Jump straight to The Comfort of Food or to Spice Shops and Time for Two New Recipes.

Last night I went to a levaya — I do not use the English word funeral because our word levaya means so much more. Funeral comes from the Latin word funus, which has a variety of meanings, including the corpse or the funeral rites themselves. The word funeral can refer to any type of ceremony connected with the final ‘disposal’ of the body, be it a cremation, a burial, or all 99 red balloons let go into the atmosphere. In Judaism, the word levaya describes exactly what is happening: it is the accompaniment of the body to its final resting place.

Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon said in his eulogy that it was the first time in his life, having sadly been at many levayot, that he had eulogized a person twice, at two different times over the same spot. For this was not an ordinary levaya, and I’m guessing for the vast majority of the thousands of people who attended the levaya last night, it was the only time in their lives they had experienced such a thing. I was one of those thousands, shivering in the chilly Jerusalem night. Even though the cemetery on top of Mount Herzl was illuminated, the night was so clear that for once we were able to make out the stars. Jews from all walks of life were there, and I’m guessing many did not know the deceased or his family. But they needed to bear witness.

Like everyone else in the country, I sat for hours in front of the TV on Monday waiting for the last 20 hostages to be released and for Trump to speak. The streets were pretty much deserted. Our son took his little boys to the beach and they had the whole of Tel Aviv beach to themselves. And even though Israel, and especially Jerusalem, on the eve of a festival is a cacophony of voices and people, the streets were quiet — not eerie, as you could hear TVs blasting, and if for some reason you found yourself having to run to the stores, the people in shops were watching what was happening live on their phones. For a country so often divided, on Monday the 13th of October 2025 they were united, desperate to turn the second anniversary of the Simchat Torah attack on Oct 7th 2023 on its head.

We watched the hostages being released and Trump declaring peace. After two years of war, within 77 years of uninterrupted hostility, we are a broken, yet strong and resilient people. The last remaining living hostages are back — one of them, Matan Angrest, even managed to attend the levaya last night and, as he entered the family enclosure, the sobs of joy mixed with sadness were palpable. But who are these released hostages now, and how do they pick up their lives? We heard Trump declare peace, but like the hostages, it is a broken peace. Will they come back to us fully one day, both in body and soul? Will we have true peace one day? Along with the live hostages, some but not yet all of the bodies taken hostage to Gaza were also returned, among them the body of Daniel Perez.

He was a tank commander, one of the first to head into the fight to defend Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who held back waves of terrorists and prevented an even greater tragedy on the 7th of October 2023. Without the bravery of his unit and his ultimate sacrifice, even more terrorists would have flooded into Israel, meting out even more brutal and perverted acts in the name of a false and destructive ideology. Daniel, like so many, lost his life to defend us and our way of life. No gratitude, not thousands standing out in the cold Jerusalem night, will ever be enough to pay back his family for what they have lost.

Daniel’s first levaya was one of blood. Eighteen months ago they found enough blood that matched his DNA, combined with the knowledge of what happened to him, to make an official pronouncement of his death and have a levaya and for the family to sit shiva. Last night his body was reunited with his blood and he was buried in the land he gave up his life to protect. His family’s pain is so acute that it would be unfair of me to try to describe even an iota of a pain I have never experienced and I hope to never do so.

And yet, this was our second visit that selfsame day to Mount Herzl. Earlier in the day we went to a memorial service for another young man who was killed on the 7th, Netanel Young. A boy who I saw grow up, whose family were members of our community in Southgate, North London — a giant of a man with a heart to match his stature, whose family were in some small way blessed to be able to bury him just two days after he was killed, and who have been grieving since. One of the people who spoke at Netanel’s memorial was the soldier who protected Netanel’s body from being dragged away and taken hostage in Gaza, as Daniel’s body was. I could not imagine, in the midst of a battle, having the presence of mind to do such at thing, let alone at the tender age of just 19? Once more I can’t imagine the scene, so I won’t attempt to describe it. But that said, last night, the TV and the radio were on when I got home from the levaya, my parents were both speaking to me at once, there were 4 young people in the next room and I couldn’t pay attention to any of it and answer my parents’ very simple questions. Can you imagine the chaos of a battlefield and being able to make the decision to protect a deceased comrade’s body? I can’t.

