The twelve tribes of Israel were predominately rural agriculturalists with herds of cattle, sheep, goats and domesticated animals. They grew grain crops, and tended olive, nut, date and fruit orchards. In addition there were members of the tribes who were skilled craftsmen which supported all the needs of the clans. The types of dwellings in ancient Israel accomodated the needs accordingly in the rural lifestyle, small villages and larger cities. Tents were used by nomadic and semi-nomadic clans and mudbrick houses accomodated village people. More elaborate structures accomodated people in cities.

Tents were used by rural nomadic people, who followed their flocks to pasture and water and moved according to the seasons. The semi-nomadic people were based in a village, but also lived part of the year in upper or lower pasture areas.

These tents had two sections; a front section where the men lived with their family and where visitors were entertained; and a private section at the rear for the women and their children. Each family tent had an area set aside for cooking and other forms of woman’s labour.

In addition there was a special women’s tent for birthing and seperation from the men during the women’s menstral cycle. Such tents existed for the reasons specified according to  Lev.15:19-33 and Lev 12: 1-8. In addition an elder woman or widow who was also a midwife, managed the admissions and dismissals.  It would have been a very busy tent with young girls reaching puberity, women in menses and of course women giving birth who where also required to stay away from there husbands as well as other men and young unmarried males for various lengths of time. Naturally the birthing area of the tent was seperated from other women for the purpose of privacy. A normal minimum stay would be at least seven days. The number of days women stayed within this tent was determined by their circumstances. In addition women were educated in this tent regarding relationships, their womanhood and they all shared and exchanged experiences.

Another key point is that there was also a special men’s tent for men, when men with certain medical conditions warranted them unclean and therefore they were also seperated from the clan.

 The tents were made from goats’ hair, woven in strips on large looms and then stiched together with leather strands. Women wove the fabric for the tents; stitched them together; kept them in good repair, assembled them when the camp was established; and packed them when it was time to move on. The women were skilled and accustomed to working as a group. Today nomadic Bedouin women continue to live this way.

Rural houses gradually replaced tents when the agricultural nomadic way of life became secured in villages. Stone was used in the house foundations. The basic plan used for houses included a central courtyard with a number of rooms opening from it. These rooms were small with a minimum of windows. Lattice and shutters were used to cover window openings (Judges 5:28). Rooms were divided by wooden beams that supported a flat roof. The beams were covered with mudbrick or thatching and clay. The inner walls were finished with a smooth coat of clay or plaster and were frequently decorated with frescoes. The floors were generally wood or mosaic tiles. Wood or stone benches were used for sitting and sleeping. People reclined on cushions or mats on the floor. There were shelves for storage and the furnishings included the necessities such as a table, stools and oil lamps.

A wooden ladder or a set of stairs led to the roof, which was used as an outdoor room that was shaded by a matted awning. The courtyard and the roof were important parts of the house and were used for tasks such as spinning and weaving; and food preparation. The flat roof area might be used for sleeping, working and drying food or textiles (Joshua 2:6).

In the courtyard you might find toilet facilities, the bath-houses, for both men and women, a cooking area with a fire, cooking utensils and possibly an oven, implements for grinding small amounts of grain, a covered area where people sat while they worked or talked and an area for the family animals, a dog, a cat, possibly a donkey, goats or a cow.

Ezekiel’s bread recipe has reached global popularity literally. However, the variety of recipes hardly would meet the required ingredients as laid out in the scriptures as follows;

Ezekiel 4:9-17 - Further take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and emmer. Put them into one vessel and bake them into a bread. Eat it as many days as you lie on your side: three hundred and ninety. The food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; this you shall eat in the space of a day. And you shall drink water by measure; drink a sixth of a hin in the space of a day. Eat it as a barley cake; you shall bake it…..

The ingredients in Ezekiel’s bread are a variation of ‘falafel’ mix recipes which has been a staple food of the Middle East for millenniums. Although the scripture does not give any list of herbs or other seasonings to be added we could assume that if he was to eat it in the likeness of a barley cake, then cumin, coriander, parsley, salt, onion, garlic could have been added for flavour. Barley was one of the ingredients from which the prophet was to make bread and “eat it as barley cakes” after having baked it as a sign to the people.

