Small fish, watermelon, cucumber, leek,onion, and garlic

Abstract

Food availability was a complaint of B’nei Yisrael when traveling through the desert. “We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge; the cucumbers and the melons (Rashi: watermelons), the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” (Bamidbar 11:5). Interestingly, thousands of years later, Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura (i.e., the “Jewish Marco Polo”) arrived in Cairo and noted, “The only inexpensive foods I saw in Cairo were fish from the Nile, onions, leeks, cucumbers, melons, and vegetables” [1]. Apparently, the Egyptian agricultural economy remained stagnant from when B’nei Yisroel was enslaved in Egypt to Bartenura’s visit in 1490.