For one Moroccan family, lamb — once a necessity — has become a tradition for Rosh Hashana celebrations.

Moroccan family’s custom born of necessity in Israel

A fresh approach to Rosh Hashana (the observance begins at sundown Sept. 20) brings lamb to the table, a Sephardic family custom from Shoshana (Shoshy) Mor and her older brother Yoram Danino, who now live in Skokie, Ill. They were born and raised in Israel on Moshav Mivtahim, a collective farm where their parents, Sol and Yosef Danino, had found a safe home a long way from the anti-Semitism and hatred from Arab neighbors in their native Morocco.

Why lamb? “That’s what was there, lamb and goats, raised by Arabs in nearby Gaza,” said Sol Danino. “We would get a few of them at 2 to 3 weeks old, mix powdered milk with water, feed them through a nipple slipped on top of a beer bottle.”

When the young were weaned, Yoram Danino’s job was to walk them on a long rope, then tie the animals to a stake he put in the weeds. Before leaving for school, he filled a bucket of water, leaving the animals to walk around, still tied to the post.

Over many phone calls to her mother, Sol, in Israel, Mor translated their conversations for me. “Lamb was the cheapest way to feed a family and get as much meat as possible. It was nothing to do with the Torah,” referring to the Book of Genesis and the binding of Isaac, a story read on Rosh Hashana about Abraham’s intended sacrifice of his son. A ram caught in a thicket appeared, and it was sacrificed instead.

“The (rabbi) — he always looked like an old man to me,” said Danino as he reconstructed the killing of the lamb, a scene he had witnessed more than 50 times.

You might cringe all the way through each beat of a kosher kill, and I probably did, yet Danino was unfazed, and talked about his appetite — for the intestines or a barbecued tail. His eyes widened. “A big round tail.”

“And full of fat,” his sister Mor chimed in.

“The most delicious dish, it’s called the ... the ...” He faltered for the English translation.

Knowing they ate the whole animal, I offered up “stomach?”

“Yes! Stomach! Where all the food they just ate sits,” Danino was excited.

Again, Mor’s words caught other details. “But it’s washed out in water before you eat it.”

On the eve of Rosh Hashana, they had fish first, then bone-in lamb, their version of osso buco, served with rice and small potatoes. For lunch the next day, the lamb was barbecued and served with couscous made from scratch.

Although a lamb’s tail might not make it to your holiday table this year, perhaps the shanks would offer a delicious change from brisket?