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Vayishlach

rabbitendler

This week's Torah portion is pivotal. It reflects transformations. Jacob wrestles with a divine figure, often translated as an angel, and receives the blessing of a new name-- Yisrael. Most importantly he becomes worthy of being the namesake of the Jewish people. This must not be overlooked or underestimated. And yet, he is one of the few figures in Torah is referred to even after by both names. There is also the dynamic between two brothers. This week Jacob meets Esau and beseeches Esau to take Jacob's gift, his blessing (birkati). Clearly this connects to that which preceded Jacob's self-imposed exile. And so again, we have distinct entities with a sense of coming full circle. Only death makes it too late to come full circle, to receive the blessing of another or to reach out to make amends. This year brings powerful reminders of what really matters. Do not let arguments fester, differences divide. The Torah encourages us to reach out and to acknowledge that enough is indeed enough.


So what am I planning this week....

My challah will most likely be two strands-- from the same dough as I often consider the being some aspect of Jacob, each with a different filling or topping, twisted and perhaps knotted. I am considering either a spiral or a circle to express the wrestling, evolution, transformation and yet also the sense of coming full circle. Click here for the recipe I use.


Appetizers: Somewhere along my research I came across the idea of creating food for a journey, whether that evokes ideas of food you might take on a camping trip, or food that is preserved-- think olives, pickles, lemons. Recently I did a quick pickle marinade and while 24 hours was recommended, we enjoyed them just hours later.


As well, there is a tradition based on the verse (Genesis 33:4) reads: "Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept." The midrash (Gen. Rabbah 78:9) maintains that as, in the Torah, the word 'kissed' holds a dot above each letter, that Esau came to bite Jacob (with dots representing teeth) whose neck became like marble and therefore Jacob wept because of his neck while Esau wept because of his teeth.


As such, I will be serving bite-size appetizers, hot dogs in puff pastry (I often make my own and then slice the length of the hot dog into bite sized pieces) and perhaps baby tomatoes and carrots with hummus.


On the other hand, I want to represent the kiss. I am considering whipping up some meringue for some meringue kisses as my girls like to call them. Last week when making Baked Alaska, I used this recipe for the meringue and popped the extra into the toaster oven for an hour and left them for a Shabbat afternoon treat.

Having said that, I guess I just switched to dessert. In my research I came across a gem! Eating the Bible by Rena Rossner offers exactly what I was looking for when I began this journey. In it, Rena Rossner, suggests making a marble cake with a hard chocolate coating. I plan to make one change to the recipe-- I will add red food colouring to the chocolate batter for Red Velvet Marble Cake with the hard chocolate coating in order to recall that Esau was known for red hair, red lentil soup and the progenitor of the nation of Edom (adom, red).


Gifts play a prominent place in this week's text. Repeatedly Jacob asks his entourage to inform Esau that all that comes before him are intended as gifts. Finally Jacob and Esau are reunited and Genesis 33:9-11 reads, "No, I pray you; if you would do me this favour, accept from me this gift; for to see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favourably. Please accept my present which has been brought to you, for God has favoured me and I have plenty.” This present, in Hebrew is birkati-- my blessing.

To honour this blessing and gift I am reminded of a recipe that my mum used to make and is one of the few recipes for wrapped salmon that I enjoy. The short of it is this: salmon portions-- sprinkled with salt and pepper, a drop of sesame oil, and sprinkled with scallion slices and sesame seeds (alternatively these can decorate the outside of the package). It is then topped with a piece of pickled ginger and wrapped (made into a gift of sorts) in two half sheets of phyllo which have been buttered (or sprayed for a lower fat shortcut). Bake these wrapped gifts on 400 degrees F /200 degrees C for about 15 minutes.



Finally, who cannot honour the most well known episode in the Torah portion-- when Jacob wrestles throughout the night with an angel or divine being of sorts. See Genesis 32:25-29.

I plan to represent this aspect of the story in two ways. First, angel hair pasta which I will probably use to make a Yerushalmi kugel. I tend to use Jamie Geller's recipe in the Joy of Kosher but here is an alternate that she posted on Facebook.


That said, I was very taken by Sara Newman's take on the parasha in her blog NeeshNoosh.net. She wrote: The recipe I created this week is about wrestling and transformation. In the same way that Jacob was deceitful and became upstanding and humble, after wrestling and changing his name to Israel, the potatoes in the dish represent this struggle. Potatoes are inedible until they are transformed through heat. In this dish, they are cut into sticks to represent the straight honesty of Israel but they also fall over, symbolizing his humility and the limp that he walks with after his hip was damaged for the rest of his life.

I will probably take her idea but make my easy peasy baked sweet potato fries which are always a winner in our home. I simply peel and slice a sweet potato and sprinkle it with chili lime powder, salt, and whatever assortment of spices I want. Some days it's seasoned salt or cayenne, others it is a touch of pumpkin pie spice. I add in a tablespoon of oil or in a pinch just spray and then throw them on parchment paper and into an oven preheated to 400/200, flipping around 15 minutes and then baking for another 10 or so.

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