[Avodah] Hot Cheese for Shabbat Lunch

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Fri, February 15, 2008 2:57 pm, R Zev Sero wrote:
> : And yet Rebbi did not have hot food on Shabbos....
> 
> I am not sure this is true. All we see from the story of Antoninus and
> Rebbe (the Bereishis Rabba 11:4 version) is that this particular dish
> happened not to be served hot on Shabbos.

The basic assumption behind the story is that hot food is inherently
better than cold, and therefore Antoninus was surprised that Rebbi's
cold food that he served on Shabbos tasted better than the hot food
he served during the week.  If Rebbi usually did have hot food on
Shabbos, why did he serve Antoninus cold food, which one would expect
to be worse than hot?  And why was Antoninus not surprised and insulted
the first time?  Why was it only at the second meal, which he expected
to be better than the first because this time it would be hot, that he
felt surprised and perhaps insulted that it wasn't?

It seems to me that the explanation is that it was not the custom of
Jews at that time to have hot food on Shabbos, and Antoninus knew this,
and therefore when he tasted how good the Shabbos meal was he
concluded that Rebbi must have a very good cook, and if she could do
such a good job on Shabbos imagine what she could do during the week!
So when he got the weekday invitation he was looking forward to
something truly spectacular, and was disappointed that it wasn't as
good as the Shabbos meal.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas