The eating habits of Israelis are well known. Many popular kosher cookbooks, representing all the Jewish ethnic groups (‘edot) — Iraqi, Yemenite, Kurdish, North African, Ethiopian (Beta Yisrael), Palestinian, etc. — are published and become best-sellers. There are trendy restaurants featuring global foods: vegetarian, vegan, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc.; and the mangal “mobile grill” is used by many Israelis in parks during the holidays, such as Israel’s Independence Day.
The root z-l-l is common in the Bible as well, but in negative context: zoleley basar “gluttonous meat eaters (and wine guzzlers)” (Proverbs 23:20); ben zolel ve-sove’ “(persistent) glutton and drunkard son (deserves death by stoning!)” (Deuteronomy 21:20).* In modern Hebrew: zalelan “glutton”; zlilah “overeating, stuffing oneself.”
*The concern is not with physical health (as in our time), but rather general moral, “evil” and civil behavior.
