Meat on Charcoals (Hebrew: בשר על גבי גחלים) is a

lost work A lost work is a document, literary work, or piece of multimedia produced some time in the past, of which no surviving copies are known to exist. It can only be known through reference. This term most commonly applies to works from the classical ...

about Jewish

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

, quoted since as early as the 11th century. There are some dozens quotes from it, some in printed books and some still in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

. The origin of the name is the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

, talking about the

Takkanah A ''takkanah'' (plural ''takkanot'') is a major legislative enactment within ''halakha'' (Jewish law), the normative system of Judaism's laws. A ''takkanah'' is an enactment which revises an ordinance that no longer satisfies the requirements of t ...

Bishul Yisrael Bishul Yisrael (literally "cooking of Israel" - i.e., by a Jew) is a Hebrew term for one of the laws of kashrut in Judaism. The rule prohibits eating certain foods if they are cooked exclusively by non-Jews. The term is the opposite of ''bishul a ...

. "If Yisrael have put meat on charcoals and

goy In modern Hebrew and Yiddish (, he, גוי, regular plural , or ) is a term for a gentile, a non-Jew. Through Yiddish, the word has been adopted into English (pluralised as goys or goyim) also to mean gentile, sometimes with a pejorative se ...

came and turned it over -

Kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin ( he, יעקב בן משה מולין) (c. 1365 – September 14, 1427) was a Talmudist and ''posek'' (authority on Jewish law) best known for his codification of the customs (''minhagim'') of the German Jews. He i ...

wrote: "One book is called meat on charcoals because what's written in it has sense and taste like meat grilled on charcoals".

Chaim Yosef David Azulai Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia (1724 – 1 March 1806) (), commonly known as the Hida (the acronym of his name, ), was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious ...

wrote: "And this book was called so because it has taste like meat on coals".Shem HaGedolim
"ונקרא כך הספר הנזכר, שישנו בנותן טעם כבשרא אגומרי, וכן כתב מהרי"ל בליקוטיו" The identity of the author is unknown. In one manuscript, "The Big Mordechay Notes", it was attributed to a rabbi named "Rav Bibi Gaon".Meat on coals
from the book

The Early Sages of Ashkenaz ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, by Professor

Avraham Grossman Avraham Grossman (Hebrew: אברהם גרוסמן; born: March 10, 1936) is a professor emeritus in the Jewish history department in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Recipient of 2003 Israel Prize for his contributions to Jewish history. Bi ...

There was another rabbi with a similar name, Rav Bibi HaLevi, a gaon in

Sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...

between 777 and 788, but the book cites later

Geonim ''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders o ...

Natronai ben Hilai Natronai Ben Hilai (Hebrew: נטרונאי בן הלאי or Natronai Gaon, Hebrew: נטרונאי גאון; Full name: Natronai ben R. Hilai ben R. Mari) was Gaon of the Sura Academy early in the second half of the 9th century, and held this post ...

and

Nahshon ben Zadok Nahshon ben Zadok Gaon (Hebrew: נחשון בן צדוק or sometimes: Nahshon b. Zadok) was head of the Academy of Sura from 874 to 882, in succession to Mar Amram ben Sheshna. He wrote explanations to difficult words in the Talmud, not in alphab ...

, so he wasn't the author of the book. According to most of the researchers, the book have been written in

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

, but Prof.

claims it was written in

Ashkenaz Ashkenaz ( he, ''ʾAškənāz'') in the Hebrew Bible is one of the descendants of Noah. Ashkenaz is the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. In rabbinic literature, the descendants of Ashkenaz were first associa ...

by the second half of the 11th century, and his author may be

Yaakov ben Yakar Yaakov ben Yakar (990 – 1064) was a German Talmudist. He flourished in the first half of the 11th century. He was a pupil of Gershom ben Judah in Mainz, and is especially known as the teacher of Rashi, who characterizes him as ''Mori HaZaken'' ( ...

. He bases his claim on the following facts: * The book is mentioned only by rabbis from Germany and France * Some of the ideas in the book are ideas written by early sages of Ashkenaz, like Meshullam ben Kalonymos and Meshullam ben rabbi Moshe. * Some of the sources cited in the book don't align the Babylonian school of rabbis. * Its writing style differs many times from the Babylonian writing style, especially using

first-person singular In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically the distinction is between the speaker ( first person), the addressee ( second person), and others (third pers ...

, while Babylonian rabbis wrote in first-person plural.

References

{{Authority control Lost Jewish texts Works of unknown authorship Rabbinic legal texts and responsa Jewish medieval literature Sifrei Kodesh