Home > News > Food Tourah: Pinchas
July 15, 2025 in Food Tourah
Because life so often happens around food, we’re spending the year exploring the weekly parshiot and finding connections to each week’s Shabbat menu. 41 parshiot down, 13 more to go!
Pinchas begins with G-d promising a “covenant of peace” to Pinchas, who zealously defended G-d’s honor at the end of Balak – a dramatic episode we didn’t explore in last week’s Food Tourah. Then G-d commands a census of all males able to bear arms. Each tribe is listed by name, along with their count of men of fighting age, which in sum totalled 601,730.
Following the census, G-d instructs Moses on how the land of Israel is to be divided among the tribes. The daughters of Zelophehad – whose father had died leaving no sons – come to Moses requesting that they be able to inherit their father’s portion. Moses brings their case before G-d, who agrees to this request and then specifies broader laws of inheritance.
Next, G-d instructs Moses to prepare Joshua for leadership and pass on to him the authority to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The parsha concludes with a detailed list of offerings that are to be brought daily, as well as those required on Shabbat and each of the festivals.
When we saw the census tally of 601,730 (and that was just the men age 20 and up!), we thought: That’s a lot of people to feed! With that in mind, we’re linking to this article: How to Easily Feed a Crowd without Ordering Pizza – hope you find it helpful! Since this week’s parsha focuses on lineage and inheritance, some family favorites are in order. As the summer heat continues, how about starting your meal with a Spanish Grandmother’s Gazpacho? It’s tasty and refreshing, and easy to scale up for a large gathering.
Keeping with the theme of tradition, we collected a few recipes that sounded good to us! Pair either Safta’s Salmon or Grandma’s Meatballs with Great Aunt Sallie’s Sweet Potato Soufflé for a complete meal. For more Bubbe-approved ideas (and a good laugh), we stumbled across the website Leave it to Bubbe. Worth a look just for the name!
For dessert, we have two tempting options. We couldn’t resist sharing Grandma Annie’s Chocolate Chip Mandlebread – pure comfort and tradition in every bite! Alternatively, in honor of Zelophehad’s daughters – whose bold plea helped shape Jewish inheritance law to include women – we found this recipe for Individual Ladyfingers Dessert. Bonus: it’s no-bake! Take your pick from either dessert…we won’t judge if you choose both.
B’tayavon and Shabbat Shalom, Alison (Baraf) & Sarah (Roark)
To read past installments of Food Tourah – Click Here.
For a more in-depth look at this week’s parsha, visit Sefaria.com
