Is mikpah the same as bissara?

In the Mishnah Sukkah 2:9 (which appears on Talmud Sukkah 28b in standard editions), there is talk of exemptions from the obligation to eat or stay in the sukkah (Hebrew for 'hut') during Sukkot (Hebrew for 'Feast of Tabernacles').

An important condition for exemption is heavy rain: specifically when the rain is so heavy that the mikpah (often rendered as מִקְפָּה in Hebrew) becomes unusable.

Moses ben Maimon († 1204) is better known as Maimonides. In his commentary on the Mishnah (Peirush HaMishnayot), he explains that mikpah is a dish made from solidified or thickened beans (something like a thick bean porridge or stew that becomes firm). In contrast to more resilient foods, this one spoils or becomes spoiled very quickly if it gets wet or diluted from rain. It loses its texture, becomes mushy, or inedible.

This serves as a kind of practical boundary: if the rain is so heavy that such a delicate, perishable food product (such as a meal in the sukkah, for example) spoils, then the inconvenience is comparable to what people normally avoid even in an ordinary house, and one is therefore no longer obliged to stay in the sukkah to eat or sleep.

The term mikpah itself is somewhat rare and archaic in this context. It is not a common modern Hebrew word for any dish whatsoever, but Maimonides' explanation is the classic one accepted in Halachic literature. Some later commentators or translations might render it as a 'thick bean dish' or something similar.

This is reminiscent of pea soup. After all, that thickens as it cools down but becomes watery if too much liquid is added. In the Middle East, however, a number of dishes are known that are prepared with broad beans. In Egypt and Morocco, bissara is a popular, filling broad bean soup with the same characteristics as 'our' pea soup.

According to culinary historian Daniel Newman, a 13th-century cookbook from al-Andalus, the present-day Spanish province of Andalucia, contains the oldest known recipe for baysār (Arabic: بيسار), the precursor to bissara, a porridge made with dried broad beans and meat[1]. In ancient Jewish cuisine, a similar dish, known as mikpah ful in rabbinic literature, was frequently eaten.

Bissara is made with pureed broad beans as the main ingredient. Other ingredients include garlic, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, and kosher salt. All ingredients are slow-cooked and then blended into a creamy and fragrant dip or side dish. And yes, bissara is sometimes prepared with split peas or chickpeas.

The unavoidable conclusion must be that both dishes, mikpah and bissara, are presumably the same.

[1] Newman: The Exile’s Cookbook: Medieval Gastronomic Treasures from al-Andalus & North Africa - 2023