This is Israel today — a country that goes to levayot together, accompanying the body to its final resting place as we have done since time immemorial. Israel is a country where our young people have tragically become heroes and our debts will never be repaid. And yet we come together time and again, we grieve together and celebrate together. Our strength lies not in what sets us against each other but in what unites us. And last night, in a cemetery surrounded by graves of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so we can have a place we call home, the least we can do is accompany their bodies to the final resting place of their corporeal beings and pray that their souls are sitting at a table with God in everlasting peace. May their memories be a blessing for us all.

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The Comfort of Food:

As always, lest we forget that this is a blog about food, let me tell you: I have been eating non-stop since we got to Israel a week ago! I have feasted in the sukkah – had pizza in the hut – had ice cream every day – multiple times a day – had a burger – cigars (cigarim) – made kubbeh – eaten my weight in sushi – had multiple iced coffees – and buttery croissants. I hit every single nostalgic Israeli food memory and made some new ones. I will add some of my recommendations below, because well – why not – if, like me, you eat your pain then this is the way to do it properly.

Sushi Rechavia – small special platter – every roll on it was perfection
Lechem Shel Tomer – everything they make is “melt-in-the-mouth” delicious – I’m partial though to their emmental sandwich.
HaBurekas Mi’Haifa in the Shuk – here order the ‘Mana Ishit’; though this translates to a ‘personal serving’, I shared it with Daniel and Jacob and we couldn’t finish it. It is an extra-large boureka (get the cheese one) topped with a boiled egg, Israeli pickled cucumbers, tahina, pesto and charif (spicy chili spread).
Crave – ‘Professor’ burger and the onion rings
Golda – white chocolate and pretzel gelato in a cone
Katzefet – soft-serve vanilla – always in a cone
Metudela Pizza – onion and mushroom slice
Teller Bakery – challah
Mamlechet HaHalva – pecan lemon or Belgian chocolate flavour
Aroma – Jerusalem Salad

But these are just fully made foods. The ingredients you can buy here are equally delicious; from the tzfatit cheese to the rye crackers and the most extensive variety of olives one can consume.

Imagine, that was just in 5 days with nearly half of them being either Shabbat or Yom Tov! Daniel and I hope to be in Israel for the next six or so weeks; if this is what I can do in less than a week, it’s really good that I joined a gym (thank you, Mommy!). Stay tuned for more food recommendations over the next few weeks!

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Spice Shops and Time for Two New Recipes:

One of my favourite shops in the shuk – though you can actually buy their spices in supermarkets around the world – is Pereg. Their ‘Everything but the Bagel’ spice mix is my go-to topping for challah. I go into Pereg, but I still get a bit overwhelmed with what to do with such a variety. Though it was my Sephardi grandmother who taught me how to cook, she seasoned everything with just salt and pepper – it was delicious – but limited in the spice department, primarily because she was sensitive to chilli, a gene I inherited from both her and my mother. And while most spices are seasoning and do not contain chilli, it is a fear of mine to eat something with hidden chilli in it and suffer for hours if not days after. So I enter spice shops with caution and I season my food carefully. It took me years until I tried za’atar – a combination of hyssop, sumac, salt and roasted sesame seeds and, most importantly, no chilli. It works both fresh or cooked; use it to top a plate of hummus or, as my daughter does, combine it with fresh cauliflower florets, garlic powder and olive oil and roast in a high oven until the edges of the cauliflower start to blacken.

Yellow Rice with Saffron and Turmeric: Two spices I have no fear of are turmeric and saffron, though some seem to think they are interchangeable – they are not. Turmeric comes from a root that looks like a smaller orange cousin to fresh ginger. And saffron is the stigma of a crocus flower that costs more than its weight in gold, and that is saying something at the moment – considering the price of gold! In my kids’ favorite rice dish, I combine the turmeric for color and the saffron for fragrance to make their favorite yellow rice.

Za’atar and Garlic Challah: Recently I used za’atar to spice my challah along with fried garlic – it is intense, and if you were expecting a sweet challah, this is going to take you a minute to get used to! Though there is sugar in the challah, it is totally overwhelmed by the fragrance and taste of the za’atar. I give you a recipe that is big enough to do the mitzvah of separating challah. The challah, once baked, is easily frozen, so either make the whole batch and freeze, or cut the recipe in half. But one word of advice – if you plan on serving this to guests, make sure you have a back-up plain challah to hand, as za’atar can be divisive!