Parashat Mishpatim

Three's Another Charm

For what it's worth, I had the post below written and ready to go when the power went out in our house for 72 hours following a snow storm. I figured I would post anyway to keep the year chugging along. Alas, as last minute shabbat guests at friends who had electricity, I didn't get to make any of the menu items, but please G-d, there is always next year.

So, this week, the narrative party is over and being a Parashah Mom becomes a bit more complicated as parashat hashavua shifts to more legalistic discussions. Parashat Mishpatim offers a veritable cornucopia of laws necessary for a fledgling nation to establish its society. Foremost in the parashah are the laws pertaining to how to treat servants/slaves, something that Bnei Yisrael had not learned from the Egyptian example. The newly free people had to learn how to treat those who would be in their service, followed by rules about how to treat those less fortunate all punctuated by the refrain: Be nice because you were strangers in Egypt and you know how it feels to be oppressed. Once a series of social laws are listed, the parashah delineates laws that will enrich the nation’s spiritual side and secure its bond with God. Our Shabbat dinner will be a recognition of the four cornerstones of that relationship: Shabbat and the Shalosh Regalim, three festival. The meal will consist of foods associated with Shabbat (challah, wine, fish, chicken); Pesach (matzah balls); Shavuot (vegetable blintzes with pareve sour cream); and Sukkot (stuffed vegetables, hearts of palm salad). Some of our dinner conversation will focus on Kedushat Hazman. What does it mean to sanctify time? Why do we celebrate holidays? How do they help us build our relationship with Hashem?

For Shabbat lunch we will concentrate on the famous phrase, Bnei Yisrael’s complete acceptance of the Torah with the words, “na’aseh v’nishma,” “We will do and we will hear.” To do so, I will fill the table with ear-related foods, ears of corn, wood ear (or something that can stand in) mushrooms, oznei haman, elephant ears. With the focus on hearing in our house anyway (I have a child who is hearing impaired), we will be able to analyze why Bnei Yisrael says that it will hear, rather than believe, see, keep, or any other verb, when it accepts the Torah. Why is hearing the action that follows the doing?

Enjoy the food for thought!

Shabbat Shalom,

Tammie

Parashat Yitro

A Taste of Torah

With Matan Torah, the Divine revelation at Har Sinai, taking center stage this week, I turn to an old, trusted friend to help me with my Shabbat menu. Babaganewz.com includes a great recipe for making a Mount Sinai shaped cake, which will be our dessert this shabbat. Baked in an oven-safe round bowl (such as Pyrex), the dome shaped cake is a perfect canvas for the greenery and flowers traditionally associated with Mount Sinai (http://www.babaganewz.com/sites/default/files/posts/downloads/mtSinaiCake.pdf). I'm sure that my kids will have a blast getting their hands dirty with green frosting and candy flowers. Friday afternoon, I plan to ask our 7-year-old to draw some table decorations to represent the visible thunder (what DOES that look like?), lightning, and clouds that shrouded Sinai during this supernatural and miraculous event. For the discussion on Shabbat, we have two table topics. First, the big ten! Why do we think those were the ten chosen as the Biggies? What might we have added as a fundamental commandment if we could choose an eleventh? Second, while this Shabbat reminds us of when the Jewish People received the Torah, we should think about the people who continue to teach us Torah and make it relevant to us everyday. We will brainstorm a list of those people and think about how we can express Hakarat Hatov (gratitude) to them for rekindling the Sinai experience in us on a regular basis. Next year I will try to build a menu around each of the ten commandments. I am open for suggestions!
Have a Shabbat Shalom,

Tammie Rapps

Parashat Beshalach

Savoring Songs and Heavenly Delights

This week's parashah includes the splitting of the Yam Suf, Red (Reed) Sea, Moshe's and Bnei Yisrael's glorious hymn of thanksgiving to God for the miracle, and God's culinary plan for feeding Bnei Yisrael during their sojourn in the desert.

For our menu, I will focus solely on the manna. I graciously request feedback with splitting of the sea ideas for the future.

In Shemot 16:31, the Torah states:
"The House of Israel called it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like a wafer in honey."

Rashi interprets this verse to explain that the manna tasted just like a doughnut glazed in honey. The gemara in masechet Yoma describes the manna in miraculous terms; the manna had the ability to taste like any food in the world. So....

I am baking honey cookies for dessert for shabbat. (Sorry, I don't do deep fried doughnuts) to honor Rashi's interpretation. I'm going to use the honey cookie recipe I found here (http://www.cookiemadness.net/2008/05/1846/). To simulate the manna at our meal on Shabbat, we are going to feature tofu with a variety of both sweet and savory dipping sauces. Tofu, like the manna, possesses the amazing power of adaptability. Dipping tofu in array of condiments will change the flavor of the tofu.

In addition to celebrating the manna this shabbat, we will also recognize that this shabbat, because of the reading of shirat hayam in the parashah, is referred to as Shabbat Shirah. To celebrate this reference we will:

1. place a card with a Hebrew letter at each place setting. At different points in the meal, each guest will have to start a song that begins with that letter.

2. create a palm tree out of tropical fruits (a pineapple, dates, etc.; something like this, but on a smaller scale http://www.chocolatefountainhire.com/fruitpalmtree/) to represent Tomer Devorah, Devorah's palm under which she sat and judged--a nod to shirat Devorah in the hafatarah this week.

3. Sing two select songs written by songstress and composer extraordinaire Debbie Friedman, zichronah livrachah: Miriam's Song about the women's response to Moshe's shirat hayam and Devorah's Song about the judge and her wise leadership.

Have a song-filled a harmonious shabbat!

Tammie Rapps

Parashat Bo

Three's a Charm

While last week's title may suggest that this week I will focus on the remaining three makkot that God hurled onto the Egyptians, I chose to focus this week's shabbat festivities on a more positive aspect of the parahsah. Locusts. darkness, and slaying of the firstborn were a bit too gruesome and challenging for me. Instead, this week's Torah reading introduces three mitzvot that were given to the fledgling Jewish nation.

The mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh is the first full mitzvah given. Because the Jewish months are set according to a lunar calendar, our table will be adorned with moons of all sorts: 3-D moons, half moons, crescent moons... some edible and some not. The edible moons will be mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, and slices of white-flesh melon. Rav Kook explains how the waxing and waning of the moon are symbolic of a human's spiritual quest, an idea that we will try to discuss on a decidedly more elementary level. I'd also love for us to get into a discussion about the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh and why it is the first national mitzvah. It would be great for our kids to be able to recite the Hebrew months in order, too. :-)

Our main dish Friday night will be a nod to the second mitzvah mentioned in the parashah--the Korban Pesach, the Pesach offering. For this I am serving lamb chops on a bed of romaine with a horseradish dressing and a side of vegetable laden matzah farfel (yes, our family might be the only one that loves matzah all year round), reminiscent of the mandate to eat the offering with matzot and merrorim.

Finally, dessert will focus on the third mitzvah--the commandment to place the blood of the Pesach offering on the doorposts and lintel of every Jewish home, the precursor to the mitzvah of mezuzah. For that, I will serve canolis (sort of mezuzah shaped--and I just spied them at the local kosher bakery) on a plate that has been brushed with three lines of strawberry sauce.

And there you have the three mitzvot in review/revue!

Have a wonderful shabbat!

© Tammie Rapps 5771/2011