Contestants on an episode of “Jeopardy!” that aired Wednesday night were stumped when presented with a photo of cholent.
The clue, for $400 in the “Sabbath” category: “Exodus 35:3 bans doing this on the Sabbath, hence the Jewish dish ‘cholent,’ which can go on the stove Friday and cook until Saturday lunch.”
The contestants got close with guesses of “What is cooking?” and “What is work?” but failed to name the exact melachah that Mayim Bialik, the show’s temporary host and herself an Orthodox Jew, was looking for.
In the end, Bialik explained the answer: “What is ‘lighting a fire?’ And the word ‘cholent’ is from the French ‘chaud lent,’ [meaning] ‘cooks a long time.’”
https://twitter.com/simmy_cohen/status/1448635243984982023?s=20
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}
This is mamesh nogia for the Ben Torah to know. Thank you so much for sharing.
I am sorry to say, but the Jeopardy judges got this wrong. “Cholent” is prepared on Friday for Saturday NOT because of the prohibition of lighting a fire, but because of the prohibition of cooking. The “Jewish dish” can be easily prepared without “lighting a fire”, by simply putting it over a pre-existing fire.