The Feast of Jethro, or Seudat Yitro in Hebrew, is an ancient tradition celebrated on the Thursday before parashat Jethro by Tunisian Jews (which is close to the holiday of Tu B’Shvat.) The holiday is also known as the Festival of Sons, a feast that celebrates the sons of the family (and yes, Festival of Daughters is a thing too. Read all about it here.) Since the festive meal is served to children, it is treated almost like a dolls party – the meal is served on small dishes only, including mini cups and flatware (think of saucers for plates, dessert forks and shot glasses.) Mini challahs are baked and cookies, marzipan and candies in the shapes of children and animals are part of the feast.
The meal used to start with a table covered with sweets, including candies, halva and Tunisian staples like makroud (farina and date cookies) and debla, rose-shaped fried cookies (in the photo above.) Tunisian Jews who emigrated to France added Pièce Montée (croquembouche) as a regular component of the feast.
The sweet opening was followed by a meal of vegetable pies called maakouda (here’s one example), salads, green fava beans, and the main course was always stuffed pigeon, another “kid size” dish that comes instead of stuffed chicken. Another reason for serving pigeon relates to one of the reasons for marking the Festival of Sons. According to Daat website for Jewish and spiritual studies, there was a mysterious pandemic that caused the death of boys in the community, and serving pigeon meat helped cure and defeat the disease. There’s also a tradition that says that the pandemic ended on the week of Parashat Jethro (Jethro Torah portion) and that’s why the holiday is celebrated on this week. By the way, pigeons were always a part of the Arab cuisine but are hard to find in Israel or in America.
The guests recited poems and read from the torah as with any Jewish holiday. The young boys who just started studying torah that year got to read the ten commandments on their own for the first time as part of Parashat Jethro, making the celebration even more symbolic.
Reasons behind this unique tradition vary. Some link it to the story told in Parashat Jethro about Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro, breaking bread with Aharon and the Israelites. ”Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.” (Exodus 18:12.)
Other reasons are related to the community itself. Some people believe the celebration has to do with a plague that killed many in the community, mainly men and boys. The plague ended on the week of Parashat Jethro and the sick were healed after eating pigeon soup (hence the stuffed pigeon for the feast). Or It may be simply the celebration of the boys starting their Torah study.
Either way, what a sweet tradition to preserve!
The Feast of Jethro is still being celebrated at Tunisian communities centers, as in Jerusalem and Ashdod, Israel, with concert and speakers who bring memories of the old tradition. And it seems easy and fun to adopt this beautiful tradition to any home.