Gefilte Fishing

[RabbiEE]

From my article this week:

This Passover, I find myself asking the age old question: How do you catch a gefilte fish?

As the Fly Fishing Rabbi, I would like to tell you that I have a special blessing to catch this distant Jewish relative of the trout. But sadly in my trips to fish the great gefilte lakes of upstate New York, the wise and elusive gefilte fish has often found a way to elude me.

And so in honor of Passover, let me share a few bits of wisdom about “Gefilte Fishing” adapted from a piece by Lawrence Sherry:

"How do you catch a gefilte fish? You go up to the lake with some matzah. At the edge of the lake, you stand and whistle and say "here boy", "here boy". If you are a Yiddish speaker, you can also say: “here boychick.” The fish just can't resist the smell of the matzah. They come in mass to the edge of the lake where they jump into the jars and are bottled on the spot.

I am still a little bothered by which end of the gefilte fish is the head and which the tail (not to mention that I am not sure where their eyes are). This is a small price to pay the luxury of eating this delicacy."

Rabbi E