Did you know that the Purim miracle really occured during Pesach? Well it did. Esther actually fasted on Pesach, which isn’t ordinarily permitted -we Jews don’t fast on festivals, but with Haman’s genocidal threat in the air the Rabbis allowed the fast.And it worked The nation united, Hashem heard our plea and Haman went to the … Continue reading
Ah the joys of being a culinary anthropologist. When I discovered that the Sephardim insert hard boiled eggs into a bread to represent Haman’s eyes, I had to try it. The custom is to gouge out the eye/eggs at the Seuda. And who says that being Jewish isn’t fun? If this doesn’t appeal to a … Continue reading
I suspect that the custom of eating turkey on Purim to commemorate King Ahashverosh’s reign (Mi Hodu Ve’ad Kush) as well as his limited intelligence (a turkey brain) is based on a mistaken word play. In modern Hebrew the bird is called a Tarnegol Hodu, literally an Indian chicken referring to the now outmoded name for the … Continue reading
Yes, I was a bit confused to learn that there is a recipe called Amalek Kugel. Amalek? Isn’t his evil tribe our greatest historical enemy? Wasn’t the wicked Haman his grandson? Aren’t Hitler, the Hamas terrorists, the Hizbollah, Ahamdinjead said to be his descendents? Naming a kugel after him sounded about as strange as naming … Continue reading