The portions of the above ingredients would be approximately 10 ounces of “falafel” per day and one sixth of a ‘hin’ of water would be approximately 1 litre per day. A half shekel weighed 13 grams and if in deed the reference meant one shekel it could be two halves of 13 grams each, times 20 equalling 260 grams or 10 ounces per day. Ezekiel would likely add enough water to the flour mixture and let it ferment or soften before baking it in the likeness of barley cakes. Barley cakes were small flat cakes about two inches. Three-hundred and ninety times 10 ounces would be approximately 244 pounds of ‘falafel’ mix.

Probably the best recipe would be to have equal portions of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and emmer from the list below - all of which can be purchased in today’s specialty food markets; add cumin, coriander, parsley, salt, onion, garlic and water to moisten the flour mixture and let it ferment. Form into small flat patties and bake them or fry in olive oil.

Wheat (Triticum spp.), is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant region of the Middle East. The four wild species of wheat, along with the domesticated varieties einkorn, emmer and spelt, have hulls. Einkorn — (T. monococcum) A diploid species with wild and cultivated variants. Domesticated at the same time as emmer wheat, but never reached the same importance. Emmer — (T. dicoccon) A tetraploid species, cultivated in ancient times but no longer in widespread use. Spelt (T. spelta) - Another hexaploid species cultivated in limited quantities.

Emmer wheat - like einkorn and spelt wheat’s, emmer is a hulled wheat. It was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. It was widely cultivated in the ancient world, but is now a relict crop in mountainous regions of Europe and Asia. Wild emmer (Triticum dicoccoides) grows wild in the fertile crescent of the Near East. It is a tetraploid wheat formed by the hybridisation of two diploid wild grasses, Triticum urartu (closely related to wild einkorn, T. boeoticum), and an unidentified Aegilops species related to A. searsii or A. speltoides. Emmer had a special place in ancient Egypt, where it was the only wheat cultivated in Pharaonic times, even though neighbouring countries also cultivated einkorn, durum and common wheat. In the absence of any obvious functional explanation, this may simply reflect a marked culinary or cultural preference.

Emmer and barley were the primary ingredients in ancient Egyptian bread and beer. Emmer recovered from the Phoenician settlement at Volubilis (Morocco) has been dated to the middle of the first millenium BCE. Emmer wheat is mentioned in ancient rabbinic literature as one of the five grains forbidden to Jews during Passover. It is often incorrectly translated as spelt in English translations of the rabbinic literature. In 1906, Aaron Aaronsohn’s discovery of wild emmer wheat growing wild in Rosh Pina in Israel created a stir in the botanical world. Emmer wheat has been found in archaeological excavations and ancient tombs.

Barley (se`orah): In the Bible, as in modern times, barley was a characteristic product of the Holy Land–”a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees,” etc. (Deut 8:8), the failure of whose crop was a national disaster (Joel 1:11). It was, and is, grown chiefly as fodder for horses and asses (1 Kings 4:28), but it was to some extent, the food of the poor in country districts [Ruth 2:17; 2 Kings 4:42]. The dream of the Midianite concerning Gideon (Judges 7:13) and the barley loaf is type of the peasant origin of Gideon’s army. ; cultivated in Egypt (Ex. 9:31) and in the Holy Land by the Hebrews (Lev. 27:16; Deut. 8:8; Ruth 2:17) and [1 Chr. 11:13; Jer. 41:8]. Used in offerings, [Num. 5:15; Ezek. 45:15; in, 2 Chr. 2:10; Hos. 3:2]. Priests estimated value of, [Lev. 27:16; 2 Kings 7:1]. Absalom burns Joab’s field of [2 Sam. 14:30] Barley of the first crop was ready for the harvest by the time of the Passover, in March and April (Ruth 1:22; 2 Sam. 21:9) and in the hilly district as late as May. Mention is made of barley-meal (Num. 5:15). In Egypt the barley is harvested about a month earlier than wheat.

Fava beans are a common staple food in the Egyptian diet, eaten by rich and poor alike. They are the primary ingredient in Ta`meyyah (Egyptian Arabic for falafel) and Egyptians  feel Levantine felafel (made from chickpeas) is inferior. 

Lentils are mentioned many times in the Torah. In Jewish tradition they are considered as food for mourners, together with boiled eggs. The reason is that their round shape symbolizes the life cycle from birth to death. Lentils originated in the Near East, and has been part of the human diet since the Neolithic times, being one of the first crops domesticated in the Middle East.

Millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult production environments. The millets include species in several genera, mostly in the subfamily Panicoideae, of the grass family Poaceae. The most widely-cultivated species in order of worldwide production are.: Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum); Foxtail millet (Setaria italica); Proso millet also known as common millet, broom corn millet, hog millet or white millet (Panicum miliaceum) Finger millet (Eleusine coracana)

SIMANIM: it is customary to eat specific foods known as simanim, symbols, at the evening meals of Rosh Hashana. These are foods whose names have a double meaning that signify blessing. With each food we recite a prayer that G-d should bestow upon us the particular blessing symbolized by the food. Simanim include fish, carrots, pomegranates, dates and of course, the most famous Rosh Hashanah food, apples dipped in honey. This custom is based on the Talmudic teaching……”Abaye taught, now that you have said that a siman (an omen) is significant, at the beginning of each year, a person should accustom himself to eat gourds, fenugreek, leeks, beets and dates…” (Babylonian Talmud Kerisus 6a)

The custom is to eat foods that are symbolic of good things as a signal of our wish for a good new year. These foods play a vital role in concretizing the experience of asking G-d for our most important needs.
Some of the more common symbolic foods are apple, honey, carrot, leek or cabbage, beet, date, gourd or pumpkin, pomegranate, fish and the head of a fish. These foods symbolize our need to live in peace and our wish that our merits be numerous, that they represent us and that we have a sweet and plentiful new year.
Harira is the traditional Maghreb soup. It is considered as a meal in itself. It is also served to relatives and friends after a special celebration, such as the morning after a wedding night, and its recipe varies then slightly from the harira eaten during Ramadan. Of course, it could be prepared any time, however, some families prefer to stick to tradition and serve it on special occasions.
Harira’s base-recipe is composed of the following ingredients, and may vary depending on regions: flour, tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas, onions, rice, eggs, herbs [celery, parsley and coriander], spices [saffron, ginger & pepper], a small portion of meat [beef, lamb or chicken] and olive oil. Lemon juice is added at serving time as well as salt. It is usually served with hard boiled eggs sprinkled with salt and cumin, dates and other favorite dreid fruits such as figs, traditional honey sweets and slices of lemon.

Taboule, is a salad. The traditional recipe used crushed wheat, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, onion, parsley, mint, salt and pepper, mixed together and, where possible, chilled. It is often served as a side dish, great for buffets.

Pastilla, Bsteeya, Bastilla, B’stilla or Bstilla (pronounced Pastiya in Arabic) is a dish traditionally made of squab although today most use shredded chicken. It can also use fish as a filling. It is a pie which combines sweet and salty flavours; a delicious combination of crisp layers of warka dough, a thinner cousin of the phyllo dough, savory chicken slow-cooked in broth and spices and shredded, and a crunchy layer of toasted and ground almonds, cinnamon, and sugar.
Tajines are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce. They are traditionally cooked in the tajine pot, whose cover has a knob-like formation at its top to facilitate removal. While simmering, the cover can be lifted off without the aid of a mitten, enabling the cook to inspect the main ingredients, add vegetables, move things around, or add additional liquid.

Most tagines involve slow simmering of less-expensive meats. For example, the ideal cuts of lamb are the neck, shoulder or shank cooked until it is falling off the bone. Very few Moroccan tagines require initial browning; if there is to be browning it is invariably done after the lamb has been simmered and the flesh has become butter-tender and very moist. In order to accomplish this, the cooking liquid must contain some fat, which may be skimmed off later. Moroccan tajines often combine lamb or chicken with a medley of ingredients or seasonings: olives, quinces, apples, pears, apricots, raisins, prunes, dates, nuts, with fresh or preserved lemons, with or without honey, with or without a complexity of spices. Traditional spices that are used to flavour tajines include ground cinnamon, saffron, ginger, tumeric, cumin, paprika, pepper as well as the famous spice blend Ras el hanout. Some famous tajine dishes are mqualli or mshermel (both are pairings of chicken, olives and citrus fruits, though preparation methods differ), kefta (meatballs in an egg and toamto sauce), and mrouzia (lamb, rasins and almonds).

Other ingredients for a tajine include any product that braises well: fish, quail, pigeon, beef, root vegetables, legumes, even amber and aga wood. Modern recipes include pot roasts, lamb shanks and turkey legs. Seasonings can be traditional spices suited to the dish.