Summary of the festival

Seudat Yitro, also called Seudat Siyum or Seudat Moshe, is a festive meal held on the Thursday of the week when parashat Yitro is read, preferably during the day. It is a custom of the Jews of Algeria, which seems to have started in Tlemcen and spread across the country, as far as Constantine. It also took root in Tunisia, more recently. It is not a festival of the Torah or of the Sages: it is a minhag, a community tradition passed from parents to children.

The customs of the day

• A festive family meal on Thursday during the day. If that is difficult, it can be held on Thursday evening, but not on Wednesday evening: Thursday evening is closer to Shabbat Yitro.
• Tachanun is not said, as on a day of joy.
• Poultry is eaten, especially roosters. In Tunisia people used to eat pigeons, which roosters have replaced.
• A cake shaped like Mount Sinai, often a tall pièce montée, recalls the mountain where the Torah was given.
• Small dishes in small portions, served in abundance on the table.

Origin in history

The parasha tells how Jethro, priest of Midian and Moshe’s father-in-law, joins Israel in the desert with Moshe’s wife and sons. He recognises God’s greatness, and “Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moshe’s father-in-law before God” (Exodus 18:12). The meal recalls Jethro’s meal, which marks his family’s entry into the people of Israel, and above all the giving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments, read that week.

Jethro’s descendants, the Kenites, kept a place of honour in Israel’s history, as seen in the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings and Jeremiah. According to Seder Olam Rabbah, the great Tanna Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta descended from this family.

In Algeria, a handwritten responsum by Rabbi Haim Bliah of Tlemcen, quoting the Geonim, explains why the meal is held during the day. Rav Yossef Nakache records the custom in his book Yeshuot Yossef.

In Tunisia, the meal is linked to a diphtheria epidemic at the end of the 18th century, which ended on a Thursday. Rav Moshe Kalfon, in Brit Kehuna, reports that the custom was new there at the time.

The message for today

Jethro had everything: honour, the priesthood of Midian, a settled life. He left it all because he heard about the Exodus and the splitting of the sea, and wanted to come closer to the truth. Seudat Yitro reminds us that the Torah is also received around the table, as a family, with joy. Each community kept its own way of celebrating this moment, and all celebrate the same gift: the Torah, given to all of Israel and open to anyone who, like Jethro, chooses to join it.