Barbara Kline's Charoset, Sephardic Style:

1 lb pitted chopped dates
Sweet Kosher for Pesach wine
Ground cinnamon
Chopped walnuts

Cover dates with water in a saucepan and cook over moderate heat until the dates break down into a smooth mass. The results should be like a thick jam. Mix in enough wine to loosen the consistency slightly. Put through a Foley Mill to take out any lumps. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon. Cover with a layer of finely chopped walnuts.

Pesach Brickle (thanks to Delores Gross who calls it a Pitzel Brickel, with slight variations by Barbara Kline)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:
Matzah
1 C butter
1 C brown sugar
Almonds - whole or chopped coarsely
2 packages Kosher l'Pesach semi-sweet chocolate and 2 packages milk chocolate chips

Grease a cookie pan with butter. Cover the pan with a layer of broken matzah pieces. Don't leave any spaces. Sprinkle the matzah liberally with the nuts. Toast in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes being careful that the matzah doesn't burn. Boil together the butter and the sugar for 5 minutes, creating the toffee mixture. Remove the matzah and nuts from the oven and pour the toffee over it. Let cool to room temperature. Melt the semi-sweet chocolate and spread over the mixture in the cookie sheet. Melt the milk chocolate and swirl through the dark chocolate. Refrigerate until chocolate hardens. Break into pieces and enjoy.

Barbara Kline's Kubeh

Ingredients:
Ground lamb
Finely chopped onion
Finely chopped garlic
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Cumin
Turmeric
1 egg
1 recipe of matzah ball mixture adding chopped parsley and ginger

All of the seasonings are to-taste. We make it quite spicy. Make matzah ball dough and refrigerate for at least one hour. Mix together the lamb and the following eight ingredients. Form a ball with the matzah meal dough and making an indentation at one end, stuff the dough with the meat mixture until the dough just coats the meat. Deep fry until the dough is lightly browned. Drain on paper towel and serve hot.

Pesach Souffle (thanks to Edna Cohen)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
1 lb spinach
1/2 lb edam cheese, sliced
1 lb cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or to taste)
matzah

Butter the inside of a soufflé dish and cover the bottom with a double layer of matzah.

Plunge spinach into boiling water and remove almost immediately, squeezing some of the water out. Place spinach on top of the matzah, sprinkly nutmeg over the spinach and cover with the sliced Edam cheese.

Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, set aside. Beat the egg yolks with the cottage cheese and fold in the egg whites. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, until the egg whites on top are browned and not too jiggly. Serve immediately.

*This is an amazing cake.   One year, when I was a child, I practically poisoned myself with chocolate matzah cake I ate so much of it.  ENJOY!

Seven Layer Matzah  Cake

1/2 lb semi sweet chocolate
1 tblsp unsalted butter
1/2 lb or 1 jar raspberry jam without seeds (can also use marmalade)
2 eggs
2 tblsp brandy
3/4 C white wine (can use dry Vermouth as well)
7 matzot

(the jam and chocolate should be checked to make sure it is kosher l'Pesach)

Melt chocolate, butter and jam together over hot water in double boiler

Add eggs and beat with wire whisk until mixture is smooth and consistency of sour cream

Add brandy and remove from heat.

Continue beating until mixture again thickens to consistency of sour cream

Pour wine into a 9″ square dish

Dip matzah (one at a time) in wine just to moisten

Plase moistened matzah on a cake plate and coat with chocolate mixture using a knife or spatula

Top with another moistened matzah and coat with chocolate. Continue
until all seven matzot are stacked and covered with the mixture

Cover sides with remaining mixture and cover top with ground nuts - or make a design using sliced almonds.

Refrigerate until 1/2 hour before serving. The chocolate will harden a
bit and you can take all the drippings and smear with up on the sides
of the cake so that none will be wasted.

Slice in thin wedges and serve.

A-fi-KO-men is actually a Greek word for "dessert." During the Seder, we take one of the three matzot on the Seder plate and crack it in half. This is the "Ya-chatz" step in the 14 parts of the Seder. (Which makes for a very fun karate chop, "YA-chatz!!") The larger half of the matzah is carefully placed in a special Afikomen bag. At some point the Afikomen is stolen and hidden. Sometimes parents do this, sometimes the children. It must be found though, because you cannot finish the Seder without dessert, right? Usually there's some fun negotiating or straight out bribing to get it back. But it's worth it.

Cha-METZ literally means "leavened." Preparing for Pesach includes removing all of the chametz from your home. The laws of Torah tell us that we're not to eat, own, or benefit from chametz during the festival holiday of Pesach. In Ashkenazic households, chametz includes grains as well as legumes. There's a tradition of selling your chametz to a non-Jewish neighbor for a token amount and then buying it back after the holiday.

Be Happy, It's Adar!

And I'm not just saying that, that's an instruction directly from the Mishnah.

On Purim we celebrate mistaken identity, madcap antics, absurd twists, heroes, villains, fools, chance, and of course salvation. Did it all really happen? Well… we do know that the Scroll of Esther was written around the year 330 B.C.E.* and that there's been plenty of evidence in each direction. It sure does make for a great story though, which upon closer look makes for a study in Jewish life throughout history.

When I was in elementary school, once a year we had "Backwards Day!" when we wore our clothes backwards and we had a lot of fun insisting that "yes" meant "no" and so on. This is Purim. In honor of all all the crazy twists of the story and the big dramatic ending where the Jewish people manage to reverse their ill fate (They not only save the day for themselves but wreak havoc on their enemies instead), we get nutty, dress in costumes, and basically behave in the opposite way that we're supposed to.

