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