Parsha Foods

Ten Plagues from Haggadot. com

There are many ways to get your family, children, or students involved with narratives from the bible. One method that’s used is “parsha foods”. Each week the creative food thinker looks at the parsha and figures out a way to bring the story to life through food.

Eleanore Lightstone, cook extraordinaire, lives in Jerusalem with her family. She created a Shabbat menu featuring the plagues from the story of the Exodus. Her two assistants, Faygle Train  and Arava Lightstone helped with the preparations. 

Their menu was as follows-

blood–  dipping sauce      frogs– cucumber and pickles     lice–  olives with cloves for pincers     wild animals–  pizza in the shape of various animals        pestilence– sushi with black sesame seeds      boils– cherry tomatoes       fiery hail– ice cubes with pomegranate seeds             locusts– butterscotch cookies                darkness– black liquorice         death of the firstborn–  broken heart cookies

  

The next three plagues, the just desserts are below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s fun to create a meal that includes scenes or ideas from the parsha. Here is the recipe for the broken heart cookies:

2 eggs                             2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup sugar                3 cups of flour

1/2 cup oil                      dash of salt

1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 o F  or  190 o C

Combine the eggs, sugar, oil and water until blended. Add the dry ingredients and combine. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Sprinkle some flour on a counter and roll out a piece of dough to about 1/8″ thick. Cut the dough into shapes using a heart cookie cutter. Place on a cookie sheet. Repeat using all the pieces of dough. Bake for 8 -10 minutes, until slightly golden.

Enjoy!

Laya

 

A Perfect 10

10 is the number that is often used to describe perfection. We use that scale whether we are talking about judging a gymnastics competition, getting 10 out of 10 on a spelling test, or rating an event (“On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate this shopping experience/ hotel stay/ trip to Florida?”) Can we talk about 10 as a perfect number when we are talking about the Torah reading Va’Eira? That’s the reading where the 10 plagues begin to be rained down on the Egyptians.

We all have heard of the 10 plagues. When God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and liberate the enslaved children of Israel, He didn’t set Moses up with an army. Instead, He described how ten plagues would be visited upon the Egyptian people. The horror of one plague after another would build up until the Pharaoh couldn’t stand it any more.  Finally, God told Moses, the Pharaoh would let the Israelites go – to their own land and to freedom.

Va’Eira by Laya Crust

The number 10 is a significant number in Judaism and in western culture. In the story of creation the phrase “And God said” is repeated 10 times.  Within the seven days of creation, 10 categories of being were created. There were 10 generations between Adam and Noah- the generation that was destroyed by the flood. Abraham was given 10 tests. God required 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorra in order to avert divine punishment. Most important of all, God gave us the 10 commandments.

The “yud” is the first letter in God’s Hebrew name, י-ה-ו-ה.  Each letter in the Hebrew language has a numerical value. The letter “ י ” has the value of  10.  The letter yud gets its name from the Hebrew word יד  “Yad” which means hand.

In the earliest writing a yud looked like an arm with a hand at the end of it. And of course, we have 10 fingers on our two hands. (or 10 digits, if you want to be more accurate). Those 10 digits are the basis of our counting and mathematical structures. The metric system is completely based on values of 10. The “yud”, 10, is therefore the foundation to both our language and commerce systems.

As mentioned before, God when created the world, the phrase, “And God said” was used 10 times.  When the God spoke to Moses He used the term “outstretched arm”. We read about “the hand of God “and the “finger of God”. Moses and Aaron stretched out their hands before a plague appeared. The image of hands with their 10 fingers occurs over and over again.

Going back to the plagues, it appears that God specifically visited 10 plagues on Egyptian society. The use of 10 to achieve good when surrounded by evil underlines the power of God in the details and in the large picture .

Rosh Hodesh by Laya Crust

God established a people through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob which was to be a “light among the nations”. God gave us the 10 commandments as our guidebook for good and moral behaviour – the opposite of slavery and cruel dictatorship. The beautiful world that God created was (and still is) to be enjoyed by humankind, and was (and still is) to nurture humanity.

God used the plagues to undo the ancient Egyptian civilization. Visiting 10 plagues on tyrannical Egypt carried the pointed message that ethics and justice can, and will, undo evil.

Creation and the 10 commandments are the good that infuses the world. The symbol of that righteousness and beauty encompassed in 10 is symbolized by the letter “yud” which appears in every letter of the Hebrew alphabet and therefore every expression of creation, law,  justice and beauty.

Have a Shabbat Shalom, and may at least 10 good events come your way!

Laya

 

The Best Bedtime Stories

art by Laya Crust

Parshat Bo: Exodus, chapter 10 -13

Haftarah: Jeremiah  46: 13 -28

The Best Bedtime Stories

Story time is one of the best times of the day.  We are transported to magical places. We meet extraordinary people and see things we would never come across on a typical day. Stories make time enchanting when reality is boring. You need to get someone to brush teeth? Tell a story. The wait in the doctor’s office is hours long? Tell a story. The car ride isn’t ending? Tell a story.

Our family’s favourite source of stories was Tanach (the Jewish Bible). Between the angels, the giants, the talking snakes and the trickery, what could be more exciting?

Take this week’s Torah reading. Our heroes are Moses and Aaron, two poor brothers, who were on a quest to free a nation of slaves. The downtrodden  slaves were in the grasp of a powerful ruler, the Pharaoh of Egypt. To Pharaoh’s surprise Moses and Aaron had managed to turn the water in Egypt to blood, bring millions of frogs into the cities and fields, create an infestation of lice, and destroy the spring crops with balls of flaming hail.

This week’s episode have the brothers confronting Pharaoh again.  Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ” How long are you going to be so stubborn? If you don’t let the slaves go God is going to send locusts.” The plague of locusts attacked the land, and destroyed all the crops the hail had left. That was followed by a darkness so thick the darkness could be touched. Neither Egyptians nor their animals could see or move for 3 days and three nights.

painting by Laya Crust

Even so, Pharaoh refused to be threatened. He raised himself up and through gritted teeth proclaimed, “Get away from me. Take heed of yourself. Never approach me again. For on the day you see my face again, you will die!” And Moses answered, “You have spoken well. I will see your face again no more.”

Then the two brothers rushed to the slaves, told them to grab their belongings and get ready for the dangerous road to freedom.

What a story!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So do yourself a favour. Get a comfy couch, a couple of cuddly kids, some milk and cookies. Then open up your friendly bible to Exodus chapter 10. It’s a great read . Be warned, it can get a little sad or scary at parts. That’s part of the adventure too.

Come back next week- same time, same place, and you’ll see what new exploration we may embark upon.

Laya

Artist in Residence,  The Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Textiles, Toronto     website http://www. layacrust.com