In the ancient Hebrew world, there is no starter-main-dessert: everything revolves around bread (le'hem), the foundation of the meal, which is broken by hand. The rest is only accompaniment (liphtan) — olives, legumes, herbs, sometimes meat on feast days. Around the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the structure splits: the seudah hamafseket, the meal that precedes and 'closes' before the fast, then the breaking of the fast in the evening, sweet and light. Azazel haunts the margins of this calendar: the goat destined for him goes out to the desert while the people eat and atone.

Ezov, an aromatic plant from the hills of Judea (close to oregano and za'atar), was used in purification rites — it was dipped for sprinkling. Rubbed on bread or meat, mixed with salt harvested near the Dead Sea, it perfumes all this cuisine with a resinous and bitter note that evokes the desert where the goat of Azazel was driven.