Parashat Pikudei

Cloudy with a Chance of Pomegranates

This week's parashah details the extraordinary amounts of gold, silver, and precious resources that Bnei Yisrael donated to the construction of the mishkan. It then offers painstaking instructions about the creation of the bigdei kehunah, priestly garments (that were first described in Parashat Tetzaveh), even explaining how the artisans were able to hammer gold so thinly that it could be spun into thread and woven together with the other dyed yarns. From the bigdei kehunah, the parashah highlights the adornment at the bottom of the robe/tunic. the hemline was fringed with small bells and pomegranate shaped ornaments. In celebration of this sacred fashion, we will be having a meal full of bells and pomegranates. The bells will be served in two forms: stuffed bell peppers and bell-shaped pasta (campanelle). The pomegranate will glaze our chicken, be featured in our beverages, and make a guest appearance in a green salad.

The end of the parashah introduces another evocative image: the cloud that rested over the mishkan symbolizing Hashem's presence in the mishkan. My daughters are creating a large paper cloud that we will suspend from the light fixture over the shabbat table. I'm also making meringue clouds that will rest over berry compote for dessert. I also hope we have a chance to discuss the image of the cloud and why Hashem might have chosen that way to represent the Shechinah. I also loved a short question that I found somewhere in the blogoshpere about the cloud: What is the relationship between the cloud that rested over Sarah's tent and the cloud over the mishkan? The blogger suggested that every Jewish home should be a mini-mishkan imbued with Hashem's presence. How to do so will be a great conversation starter.

Shabbat Shalom!

Parashat Vayakhel

Cholent Throwdown

This week's parashah includes the verse that is often cited as the distinguishing factor between people who observe only the written Torah (such as the Karaites) and those who embrace rabbinic Judaism that encompasses both the written and oral law. The verse, "You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwelling places on the Sabbath day " (Shemot 35:3), suggests in the literal sense that Jews must sit in the dark eating cold food all shabbat long. This contradicts tradition, however. Rabbinic law allows and encourages us to make use of light and fire to illuminate our homes and to warm our food as long as we did not ignite the fires on shabbat and follow the prescribed rules for using the light. To highlight the custom to eat warm food on shabbat, we will be having a cholent/chamin/adafina throwdown this shabbat lunch, a meal celebrating the various traditions that have developed in Jewish communities around the world for a Shabbat stew that cooks from erev shabbat on through lunchtime. (That means that I will have to find a few crock pots from willing neighbors and/or try to make some mini-dishes in the oven the old fashioned way.) There is no shortage of recipes for these shabbat delicacies (if one can call cholent delicate or a delicacy), and I have been making the Ashkenazi version for some time now. However, I offer two intriguing versions, one Italian and one Iraqi, that I found on a "The Jew and the Carrot" post:

Italian Sabbath Stew (Hamin)
--from “The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food” by Gil Marks

6 to 8 servings

Meatballs:
1 pound ground chicken breast
½ cup fresh bread crumbs or matzah meal
1 large egg
About ¾ teaspoon salt
About ½ teaspoon ground white or black pepper
1 clove garlic, mashed, or pinch of ground nutmeg (optional)

Greens:
2 pounds fresh chard or spinach
3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

Hamin:
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
3 medium yellow onions, sliced
4 fresh sage leaves or 1 teaspoon dried sage
1 ½ pounds beef or veal marrow or neck bones
2 to 3 pounds beef chuck, whole or cut into 2-inch cubes
2 cups dried white beans
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
About 3 teaspoons table salt or 4 teaspoons kosher salt
About ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
About 2 quarts water

1) To make the meatballs: combine all the meatball ingredients and form into ½ inch balls.

2) To make the greens, separate the chard leaves from the stems. Cut the tender stems into 1 inch pieces. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chard and sauté until wilted. Top with the meatballs, cover, reduce heat to low and sauté until the chard is tender and the meatballs are cooked, about 20 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate until shortly before using.

3) To make the hamin: In a large heavy pot heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sage and sauté until golden, about 15 minutes. In the order given, add the bones, beef, beans, salt and pepper, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over medium low heat or bake in a 375 degree oven until the beans are nearly soft, about 1 ½ hours.

4) Add more water if necessary. Cover the pot tightly. Put on a blech (metal tray) over low heat or in a 200 degree oven and cook for at least 6 hours or overnight.

5) Shortly before serving, stir the meatballs and the greens into the hamin and let sit until heated through.

Chicken Stuffed with Meat
--from “Mama Nezima’s Jewish- Iraqi Cuisine” by Rivka Goldman

10 servings

1 3-pound chicken, skin removed

Stuffing:
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon ground hot paprika
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
½ pound lean ground beef or ground chicken breast
1 cup cooked rice
1 large tomato, chopped

Sauce:
1 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 ½ cups rice

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Combine the salt, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper, white pepper and paprika in a bowl.

2) Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over high heat, add the onion. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in the meat and half the spices, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and tomato, for 1 minute, and remove from heat.

3) Stuff the chicken with the meat mixture. Sprinkle the remaining half of the spices over the chicken, and place the stuffed chicken in a roasting pan.

4) Heat the vegetable oil in a pot over high heat and add the onion. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the tomato sauce and 4 cups of water. Add the salt, garlic powder, lemon juice, and rice ad remove from heat.

5) Pout the rice mixture around the chicken. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 8 hours or overnight at 200 degrees.

So that basically takes care of lunch. For dinner I would like to use a little parashah decor on the table. The parashah elaborates on the artistry of the vessels in the mishkan. One commentary I read mentioned how there had been no Jewish artisans in Egypt as they had been so consumed by manual labor that they had never developed their talents, an idea that I had never considered previously. Nonetheless, the innately talented weavers, embroiderers, goldsmiths, etc. offered their raw creativity and passion to the project of building the tabernacle. This Thursday night I plan to let my kids have a go at making replicas of some of the vessels using whatever art materials we have on hand. We will also work on creating an edible golden menorah, complete with the flower shaped candle holders (thanks to flower shaped muffin tins), out of carrot muffin/kugel. Finally, I plan to use pieces of mirror I bought at a craft store to use as place cards. the mirrors represent those used to fashion the kiyor, sink/laver, in the mishkan. According to midrash, these were the very same mirrors used by the women to beautify themselves in Egypt in an attempt to ensure Jewish continuity when their enslaved husbands would return from grueling days at Pitom and Ramses. While I still have to think of an age appropriate way to explain that to our kids ;-), I love the idea that echoes last week's theme: an object or material can be elevated to higher purposes if one uses it appropriately. Mirrors, a symbol of vanity, were used in the construction of the mishkan because they had been used for Divine purposes.

Have a warm and wonderful shabbat!

Parashat Ki Tisa

The Golden Ticket

So I promised no golden calves this week, but I didn't promise no gold. In fact, gold is the color of choice for this week's parashah. It not only symbolizes the sin of the Golden Calf, but it also represents the kapparah (atonement/recompense) for that sin as it was used to make the lavish keilim (vessels) in the mishkan (tabernacle). I love that the material that caused such a dramatic spiritual downfall for Bnei Yisrael is the very material mandated for the mishkan--which will elevate Bnei Yisrael to spiritual heights. That, I think, is essentially THE potent message of the parashah--and the next two that deal with the actual construction of the mishkan. Material objects (as well as personality traits, behaviors, etc.) begin as inherently neutral in their impact on the world. It matters, however, how humans use and relate to the materials. We have the potential to affect whether something quickens our descent into a spiritual quagmire or hastens our ascent to spiritual highs. That's why Onkelos, when translating the text at the start of the parashah about the basin for washing the kohanim's hands and feet, uses the work kiddush (sanctify) rather than rachatz (wash), because even the familiar and common act of washing can become holy. We possess the power to transform the mundane--material items, everyday actions, or even ourselves--into the sacred and sanctified.

On to the menu:
A golden meal that will, God willing, brighten and elevate shabbat!

Harvest Gold Lentil Soup
Golden Roasted Chicken
Shimmery Corn Kugel
Green and Gold String Bean Salad
Marinated Golden Beets
Golden Carrot Coins
Golden Yellow Tomato Salad

Baked Golden Delicious Apples stuffed with Golden Raisins

Next week it should challenging (and hopefully fun) to come up with ways that themishkan can come to the table.

Shabbat Shalom!
© Tammie Rapps 2011/5771

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

Parashat Terumah

Feeling Cruv-y

This week’s parashah is the first that deals with the construction of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle that accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness and served as their portable Temple. While the entire structure is described in the parashah, there is special focus on the Ark and the curtains that hang around it. The ark, therefore, will serve as the basis for our Shabbat dinner. To begin with, the golden Ark and the parochet (curtain) are decorated by figures of what in English we call cherubs. In Hebrew, those figures are called cruvim, winged angels that flank the ark. Interestingly (although not etymologically connected as per http://www.balashon.com/2007/07/kruv.html ) cruv means cabbage in modern Hebrew and cruvit means cauliflower. The similarity of the Hebrew for cherub and cabbage makes it too difficult for me to ignore stuffed cabbage and popcorn cauliflower for Shabbat dinner. While not a visual tie in, these dishes will permit us to talk about what these figures looked like and why we think they adorned the Ark. For dessert we will build Arks out of chocolate bars and fill them with mousse. If only I could get gold chocolate bars....

We will also play a game of 20 questions. According to the Abarbanel, each of the 16 materials used to construct the Mishkan falls into one of four categories: animal, vegetable, mineral, and color. These familiar categories lead perfectly into a game of 20 questions about those materials.

Have a cruv-y Shabbat,
Tammie