Parashat Miketz

Corn for Carnivores

This week's entry is "katzar v'lainyan," short and to the point. I apologize for the brevity: Somehow it is harder to do my parashah study and planning when my kids are home... Go figure! Bli neder, I will be back on track with richer stuff for next week.

By the way, if you are coming to our house for a shabbat meal, please stop reading here!

Parashat Miketz retells the story of Yosef's successful interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams, his consequent ascension to power in Egyptian court, and his initial reconnection to his brothers who journey to Egypt in search of rations during a famine.

Yosef rises to power when he successfully explains God's plans for Egypt as envisioned by Pharaoh in two dreams of fat and skinny cows and plump and withered corn. These dreams are the centerpieces of our menu for Shabbat dinner. We are going to feed our guests as if we were living during the seven fat and plentiful years: lots of corn and lots of meat! (wild rice and corn chowder, corn fritters/latkes, roasted squash and corn, popcorn cauliflower, beef roast, and a cornmeal cake for dessert)

After dinner, we will present each guest with a goody bag/Chanukah gift. In one bad, we will hide a small cup... and thereby launch a parashat hashavua discussion.

If I had the guts, I would serve a leaner meal for lunch (maybe even milchigs) and then have "skinny cow" brand ice cream sandwiches for dessert, but we are having company who like their meat, so I am still thinking about lunch. I would love to do something that ties in with Yosef's accusation of his brothers as spies and Yosef's hiding his tears from his siblings. I guess I have a few hours until morning to keep thinking!

On a side note, if you click below and then scroll down to the bottom of the page you will find:
a short d'var Torah that explains the connection between the Yosef story and the Chanukah story .

Have a very happy rest of Chanukah and a Shabbat Shalom!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Vayeshev

Colorful Coats and Dreams

There is tremendous pressure on me this week of Parashat Vayeshev. This is the parashah that my fourth grader has been learning in school this year with her rebbe. She knows all of perek 37 by heart and has a good chunk of perek 39 committed to memory. (Understandably, the rebbe glossed over perek 38, the Tamar and Yehudah story, with the vaguest of summaries.) The class has been delving into the peshat (literal) and rabbinic interpretations of the text of the Yosef story, so I have a real expert on my hands! She is so excited about this week!

For starters, the image that will dominate the décor of the table will be the special coat that Yaakov gave to his son Yosef. We have a beautiful, bright striped tablecloth that will make a striking setting for the table. Of course, there are discussion among the commentaries as to the nature and appearance of this coat, but we’ll stick with the most literal at this point. (Nonetheless, I do wonder if the striped woolen garment that Rashi describes as the coat is an allusion to tzitzit/a tallit... Hmmmm.) The kids (and grown-ups) will also be wearing the most colorful striped clothing they have. During dinner, we will definitely talk about the coat and consider why Yaakov gave it to Yosef, even though Yosef’s brothers might (and had) become very jealous. For a more popular culture twist, I am working in fitting some of the zemirot we sing to tunes from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a score our family knows quite well.

Dreams will play the greatest role in our menu. Each place setting will be set with a goblet of grape juice and an individual roll. The grape juice goblets will have a plastic fly in each and the rolls will have a raisin—I don’t think a rock will do—stuck inside each one. These items, reminiscent of the sar hamashkim (sommelier) and sar haofim’s (baker) dreams, will hopefully set the stage for a discussion of Yosef as one who understands God’s messages sent through dreams. I would like our kids to think about how Yosef inherited his understanding of how to analyze dreams from the experiences of his father. While Yosef’s brothers might have thought initially that his dreams were delusions of grandeur, they and Yaakov Avinu come to realize that the dreams are actually expressions of nevuah (prophecy), as evident in the fact that the motifs of the dreams are repeated/doubled.

To further the dream representation on the table, I am going to repurpose one of my ideas from last week and create sheaves of wheat out of carrots stick bunches tied with scallion. For Yosef’s bundle, I will use string beans tied similarly, but that bundle will be grander and larger, and positioned differently on the serving dish. For Yosef’s second dream that he reports to his siblings, I will once again pull out my star shaped baking pan for eleven star shaped muffins to accompany a squash sunshine and mashed potato moon (see Parashat Bereishit).

