? The bones are what I don’t want so it’s “Bad” and the fish is what I want so it’s “good”. To take care of this issue they invented Gefilte Fish, where the fish and bones are ground together so there is no need to separate anything.

 

Enjoy!

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