What’s an onion to you? Maybe just a garnish, or something to add a little kick to your cooking? For Jews, though, the humble onion is much more than that! Read on for 9 things Jews do with this kitchen staple.
1. Eat Them on Shabbat
Many families enjoy onions on Shabbat (often together with eggs).1 Why? A few fascinating reasons are given:
- Shabbat food is said to be blessed with the flavor of the heavenly manna, which included every taste—except onions.2 So we add onions to bring back that missing flavor.
- The Hebrew word for Shabbat, שבת, is an acronym for Shabbat betzalim tochel—“On Shabbat, you should eat onions.”
- The Hebrew word for onion, batzal, sounds like the Yiddish word batzolen (“repay”)—a hint to G‑d’s promise to repay all expenses spent in honor of Shabbat.3
Read: The Onion Plot
2. Chabad: Display Them on the Seder Plate
One of the six items on the Passover Seder plate is karpas, a vegetable dipped in salt water and eaten early in the Seder. Different communities use different vegetables. Some, like Chabad, use raw onions4—a reminder of the bitter tears shed by the Jews enslaved in Egypt.
3. German Jews: Hang Them in the Sukkah
It’s common in many communities to decorate the sukkah with hanging fruits and vegetables. German Jews often include onions! This connects to a verse in Psalms that’s understood to refer to the shade of the sukkah: “They will find refuge in the shade of Your wings.”5 The first word of this verse, בְּצֵל (betzel—“in the shade”), is spelled with the same letters as בָּצָל (batzal—“onion”).6
4. Don’t Leave Them Peeled Overnight
The Talmud warns us not to leave a peeled onion overnight, as an “evil spirit” may rest upon it. The solution? Either leave a bit of peel on, or keep the stem (the part with the little root hairs) attached.7
5. Use the Right Knife
In certain cases, a cold pareve (neutral) food cut with a dairy knife can still be eaten with meat (and vice versa), since flavor usually transfers only when there’s heat. But onions and other sharp foods are different. Because of their sharpness, they absorb flavors even when cut cold. That’s why it’s important to use the right knife when dicing onions.8
Read: I Cut Salad With a Meat Knife. Can I Eat it With a Dairy Meal?
6. Eat Leeks on Rosh Hashanah
On the first night of Rosh Hashanah, many families eat symbolic foods. One is the leek—an onion relative. In Aramaic, the word for leek is karti, related to the Hebrew word for “cut off.” Eating leeks is a way of expressing the hope that G‑d will “cut off” our enemies in the coming year.9
7. Iraqi Jews: A Substitute for a Sheep’s Head
It’s traditional on Rosh Hashanah to eat the head of a sheep, symbolizing the wish to “be like a head and not a tail.” If a sheep’s head isn’t available, many substitute the head of another animal, like a fish. But Iraqi Jews sometimes used the “head” of an onion instead.10
8. Persians: Scallion Swatting at the Seder
Persian Jews have an interesting Passover tradition: When chanting “Dayenu,” each person picks up a green onion (scallion) and gently “whips” their neighbor, to recall the beatings that the Jews suffered in Egypt.11
9. Yiddish Speakers: Onion Sayings
Several Yiddish expressions incorporate onions. A few examples:
- Bitere tzibele (“bitter onion”)—a sourpuss or spoilsport.
- Tzibele treren (“onion tears”)—fake tears, like “crocodile tears.”
- Nit vert keyn tzibele (“not worth an onion”)—completely worthless.
- (A sharp barb for someone you feel really deserves it:) Zolst vaksn vi a tzibele mitn kop in der erd—may you grow like an onion with your head in the ground!
Read: 22 Yiddish Sayings About Telling the Truth
But onions aren’t just used for put-downs—they can also teach something uplifting.
A follower of Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch once worried that his talent for public speaking was making him arrogant. “Should I stop teaching?” he asked. Rabbi Dovber replied: “A tzibele zol fun dir vern, ober Chassidus zolstu chazern! An onion should become of you, but continue teaching Chassidut!”12
In other words—keep teaching, keep inspiring, even if it sometimes makes you feel like … an onion!
Read: The Onion
Join the Discussion