Parashat Tetzaveh

The Height of Fashion

This shabbat will include a lot of play at our table. For starters, we have a paper doll set that I have been creating that introduces the bigdei kehunah, the priestly garments, that the Kohen Gadol wore in his service in the tabernacle. The clothes, as described in the parashah, are ornate, layered, and colorful--which makes them perfectly suited to paper dolls. A color printer and/or copier--and a pair of scissors--were all I needed to make the set. To add a tasty dimension to the fashion show, twelve cupcakes, each shaded with a different jewel-toned frosting form a beautiful choshen/breastplate for the Kohen Gadol...and make for a nice dessert. I also saw a sheet cake decorated with squares of jelly bean sin twelve different colors, another tasty alternative.

The one other piece of decor in the dining room is a small LCD light that will I put in a votive holder to serve as a ner tamid. It will go hand in hand with the olive-laden chicken, tapenade, and olive and olive-oil dressed linguine that I will serve for Shabbat dinner. These menu items refer to the pure pressed olive oil used to light the ner tamid. We hope to spend time talking about the purpose and symbolism of the ner tamid and why light is such an essential symbol in Judaism.

Have a luminous shabbat!

© Tammie Rapps 2011/5771