From: shimoff@umbc4.umbc.edu (Eliot Shimoff)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Egg Creams (was Re: Proof of the Decline and Fall)
Date: 27 Aug 92 12:56:05 GMT
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County

In article <1992Aug26.185308.27950@watson.ibm.com> mkaplan@watson.ibm.com writes:

>
>Or, to put it another way, egg creams BOUGHT in golus are rightfully
>"metsios haSh'fuh.os laAretz".  However I have had what I consider to be
>good egg creams made at home.  While these may be substandard on the universal
>standard (I can't be certain since I have never had an egg cream made in EE"C)
>they are at least drinkable.  I believe that a number of minhagim have
>developed to allow us, without endangering ourselves, to drink "egg creams"
>even after the destruction of the candy stores and the loss of the
>compounds with which they were supplied.

These alleged "minhagim" are halakhically unacceptable deviations from
the Oral Tradition.  Egg creams can be consumed outside of NY's Lower
East Side only after the destruction of the candy stores; since such stores
still exist, Flatbush egg creams (and kal v'chomer Queens egg creams)
are in the same category of kodshim outside the azarah, and are categorically
forbidden.

>The particular custom prevalent in my family (Brooklyn/Galitzianer) is that
>the seltzer is NOT STIRRED after the U-Bet has been poured into it.  Rather,
>an up-and-down spoon motion is used, in the middle first, then
>scraping the sides with a short movement along the bottom to the center
>until a "mud soda" is created.  Then the milk (1/2 the quantity of seltzer
>or less) is added.  Only then is a small amount of circular stirring performed
>before drinking.
>
>This technique has the effect of breaking-up the U-Bet and creating a
>seltzer-syrup emulsion with minimal disruption to the seltzer, and good
>foam production.  I've made due with club-soda and with cartridge-type home
>seltzer makers, but clearly these aren't the real thing (the bottles aren't
>dirty and chipped :-()

Inevitably, discusions such as this degenerate into Wissenschafts des
EggCreamums.  Next, we'll hear Higher Egg Cream Criticism.

I can only assure you that in the eschatalogical "acharit hayamim"
banquet, some of us will be eating shor ha'bor and other will
have Leviathan.  I know that jokesters and scorners have suggested
that the Leviathan is made available for those would rather not eat
G-d's sh'chitah.  But the truth is that the Leviathan is there for
those of us who intend to have a _real_ egg cream after dinner!

Finally, note that the Gematria for egg cream is 354. Add 10
for the 10 Commandments, and 1 for the Unity of G-d, and you
get 365.  This is to remind us that the Jewish Spiritual Year
can only be fulfilled if each of us recognizes the Unity of G-d,
observes the Ten Commandments (i.e., the Written Law), and accepts
the egg cream (symbolizing the Oral Tradition).  (Medical ethics
note: Egg creams must be Oral; IV administration does not require
a b'racha, but does not fulfil the halakhic requirements either.)



-- 
Eliot Shimoff                  |    n   n   n
   shimoff@umbc3.umbc.edu      |   X + Y = Z .  Easy to prove no solutions
Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu ...  |   for n greater than 2.  Darn.  Can't fit
Better luck next year!         |   it into this little .sig file.  Oh well.