Eating Herring With Your Hands: from parshablog

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2009

PARSHIOT

parshablog

Why eat herring with your hands?

There is apparently a specific shul in the neighborhood where the older mispallelim, at shaleshudes, eat herring with their hands. My father always suggested that the basis of this is minhag avoseinu beyadeinu.

But recently, Dr. David Segal related the reason they themselves give for it

(as far as I understand; unless it was his original joke...).

Towards the end of parshas Noach, the pasuk states:

ב וּמוֹרַאֲכֶם וְחִתְּכֶם, יִהְיֶה, עַל כָּל-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ, וְעַל כָּל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם; בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תִּרְמֹשׂ הָאֲדָמָה וּבְכָל-דְּגֵי הַיָּם, בְּיֶדְכֶם נִתָּנוּ.

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all wherewith the ground teemeth, and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered.

Source: http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-eat-herring-with-your-hands.html