ABSTRACT
Jewish eating practices, as ordained by the rabbis, are defi ned, as much as by anything else, by the ritual recitation of blessings before and after the partaking of food. The details of this ritual, constituted of prescribed words and modest deeds, are a signifi cant part of what distinguished rabbinic Jewish eating from other eating, Jewish or gentile. In fact, if we assume that the common ancient meal was comprised of bread, oil, a vegetable, and wine, then the blessing ritual will be the only thing that regularly distinguished the eating of one group from the eating of the other. It is essential, therefore, to examine this rabbinic ritual in detail, for it contains and communicates essential elements of rabbinic Jewish identity.