We will also highlight the darker parts of the parashah—Yosef’s time in the pit and his brother’s elaborate scheme to make Yaakov think that Yosef had met his demise at the mouth of a wild beast. To remind us of the pit, we will make a dish that is a pun on the Hebrew text describing the pit. (My fourth grader and I thought of this several weeks ago when she had to read the verse and the accompanying Rashi over and over for homework one night.) The Torah says that the pit was empty; it contained no water, “Ve’ha’bor rek, ain bo mayim.”) If you say “bor rek” (the pit was empty) many times in a row, it begins to sound like borek or borekas, so we have to have those at Shabbat dinner (and there will be no mayim in our borekas!) For the main course, I will serve several bowls of dipping sauces and have strips of food (meat, chicken, vegetables, etc.) that can be drenched in the red sauces.

And that will be this year’s rendering of Parashat Vayeshev!

Shabbat Shalom!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Vayishlach

This week's post will be much shorter than usual. I don't know if I am facing creative difficulties for this week because we will not be home for our shabbat meals so I am not as motivated to think, or because the subject matter in this parashah is pretty intense and complex: Yaakov and Esav's tense reunion, Yaakov's nocturnal battle with the angel and his subsequent name change, the violation of Dina and the subsequent massacre in Shechem, Rachel's death, and Reuven's questionable actions in Bilhah's tent. None of these topics make for really light, fun, colorful, or even age-appropriate additions to the shabbat table.

But, because I have made a commitment to myself to try to do the ENTIRE year of parashah, here's a lame (o.k., maybe that's the tie-in!) attempt, that I hope will gain strength next year:

When Yaakov realizes that he is about to encounter Esav whom he had not seen in decades since angering him upon receiving Yitzchak's blessing, the younger brother prepares for the meeting in three ways. He sends gifts to Esav in an attempt at diplomacy, he prays to Hashem, and he divides his camp as preparation for battle. This three-pronged approach to combating an enemy is the paradigm that the Jewish People has often followed (see Megillat Esther, for example). I think that the first approach, diplomacy, lends itself nicely to the table. I would wrap three large boxes and use them as the centerpiece for the meal. Under one would be small gifts for every guest, under the second would be birchonim, and under the third would be toy soldiers. During the meal we would discuss why using diplomacy should be the first communication between enemies. We would try to bring the conversation down to a micro level and talk about interpersonal relationships in the house and how Yaakov's example could help us in our own interactions at home.

As for other parts of the parashah, the only other section I would highlight would be Yaakov's wrestling with the angel. Angel food cake could cover that (as rump roasts aren't kosher!). We would certainly talk about why the Torah states that the violation for eating the gid hanasheh, the sciatic nerve, is Jewish law even until today (when the Torah does not make similar assertions for other mitzvot).

Once more I will ask for you to send any amazing (or even lame) ideas for this parashah. I clearly need to revisit this one for next year!

One more note: a dear friend who has been working on recipes for each parashah suggested making small packages or bundles (puff pastry? vegetables ties up with scallion?) to represent the "pachim ketanim," little bundles that Yaakov forgot on the banks of the river; it was those baskets that he went alone to retrieve when he met up with the belligerent angel.

Have a shabbat shalom!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Vayeitzei

Stones, Sons, and Speckles

Because we are all a bit under the weather, this Shabbat will be low key for us—no company and no invitations out. Therefore, in this blog-entry, I will recount what I am doing this Shabbat just for us, and what I could envision doing had we opted for company this week.

Parashat Vayeitzei overflows with amazing images and possibilities for the Shabbat table. For Friday night, we will focus on the first episode in the parashah: Yaakov’s amazing dream of a ladder filled with ascending and descending angels. For no good reason, other than to make the ladders, we are having an Asian meal this evening. Let me explain: I’ve taken chopsticks and tied ribbon rings/rungs around them to create a ladder and then I slipped a cut-out of an angel (although probably not an image of “our” angels—an excellent point of discussion, by the way: How do we understand and envision the angels in Yaakov’s dream, the angels who escort us home on Friday nights from shul, and any other instance of angels from Jewish tradition?) as the place card. These ladder place-settings will appear at every seat. For dinner, I have steamed asparagus and carrot sticks that I will form into a ladder on a tray and I will drape it with angel-hair pasta. As another reference to the story, we will eat steamed dumplings, which could certainly remind us of the stones that Yaakov put under his head. For dessert, the kids can make their own ladders out of licorice and pretzel rods. During the course of the meal, we plan to talk about angels (as mentioned above), tefillah (because this is when Yaakov davened tefillat aravit and instituted the evening prayer service), and images of ladders (why did Yaakov dream of a ladder reaching to the heavens? What does the ladder symbolize, etc.?).

Shabbat lunch will be a celebration of the 12 children born to Yaakov this parashah. The table will be set with baby bottles, 11 “it’s a boy” and 1 “it’s a girl” signs, pretend pacifiers, and the like. The meal itself won’t really reflect the parashah. Rather the décor and activities/discussions will. I’ve created a simple matching game in which players turn cards over to match the right child with the correct mother. Next year, I hope to add the traditional images associated with each of the shevatim to the cards so each match will have three cards! If we were to have company, I would like to put hidden namecards under each plate and have each person at the table assume the identity of one of Yaakov's children. Everyone at the table would have to guess the identity of everyone. I would also attempt to think of different foods to represent the different children, although that would take a long time to think up, let alone prepare. I could also incorporate something jasmine flavored (jasmine tea--or even Jasmine rice), becasue some think that the "dudaim" that Rachel wants (presumably for their therapeutic fertility qualities) are jasmine.

As a second topic of discussion, I think it would be meaningful for our kids to learn about how the shevatim were named and how we follow the example set forth by Leah and Rachel in giving our children names with powerful meanings. We would like to explain to our children the meanings of their names (in addition to telling them about the people for whom they are named), so they can understand the significance that their names carry on a literal, literary, and symbolic level.

Dessert for lunch will guide us in one other parashah direction. I've unearthed an old lamb-shaped cake pan that had belonged to my Savta (zichronah livrachah). I am baking a chocolate chip cake in it to represent the speckled and spotted sheep that Yaakov miraculously amassed as compensation for his work for Lavan. I love this part of the parashah because it allows us to see how Hashem rewarded Yaakov Avinu for his toils, how Yaakov uses cleverness to collect his due, and because there is an awesome allusion to it in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice when Antonio tries to describe the interest that Shylock exacts from his debtors.

One aside: Musician Yoshie Fruchter on his CD Beyond the Book explores the emotional state of Biblical personalities through musical soliloquies. His song about Leah is haunting and sad, and lends a fascinating insight into her mindset. It is well worth a listen!

Have a Shabbat shalom!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

correction

Just an FYI: the parshan who writes about limiting meat consumption is the Kle Yakar, not the Or Hachayim. It was really late last night--post Thanksgiving Dinner and post building a computer desk--when I wrote.

Shabbat Shalom!

Parashat Toldot

Iron Chef Lentils vs. Iron Chef Red

Note: I would like to dedicate the parashah study that I did for this week in the zechut (merit) of a community friend who has fallen ill; please pray for her speedy and complete recovery: Chava Blima bat Nechama Yenta.

Happy Thanksgiving (today) and Happy Rosh Chodesh Kislev (tomorrow)!

I guess that it is appropriate that parashat Toldot coincides with Thanksgiving on the secular calendar this year. This parashah that deals with the berakhot bestowed on our ancestors—blessings of sustenance and greatness, abundance and offspring—gives me the opportunity to reflect on the berakhot of love, family, community, etc. that have been bestowed on me (for which I am profoundly thankful).

For this Shabbat, lentils will take center stage for Friday night dinner to recall the lentil porridge that Yaakov bartered for Esav’s birthright: lentil soup with herbed sour cream, lentils and rice, and a lentil salad of some sort, using green, brown, and black lentils will accompany our main dish. I think that (as the sour cream suggested) we plan to have a dairy dinner for Shabbat—and there may actually be an allusion to such a meal in the commentary on the parashah. When exploring why Yitzchak asks Esav in the latter part of Toldot to hunt and prepare food for him, the Kle Yakar mentions that there is merit in a “meat reductionist” diet, because regular carnivorous eating habits can breed cruelty and meanness, whereas meat reduction helps create harmony and peace in the world. (My vegetarian sisters and 9 year old daughter must be so proud!)

The theme for Shabbat lunch will be red. Anyone at the table who wants something to eat can just ask to have the “adom ha’adom hazeh” (“that red, red stuff”) passed to him or her. Hopefully, our guests will have a more discriminating palate than Esav and actually enjoy the red delicacies as they swallow them. Gazpacho, tomato salad, red beans with pickled red onions, red lentil paté, red cranberry relish, and red meat (of course) will round out our menu.

Dessert will take us in a different direction. When Yaakov, disguised as his brother Esav, approached Yitzchak to feed him and to collect his blessing, Yitzchak summoned the use of all his functional senses to determine the identity of the man standing before him; Yitzchak felt Yaakov’s arms, listened to his voice (and his words), and smelled his clothing. Rashi, citing a midrash, explains that the garments that Yaakov was wearing smelled of the fields rather than of the hunt, and more specifically, they smelled of an apple orchard. Using that idea, dessert will be bakes apples.

During the meal we hope to play a cute game that our 5-year-old learned in Hebrew immersion last year: “Tik Tuk Mi Ani?” To play, a volunteer closes his or her eyes and another player knocks on the volunteer’s back, disguises his or her voice, and asks, “Tik tuk mi ani?” (“Tik, tuk, who am I?”). The volunteer then has to guess the identity of the speaker.

Hope you have a wonderful Shabbat!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Chayei Sarah

Well, well, well!

I love this parashah! Chayei Sarah is filled with pathos and romance, from Avraham’s purchase of Me’arat HaMachpelah as a final resting place for his beloved wife, Sarah, to Eliezer’s search for a suitable wife for Yitzchak. The almost uncharacteristic detail in this parashah enriches the stories it tells and fleshes out the personalities of our ancestors in subtle, but meaningful ways. In particular, Rivka captures my attention. I am mesmerized by her vitality and her initiative. A string of verbs describes her actions assisting Eliezer and his camels similar to the language used to portray Avraham’s haste to help his guests in last week’s parashah. She clearly models the same attitude toward chesed (kindness) that Avraham demonstrates and is thus a worthy and appropriate choice as Yitzchak’s wife. She also serves as an amazing example of how one can cultivate his or her own Jewish values (although that term is somewhat of an anachronism) even in the midst of an environment espousing conflicting values.

So, with that introduction, Rivka will be the focus of this week’s Shabbat experience. We will be having Shabbat dinner at home, but are invited out to lunch. The description below is for Shabbat dinner, then.

Two major images from the Rivka story will take center stage at our Shabbat table. The first image: Gems and gifts to commemorate the beautiful jewelry Eliezer brought to Rivka to woo her on Yitzcahk's behalf. Again, this time of year on the secular calendar proves a boon to a parashah mom who seeks inexpensive jewels and such. The crafts store has tons of pearl garlands, gold and silver beaded garlands, and glittery “holiday” picks that look like gift boxes. I will string the garlands around the table and then I will use the holiday picks to form napkin rings. I also have a bunch of large faux jewels that can decorate the table. The jewelry motif would not be complete without Paskesz candy necklaces and bracelets. Too bad they don’t make nose rings!

The second image will inform several of the menu items for this Shabbat. Rivka exhibits her tremendous chesed and z’rizut, alertness and initiative to do a mitzvah, by running and drawing water from a well for Eliezer and his caravan of thirsty camels. The well serves as a powerful metaphor for life, vitality, and, ultimately, for Torah, What a great challenge for our Shabbat table! I will try to form a well out of a challah roll and fill the well with a vegetable dip and/or hummus. I will try to do something similar with thick crusty rolls to serve soup. As a side dish, puff pastry shells (a.k.a patty shells) will play the well role, filled with a mixture of sauteed vegetables. The well will reappear at the end of the meal in the form of a small watermelon cut to look like a well. I found a web site that gives step by step instructions for one of these. I plan to make mine a bit less elaborate, but I'll follow the general strategies. To accompany our well, we will have camel shaped cookies. (We’re also bringing a batch of camel cookies to our hosts for lunch along with some silver chocolate coins, as a nod to the 400 silver shekel that Avraham paid for Me’arat HaMachpelah.)

Finally, to reinforce Rivka’s traits of chesed and z’rizut, I’m devising a few friendly competitions for the Shabbat table (who can set the table the quickest, who can serve the most items, who can clear her/his place setting first, etc.).

And for next year, G-d willing, when we revisit this parashah, I have the challenge of thinking about Me’arat HaMachpelah (and why caves and wells seem to be inversions of each other), Kiryat Arba, Yitzchak’s davening in the fields, and Rivka entering Sarah’s tent. I could also prepare "Sheva Brachot" for Rivka and Yitzchak. Some food for thought!

Have a Shabbat Shalom!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Vayera

It feels like cheating a little when I have to plan a Shabbat meal around a parashah that prominently features food. Recipes take the back burner, so to speak, and the challenge is to incorporate the food fromm the parashah into an atmosphere that brings the Torah reading to life in a different way.

This week our shul is encouraging a Shabbat orchim, a Shabbat of guests, in which families invite others not in their usual circle of friends. This initiative emulates Avraham’s hospitality in this parashah, when he greeted his guests with enthusiasm and energy, even while recovering from his circumcision. We are not faced with the same challenges as he was, but we strive to follow his example the best we can.

I hope our guests are willing to sit on the floor!

Our dining room will undergo a transformation this week. It will become Avraham and Sarah’s tent; I have a few tension rods that I can hang in the doorways with tab curtains attached. We also have multiple tablecloths that can serve as interesting fabrics that might have adorned Avraham’s tent. On the floor I will place some big pillows for seating and some low tables for the meal. All will be covered with more cloths in deep, rich, exotic colors.

The Torah maps out the meal pretty well based on what Avraham and Sarah served the angels/guests. I think I can translate their cakes, breads, spreads, and meats into modern fare. When Avraham orders that a young, tender calf (which sounds to me like, veal) be cooked for his guests, Rashi explains that Avraham was really preparing “leshonot v’chardal,” tongues and mustard, which must have been delicacy either in Avraham’s day or Rashi’s. I have no desire (nor do I have the knowledge of how) to make tongue (or veal for that matter), but we will have a chardal/mustard taste test with a variety of mustards available for the event (most purchased at the National Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, WI this summer!). As for the meat, I think we will nod to an event later in the parashah—the fate of Lot’s wife as she peered back at the burning S’dom—by eating salt beef (the Brits’ name for corned beef). The rest of the meal will include wine (an allusion to Lot’s daughters) and Middle Eastern cuisine.

For dessert, I have begun searching for a horn shaped basket (i.e., cornucopia), a perfect stand in for a ram’s horn to remind us of the binding of Yitzchak. I haven’t yet decided what will go into the cornucopia, but I still have a say or two to think about it. Again, suggestions are welcome!

After the past to weeks, I've realized that because our parashah meals are somewhat labor and imagination intensive, they may have to be limited to one per shabbat, so that's why this week is a bit scaled down.

Shabbat Shalom!

© Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Lech Lecha

A Shabbat of Sand and Stars, Footprints and Footsteps


SPOILER WARNING: If you are one of my sisters or brother-in-law who is coming to spend Shabbat with us this week, please do not continue reading! We don't want to spoil the fun!


I love that this blog has encouraged me to review the parashah early in the week. I feel that studying the text has given me a powerful focus for the week ahead of me... and given me countless ways to fill an already busy schedule and brain!


This week the Torah reading shifts from the global experience to the more particular Jewish experience narrated through the treks and trials of our ancestors Avram and Sarai (who at the end of the parashah have the letter "hey" added by Hashem to their names and they are transformed into Avraham and Sarah).


The parashah is filled with promises that God makes to Avram/Avraham. One of these promises--expressed in the parashah in two different ways--will be the basis of our Friday night Shabbat dinner. On two separate occasions, Hashem reiterates the promise to create a great nation from Avraham. In Bereishit 13:16 Hashem says, " And I will make your seed as the sand of the earth; so that if a person can count the sand of the earth, then shall your seed also be counted." Similarly, God promises Avraham, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to count them....So shall your seed be" (Bereishit 15:5). Sand and stars are powerful metaphors with which to work. I can't wait!


Stars are the easy part. At this time of year, there are a multitude of shiny star items available in craft stores and grocery stores. Our Shabbat table will be set with silver coasters laden with stars and star-shaped place cards; metallic star garlands will be draped from our chandelier; and we will serve parts of the meal in silver boxes adorned with stars and a silver star-shaped basket. (BTW, the coasters and the silver boxes were dollar store purchase.) I also have a large fabric remnant on which my daughters and I have begun painting stars with both glitter fabric paint stars and glow-in-the-dark fabric paint. This will be the table cloth for the meal. I'm planning to set our Shabbat clock so the lights go out around dessert time and the stars on the table will (or should) glow brightly.

For the meal itself, our salad will have vegetables cut with star shaped cookie cutters (great for peppers) and I will make kugels in star shaped foil pans I found. Family Fun magazine also has a recipe for star shaped watermelon "pops."

Sand will be featured in the meal as well. Couscous is grainy and sand-like and will certainly play that role on Shabbat in our house. Besides, no one can count the grains of couscous that my toddler can drop on the floor--a clear allusion to God's promise. Sand will also be the guest star for dessert; I'm working on adapting a sand dessert recipe that uses vanilla wafers and pudding to create a sandscape.


Shabbat lunch will highlight Hashem's command to Avram to get up and go to the Land of Canaan and to walk the length and breadth of the country. I found some footprint confetti which should look nice on the table and I have printed up a bunch of footprints on which I will write up some riddles about the land of Israel that will be scattered around the dining room. I plan to showcase foods related to the land of Israel, foods that Avraham himself might have enjoyed as he trekked through the land that God promised his offspring: dates, olives, wheat, barley, pomegranates, figs, grapes, milk, and honey. (We have vegetarians coming for shabbat, so I have some latitude here.)


Last year, I found acrylic plates shaped like flip-flops (probably not so far off from our ancestors' footwear) that we will use to serve the meal. I'm not sure what I'll do with the holes that are meant for drink glasses. Hmmm.







I'm also still contemplating what to serve for dessert. I'd like to re-purpose an idea from Sesame Street and have dessert brought to us by the letter ה/hey, but I haven't come up with anything too exciting for that yet. Not many Hebrew foods start with that letter. So far all I have is cardamom, which doesn't make for an exciting dessert (or Hebrew language refresher).

I'll probably add a thought or two to this week's entry as I work on it some more over the next day and a half.


If not, though,
Shabbat Shalom!

P.S. Note to self for next year:

Bris food and decor (bagels, lox, etc.) with Mazel Tov, Avraham signs

Suitcases and packing lists.... Hmmmm



copyright Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Noach

When I reviewed the parashah earlier this week, I was a bit overwhelmed. The story of Noach is one of the earliest we learn as children (my pre-schooler has water-play today as his class re-enacts the flood!) because animals are a big draw for kids, but the story is actually horrific and the parashah itself raises scores of theological and philosophical questions through its complex (and sometimes disturbing) narrative.

This parashah also happens to be jam-packed with material for a ParashahMom. So, I think that we will stick to the more colorful aspects of the parashah and raise a few less difficult--and more age appropriate--questions for the time being.

This week we will dedicate both Shabbat dinner (as our oldest--age 9--requested) and Shabbat lunch to Noach. Dinner will focus on the end of the parashah (Bereishit 11) that introduces the generation after the flood, the generation that built Migdal Bavel, the Tower of Babel. As this is a recent addition (as of last night), the ideas are still percolating, but so far I know that my husband and I will try to speak to the kids incorporating phrases from different languages , we will use place cards at dinner with our names written in various languages, and the meal will consist of "architectural recipes," recipes that try to defy gravity by standing up: stacks of polenta and grilled vegetables, towers of couscous and chicken (that you can mold in a ramekin), and a dessert that also towers somehow (still working on that; I'd like it to be somewhat healthy--and I am open to any ideas you would like to post in the comments section about dessert or activities for the table). After dinner we will definitely play Jenga (our kindergartner's favorite game) as we try to build our own tower. I will update this section as more ideas come to me.

Lunch will be all about Rainbows. Before Shabbat, we will set up our centerpiece (and learn a little science in the process): several thin vases holding food colored water in rainbow hues (using a LOT of food coloring) and either white carnations or queen anne's lace (whichever I can get at the florist) whose stems have been snipped and split to allow the color to travel to the petals. By lunch, the white flowers should turn the color of the water in which they are placed, and we should have a rainbow of flowers at the table. I'll also scout out any rainbow balloons or even just a series of regular latex ones in a spectrum of colors that I can use to decorate the dining room. The meal is easy: a broad spectrum of rainbow colored food: red tomatoes salad, orange carrot salad, yellow corn salad, green pea (or spinach, asparagus, broccoli, etc.), and purple cabbage slaw. For the main, I'll cheat and make something (chicken, probably) with olives--another connection to the parashah (also an opportunity to discuss with our aspiring 9-year-old vegetarian the change that Hashem introduced in the world post flood when Hashem allowed people to become carnivores). Dessert will be a double rainbow effort: skewers of fruit arranged in ROY G. BIV order and then fanned on a plate into a bow served with cups of rainbow jell dessert. (See http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Rainbow-Jello for instructions and an image.)They look beautiful, but we'll have to see how ko-jel does with this. I'll try to post a photo when I'm done with the table and with the cooking.


As for questions, the rainbow provides the best. Why does Hashem use a rainbow as the sign of the covenant not to destroy the world? The Ramban (Nachmanides) suggests that the rainbow is similar to the weapon, a bow, that Hashem has directed away from the earth. Now, we'll have to see what answers our kids imagine.

One last addition to our Shabbat Noach:

We have some great kids books, stories that might be considered modern midrash, that I'll set out for the weekend:

One is a book in which the pages latch together to make a carousel with images of the animals and the ark.



The second is NOAH'S WIFE: The Story of Naamah by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso with full-color illustrations by Bethanne Andersen, a tale of how Naamah preserved seeds from every plant while Noah collected the animals.





The third book, my personal favorite, is The Littlest Pair by Sylvia A. Rouss, illustrated by Holly Hannon. This story explores what happened when two termites sought refuge on Noah's ark.


Shabbat Shalom!


Copyright Tammie Rapps 2008

Parashat Bereishit

In the beginning...
Several years ago, I decided to engage our then 5-year-old and 1-year-old in some razzle dazzle in honor of the parashah. It has since become family tradition--at least for the first 12 weeks or so of the year. The educational philosophy behind the project suggests that kids (and adults) learn better when lessons are reinforced through a variety of modalities, so this is a creative way to reinforce parashah highlights. The themed shabbatot also allow us to focus on the parashat hashavua in an engaging and dynamic way in addition to asking parashah questions that may or may not make it home in a backpack.

Over the coming months, I plan, please G-d, to continue with the parashah themed shabbat meals and to share my plans on this blog. In general, I will aim to update the blog on Wednesdays, so if anyone is looking for an idea for shabbat, he or she can read about it with some time left to implement it at home.

Below is the meal that I plan to serve for this shabbat on which we read about the creation of the universe. This week, the parashah meal will be for lunch, so the menu includes food warmed on a "plata" or cold foods. Each dish will represent a day of creation:

Day one: light and dark
a platter of white basmati rice and black rice served side by side (On Friday night, we've also served black bean soup and white bean soup poured into the same bowl. When poured simultaneously, they stay distinct and separate.)

Day two: separation of the waters and the firmament
Layered mocktail drinks (orange or pineapple juice and grenadine or cranberry juice work well) To layer a mocktail, you need a clear glass, a spoon, and juices of different densities. Start by pouring the heaviest liquid into the cup (syrupy drinks such as grenadine are heaviest). Invert your spoon in the glass and pour the next layer over the back of the spoon very slowly and gently. That should help the next layer fall smoothly atop the first. If you are brave enough for a third layer, just remember to go form heaviest to lightest. For a dairy meal, cream is lighter than juice.
Layered terrine of gefilte fish (a la Kosher by Design)

Day three: trees, seeds, and flowers
composed salad of broccoli trees, flowers created from vegetables (i.e., pepper petals, string bean stems, carrot flowers, alfalfa sprout grass) etc. If I find edible flowers, I would definitely include them.

Day four: sun, moon, stars
a gorgeous sunburst made of pureed winter squash, cranberries, and apple slices (a Kosher Pallette II winner)
star-shaped pasta
a small bowl (small relative to the sunburst) of mashed potatoes for the moon

Day five: birds, fish, etc.
a bird's nest created out of spaghetti, birds shaped out of chicken tenders with black sesame seed eyes and tails made from cellophane-topped cocktail picks.

Day six: Humans
easy--to recognize G-d's greatest creation: RIBS!

Dessert:
sinfully delicious chocolate cake--shaped like a snake. To create a snake cake, bake cakes in two bundt pans ( I have mini bundts that I am using for a very narrow snake), cut each cake in half, and line up the halves in alternating directions to make a swervy snake. Decorate the snake with frosting tinted green and an array of candy embellishments; your family and guests will understand just how enticing that serpent could have been!

For decor, I think I will be going with the black and white; it's dramatic, pretty, and relevant. If I could arrange real drama, I'd start the meal in darkness and then have my shabbat timer turn the lights on in the middle, but I can never get the timing that precise.

Shabbat Shalom

copyright Tammie Rapps 2008

Welcome to Parashah Mom!

Happy 5769! Welcome to my Parashah Mom blog, where I hope to recount the ways that my family celebrates the weekly Torah reading/parahsat hashavua through crafts, recipes, and decor.