Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 40:10

ובשלת, the true meaning of the word בשל is: “to make something ready and fit to eat.” The author cites Genesis 40,10, הבשילו אשכלותיה ענבים, “its grape clusters had become ripe,” or Exodus 23,19: גם, לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו "do not boil the kid in the milk of its mother,” as support.

ובשלת ואכלת, “you are to boil it and eat it.” The word ובשלת in this connection means “to barbecue it on a spit over an open fire” as we know already from Exodus 12,8. The word בשל occurs in the sense of “ripening, becoming ready for its destiny,” already in Genesis 40,7 when the butler described his dream with the grapes. Similarly, the meaning of Chronicles II 35,13 ויבשלו את הפסח, does not mean that the people boiled the Passover in water, but that they made it ready for eating.

צלי אש ומצות, “roasted on the fire together with unleavened bread.” The expression צלי אש used by the Torah here can mean either that the meat is roasted over coals inside a stove or that it is barbecued with a rotating spit over an open fire. The Torah excluded a kind of “roasting” which involved water. Boiling the meat in the ordinary fashion was most certainly out of the question. This is why the verse specifically tells us that even the kind of roasting involving water was not permissible (verse 9). The repetition of the words כי אם צלי אש meant that it was not to be roasted in a pot. This was exceptional as other meat-offerings were allowed to be prepared for eating in such pots (Zevachim 91). When the sages (Chulin 132) said that the sections of an animal sacrifice given to the priest may be consumed after they have been roasted (apparently excluding boiling), this is based on the word למשחה, “for a distinction,” in Numbers 18,8 and means that seeing kings prefer this method of preparing meat, the priests are allowed to prepare it in that way. However, if they prefer to boil the meat they are at liberty to do so.
This appears to raise the problem of Deut. 16, 6-7 where the Torah writes: “there you will slaughter the Passover in the evening when the sun sets on the date (anniversary) you left Egypt. You will boil it and eat it in a place that the Lord your G’d will choose, etc.” There appears to be a contradiction here. Our sages dispose of this by saying that in Deut. the Torah does not refer to “boiling” involving water but “boiling it on actual fire” similar to what we find in connection with the famous Passover celebration during the reign of King Yoshiyahu. Chronicles II 35,13 reports: ויבשלו הפסח באש כמשפט, “they roasted the Passover on fire according to law.” This is clear evidence that the expression בשל, normally translated as “boiling,” need not refer to preparation of food in a pot with water, but is simply a description of making food fit to be eaten. Sometimes this means using different kinds of pots such as are mentioned in that same verse in Chronicles we have quoted; other times it means preparation involving only fire. The author quotes the Spanish word sazonas to describe the meaning of Genesis 40,10 in which the Torah speaks of grapes which had ripened. “Ripening” is a form of “boiling” or “cooking,” i.e. becoming fit to eat. When the Torah emphasises here צלי אש, it excludes the use of a container for preparing this meat.