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Q&A: Sabbath as an acronym: On the Sabbath, eat eggs (and onion)

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Sabbath as an acronym: On the Sabbath, eat eggs (and onion)

Question

When I was a child, on Sabbath morning we ate egg-and-onion salad.
My parents thought there was some special holiness specifically in that food on the Sabbath, because “Sabbath” is an acronym for “On the Sabbath, eat eggs.”
Are they right?
(Maybe once, during the austerity period, it was a rare and prestigious food?)
Or is it like I saw one rabbi write, that on the Sabbath you should eat tasty food, and each person should eat whatever tastes good to him?
(Aside from some principle that you should eat something hot during the day that was left from the night before—like cholent.)

Answer

Sounds like trolling, but I’m not sure.
There is no holiness in any food of any kind (except for the parts eaten from sacrifices and priestly gifts). Eat whatever you feel like. Of course, by the law of Sabbath enjoyment, you should eat tasty things. And there is no principle requiring you to eat cholent. That’s about as solid a principle as the one about eating onions and eggs.

Discussion on Answer

Uriel Acosta (2022-07-20)

I’ll explain to you what the problem is with using acronyms, from personal experience:

When I was little and didn’t sit still at the Sabbath table, my father told me: Sabbath is an acronym for “On the Sabbath, sit peacefully.” After the meal, when I didn’t get into bed, my mother said to me: Sabbath is an acronym for: “On the Sabbath, lie down quietly,” and I had to obey.
When I got a bit older, I understood the idea and started using it to my own advantage. Before we went to synagogue, I demanded: Sabbath is an acronym for: “On the Sabbath, eat Bissli,” or: “On the Sabbath, gobble Bamba.” They had no choice; they had to give it to me.
You think that’s where it ended? Today I’m already very far gone, and I make up other acronyms, like: Sabbath is an acronym for: “On the Sabbath, hang out in a pub,” or: “On the Sabbath, dance in a club.”
There was even one time when I woke up on Sabbath morning with a British tourist in my bed who demanded an English breakfast. I had no choice, so I expounded: Sabbath is an acronym for: “On the Sabbath, gobble bacon,” and indeed it was very tasty, truly “Sabbath delight.”

Moral of the story: be careful with acronyms—you never know where they’ll lead you.

Tirgitz (2022-07-20)

And to sum up: Sabbath is an acronym for Nonsense Through Acronyms.

They hide hints in an acronym (to Tirgitz) (2022-07-20)

With God’s help, 22 Tammuz 5782

To Tirgitz — greetings,

There is no taking “egg salad” out of its plain meaning: it’s a first course that our mothers used to make in order to whet the appetite before the main dish. Ashkenazi Jews, for whom vegetables were not common in their countries, made do with onions and eggs. Whereas Jews of the Eastern communities make lots of salads, and Moroccan Jews, who pronounce the left-dotted “sin,” can expound: “Increase your salads” 🙂

The plain meaning of the salad does not contradict the ability of those who interpret hints to find reasons and allusions in Sabbath foods, giving them spiritual flavor as well—ideas containing a good lesson, in the spirit of “For I have given you a good teaching” 🙂 And thus Rabbi Shimon Spitzer, in his lesson “Sabbath Morning — Foods of the Sabbath Day — Double Bread and Egg with Onion,” brought nice reasons and hints for the custom, and well said.

For students of the “core curriculum” who know English, one can add the idea that the egg—“egg” in the vernacular—expresses egocentricity, while the onion, called “onion” in the vernacular, expresses the aspiration to unity, which brings one to “Love your fellow as yourself”: the same delight and good that you seek for yourself—make sure your fellow has it too.

With blessings, Hillel Feiner-Gluskinos

And to the previous commenter it should be noted that it seems you made a mistake in opening up the acronym, for it should be: “Sabbath — May the shiksa not come near” 🙂

Use a peeler on the Sabbath (2022-07-20)

A year ago I saw that the Rabbi דווקא issued quite a few rulings on Sabbath matters by way of acronyms.
Like
“Use a peeler on the Sabbath,” and more; see there. A quick browse through the questions will show it.

Don’t know how to find it in the questions (2022-07-20)

To the honorable Mr. Sabbath,
That’s right, about a year ago there was a sequence of several questions based on the acronym Sabbath.
How do you get to those in the questions?

You’ll find it in search under Questions (2022-07-20)

You can find them by searching keywords such as “Sabbath,” “peeler,” or by the tag “Sabbath.”

Combining the “desire” and “sit in the shade” (2022-07-21)

It may further be said that the egg—“beita” in Aramaic—expresses aspiration and human desire, which is an excellent thing that brings humanity to continual progress. But one should combine that desire also with the quality of contentment, which brings tranquility and peace of mind, as the Sages said: “Eat onions and sit in the shade.”

The balanced combination between the constant desire to act and progress, and the ability to “sit in the shade” and rejoice in what one has, comes in the constant cycle between the stormy workdays and the restful Sabbath. Thus a person rejoices in what he has achieved and renews fresh strength for the energetic activity of the coming week.

With blessings, Simcha Fish”l HaLevi Plankton

One who cherishes the Sabbath (2025-11-06)

In the book Yosher Divrei Emet (in the new edition, collections for the Sabbath), it is written that Sabbath is an acronym for “On the Sabbath, eat onions,” and the intention is that it is known that the Sabbath is called a spice (Babylonian Talmud, Sabbath 119a), and by nature spices alone are not fit to be eaten, but rather they improve the cooked dish; and the Sabbath has the power and special quality to sweeten every spice so that they are fit even on their own—and this is “On the Sabbath, eat onions.” And so it is also written in the book Tzemach David (by the holy Rabbi David of Zabolotov, printed at the end of the book Ahavat Shalom, in the collections for the holy Sabbath).
Likewise, the holy Rabbi Dovid’l of Lelov, Jerusalem, of blessed memory, said that Sabbath is an acronym for “On the Sabbath, eat onions.” Although on all weekdays he could not stand onions, and in the name of righteous men he would say: “If the villagers did not make their living from onions, we would abolish onion-growing and remove it from the world,” nevertheless on the Sabbath his taste changed and he ate onion, according to the custom of the disciples of the holy Baal Shem Tov (Tiferet Beit David).

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