Here are the four basic mitzvot to be fulfilled on Purim:

1. Listen to the Megillah reading - or a crazy version of it called a Purimspiel performed in local synagogues everywhere on the 13th of Adar, Purim Eve.
2. Give gifts of food to friends called mishloach manot.
3. Give tzedakah to the poor.
4. Eat a great festival meal.

The last three of the mitzvot come directly from the story of Esther. You'll see them when you get to the very end.

Purim is definitely one of the most boisterous and fun holidays of the year. As usual, the way we celebrate is related directly to the story, and we party like it's 330 B.C.E.

*"Teaching Jewish Holidays" by Robert Goodman, A.R.E.

The basic ingredients for a proper Purim celebration on the 14th of Adar include:

How We Read the Story
The Megillah is read or the Purimspiel is performed on the 13th of the Jewish month, Adar, Purim Eve, and then again during the day on the 14th. Often congregations create elaborate and hilarious spiels that parody another play, movie, musical, or theme. The reasoning behind this is along the same line as for our costume masquerades. *Click here for sources on Purim Parodies and humor*. Your youngest children certainly will hear a different version of this animated tale than the older kids and the congregation listening to the M'gillah. At the nursery school and early elementary school age, we focus on the characters. Just like the characters in a classic Disney movie, they are silly and extreme, either very good or very evil. Click here for M'gillah talking points for your youngest children. Older children and adults will be much more captivated by this dramatic and colorful story if they get a look at the real thing. Open up the nearest Tanach. The third section, the Writings, includes a bunch of other interesting books, as well as four other m'gillot and stunning poetry. Here you will find, M'gillat Esther. If you haven't read it before, I highly encourage you to check it out! It's a racy tale full of twists and turns, a real page-turner (or "scroll-roller," as it were). And the truth is, there is a lot more to the story than what we teach our children at Sunday School. Click here for my version of it, "That's How We Roll."

DID YOU KNOW that when reading the Megillah, the Talmud tells us to pronounce the names of the ten sons of Haman in one breath, indicating their simultaneous death? Also the congregation should read certain verses about Mordechai's triumph, aloud with the reader.

Authority to Cross Dress
We dress up in costumes to honor the hidden and mistaken identities as well as the ironic twists throughout the story. For example, Esther does not reveal her identity as a Jew until the very end. And then there's the time when Haman proposes a reward ceremony for himself when the king is really talking about Mordechai. With your children, see if you can spot the "backwards" elements in the story. Look for the contradictions, the foiled plots, the reversals of fortune and the changes in identity.

DID YOU KNOW that some say that Mordechai hid his ability to speak all of the world's languages? This allowed him to understand Bigthan and Teresh when they were plotting to kill the king.

Rash Rash RASH!
We don't just dress up, we make A LOT of noise!! ("Rash" is Hebrew for "noise") Usually when we are in the synagogue we're required to observe at least some level of decorum. But not on Purim! Here's why we make so much noise: Haman is a descendent of Israel's perma-enemy, the Amalakites. It was a custom to blot out the name of our enemies with noise. To this day, some people write our enemy's name on the bottom of their shoes and stomp it out whenever the name is read aloud. So, when we hear the name of Haman (I can't even type it without stopping to hear the "boo!") we scream and boo and hiss and rattle and twist our groggers or ra-ashanim to our hearts' content right there in the synagogue!

DID YOU KNOW that Haman's name occurs 54 times throughout Megillat Esther?

In the fairy tales, it's easy to see the evil that needs to be stamped out. What about in our world? About what do you want to stand up and make some noise? Purim is the perfect time to talk with your children about standing up for your beliefs. Consider what injustice or impression you want to stamp out today. Talk about what our role is in the world events around us. In what ways can you and your family stamp out what you believe to be unfair? Locally, globally?

100 bottles of Shlivovitz On the Wall
It is actually a mitzvah for the grown-ups to get drunk on Purim! Of course there has been plenty of debate and it's clear that this part of the holiday celebration is not to be abused. Rather, it should be done safely. That said, here is the mitzvah part: The Talmud tells us (Megillah 7b) that one should drink on Purim until she can no longer distinguish between the phrases, "Arur Haman" ("Cursed is Haman!") and "Baruch Mordechai" ("Blessed is Mordechai!") To this day in Tel Aviv they call their Purim parade, "Adloyada," (Ad lo yada - Till one doesn't know).
One more fun little tid bit. According to Gematria, or Hebrew numerology, these phrases have the same numerical value and some authorities have ruled that one should drink until she is unable to calculate the numerical values.

Hop Mein Homentashn
Our heroes, Mordechai and Esther, put a big emphasis on giving gifts and tzedakah on Purim. There is a custom now of sending gifts, in Hebrew "mi-SHLO-ach ma-NOT" which are usually a small basket of foods like home-made hamantashn, fruits, and candies. Learn more about hamentashn here. The Purim story is about a time of great threat when our ancestors hid their identity for survival. However they also found a way to stand up for who they were, and through this, they were redeemed. This is our Jewish way of making the world right. In celebration of this triumph, we pay special attention to the joy of gift giving as well as the necessary work we must do to help those less fortunate.

To whom can you and your family give a gift of appreciation? Stamp out injustice this year by giving tzedakah. Make a donation to a cause important to you.

Join the Purim fun! You can find here many many many costume projects. Click on any of the images below to download a pdf to print out.

Have fun, and don't forget to send pictures!

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