Several people saw the Berdichever Rav using a lot of pepper, so they asked him whether he liked pepper. He answered: “I love pepper [fefer]? I love the der shefer [=the Creator].”¹

Therefore, people call pepper – the shefer.²

I.F.

Kopishnitzer Rebbe

1. fefer rhymes with shefer.
2. Some hasidim when they mention fefer (pepper in Yiddish) will also mention the rhymed association of fefer with (ba)shefer.