“You are what you eat”—like many clichés, this is quite literally true. The stuff we ingest into our bodies becomes the very stuff of our bones and blood—even, say our sages, of our souls.

In this collection of 30 articles, essays and stories, we look at the chemistry and character, cosmology and morality, wonder and whimsy, timbre and texture, cunning and comedy, labor and love, guilt and desire, politics and economics, history and future, the Talmud and the Kabbalah of food. Bon appetit!

Readings:

The Sages of the Talmud on Food

The Chassidic Masters on Food

Stories:

Kosher Marks
By Michael Medved

Grace After Meals
By Wendy Dickstien

Sitting in a Cafe
By Jay Litvin

The Summer of the Kishka
By Ilana Attia

Cooking the Year
By Ilana Attia

A Set of Dishes
By Dr. Velvl Green

Herschel Goat
told by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yizchak Schneersohn

Shmurah
told by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yizchak Schneersohn

Too Good to be Good
told by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yizchak Schneersohn

The Rabbi and the Ox
By Yanki Tauber

After the Fast
By Yanki Tauber

Cholent
By Yanki Tauber

Blintzes
By Tuvia Bolton

Barrels in the Snow
By Tuvia Bolton

Hard to Swallow
By Yrachmiel Tilles

The Gift
By Yrachmiel Tilles

The Onion Plot
By Yrachmiel Tilles

Insights & Essays:

Holy Lunch
By Yanki Tauber

The Development
By Mattis Kantor

Spiritual Molecules
By Dr. Velvl Green

Anorexia of the Soul
By Dr. Ilsa J. Bick

Eating
By Zvi Yair

Packaging
By Yanki Tauber

The Three Points of the Hamantash
By Israel Rubin

Meat

based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Reverse Biology
based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Eating on the Job
based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

The Seven Kinds
based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe