[Avodah] Preparing Food Before or on Yom Tov (was Definition of Religion)

[Zev Sero]

On 30/09/2012 2:34 AM, Ben Waxman wrote:
> So perhaps instead of measuring the parameters in 21st century first
> world terms, we have to use Chazal's terms of reference.  If the question
> is "will the food spoil if cooked before hand", OK, cook it on Yom Tov.
>
> If the question is some small improvement in taste that one gets from
> freshly cooked food versus refrigerated and reheated food, than for sure,
> cook ahead of time.

No, that isn't the criterion. On the contrary, we're explicitly told
not only that we may bake bread on yomtov because fresh bread is better,
but also that we may bake more than we need for the day, because the
bread bakes better in a full oven than in a half-empty one.  So even
for that slight improvement in taste we're allowed to cook on yomtov.
The examples given by the poskim of food that one may *not* prepare on
yomtov are 1) cooked dried fruit, and 2) pasta (making it, not cooking it),
both of which we're told improve with age.  These are of course only
examples, but the tzad hashaveh is that they can be made before yomtov
with *no* loss of quality, and therefore even if there was no opportunity
to make them before yomtov one may not do so on yomtov without a shinui.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon