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
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