It isn’t often you can bite into a cookie with a load of ancient history behind it. Call them Hamentaschen or Oznei Haman, or Haman’s Ears but make sure to bake up a batch of these buttery, traditional Purim cookies.

Filled cookies and pastries echo one of Purim’s  “hidden” threads. See our previous post about the Purim story and the goodies basket here. As Queen Esther concealed her Jewish origins until the time was right, Jews  created delicacies that conceal a sweet surprise inside their pastry shells. Hamentaschen is the Yiddish name for a cookie that translated into  Oznei Haman in Israel, where Jews of every ethnic origin enjoy them on Purim.

This year, why not walk right past the boxes of bakery cookies full of  artificial colors and too much sugar? Try baking your own, where you control the ingredients. You’ll present these home-made Hamentaschen with pride.

How to make homemade hamantaschen

Yield: about 24 Hamentaschen cookies

Ingredients for dough:

3/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour (can be whole wheat or the flour you love for cooking)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 egg, beaten
2 to 3 tablespoons water
Grated rind of 1 orange

Cookie Filling:

Any firm jam. Try also Nutella, chocolate, or poppy seeds.

Putting the cookies together

Sift sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into mixing bowl.

Add butter or shortening and mix in till you have fine crumbs.

Stir in the egg and water. If using whole wheat flour, you will need the larger amount of  water.
Add the grated rind and stir well.

Knead lightly for a few seconds to obtain a smooth dough.

Wrap the dough in a clean, re-used plastic bag and put in the refrigerator to chill 1 hour. You can also make them at night and bake in the morning. Or freeze the dough and though before you want to bake it. Like oily Hanukah treats Purim cookies are best fresh.

Dust your working surface with flour and roll the dough out on it. Cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter or a large glass. If the dough is difficult to work with, sprinkle more flour on it and on the working surface.

Place 1 teaspoon filling in the center of each round and bring the edges up to make a triangle that reveals the filling. Pinch the edges shut.

Bake at 350°F or 190°C for 10 minutes. The cookies should be a golden brown. If still pale, bake another 2 minutes. Set on a wire rack to cook and become crisp. Store in a jar or put them in the traditional Purim Mishloach manot or shalech mones (and also called a Purim basket) –– gifts of food or drink that are sent to family, friends and others on Purim day.

Enjoy!

Other delicious pastries to include in your Purim basket this year:

• Ghorabeya Cookies
• Ma’amoul Cookies
• Sambusak, Savory Chickpea Pastries

The recipe was updated Feb, 2023

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We’ve had a marathon of Israeli holidays the past while. There was Rosh Hashana,  Yom Kippur, and next week the holiday Sukkoth. For the Jewish nation in Israel and around the world, there is probably no better time for them to reflect on one’s place in nature and the health of the environment than during Sukkoth, the Festival of Booths or the Jewish harvest festival.

If you are in Jerusalem or tel Aviv next week you’ll see small make-shift huts (sukkahs) being erected everywhere – each one with at least three walls made from wooden clapboard or cloth with a simple roof made from plant cuttings (skakh). It’s a time to remind Jews whether they are rich or poor that all this civilization that we’re accustomed to, a Jew should go back to nature to remind him of the basic things: where he came from.

Integral in this experience is the sukkah. The building of a sukkah is that it must have an uninterrupted view to the sky and stars (and you can decorate it with recycled items). All the week’s meals are to be eaten in the hut and some of the more hardcore types sleep in it as well. There is a host of elaborate customs during Sukkoth (also spelled Succoth) which involve waving plants and blessings on a strange aromatic fruit (etrog) from the citrus family (here’s a great etrog recipe), as well as a mitvah (commandment) for people to travel and explore the land.

From the time of the wandering Jew

What we like most of all about Sukkoth, is that it is a leveller. Rich or poor, young or old, it is a time when people cast aside their worldly possessions and take life’s speed down a notch or two (inside their hut). It is also about living among nature, not as a conqueror but as an equal to other creatures.

There are many different interpretations about the spiritual meaning behind Sukkoth – and one we like is that it teaches that existence is fleeting and momentary. We think that a little bit of reflection on the environment can go a long way around this time. Hey, and if you build a sukkah and are not storing the skakh for next year, don’t forget to compost it. We also hear that etrog makes a fabulous jam.

More on having a sustainable Sukkoth:
Make Etrog Jam (Beware of Toxic Etrog)
Recycled Decorations for Your Succah
Theme Park and Design Studio Go Green On Succoth

The post Live in Sustainable Booths for the Jewish Holiday of Sukkoth appeared first on Green Prophet.

The crescent moon is a symbol of Islam. Muslim, Jewish and Christian holidays revolve around cycles of the moon. So it’s no big surprise that an ancient structure, devoted to the moon, has recently been uncovered in Israel.

Israel is the birthplace of monotheism, belief in one God, but this new structure paid homage to a Mesopotamian-era moon god, new research uncovers. Older than Stonehenge and older than many pyramids, it is not just a stone wall as it was once believed.

Israeli archeologists originally thought that the structure, located in Northern Israel, and known as the Jethro Cairn, or Rujum en-Nabi Shua’ayb transliterated from Arabic, was part of an ancient city found near the Sea of Galilee (and close to where my husband was born!).

But Israeli archeologist Ido Wachtel says that the 5,000 year old wall is likely paying tribute to “Sin” an ancient moon god also known as “Nanna.”

Jethro Cairn meant to mark out natural resources

The structure is 500 feet long, and the crescent shape is “Sin’s” symbol. He is usually shown riding a bull. This Jethro Cairn structure would have taken 35,000 days to build. The crescent is located 18 miles from Bet Yareh, which means house of the moon god. The name of the crescent is after Jethro (in Hebrew Yitro), an important prophet from the Druize sect.

Wachtel presented his findings at the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.

Wachtel, a student of Hebrew University in Jerusalem writes: “The proposed interpretation for this site is that it constituted a prominent landmark in its natural landscape, serving to mark possession and to assert authority and rights over natural resources by a local rural or pastoral population.”

Not long ago a very unusual cairn of stones appeared in the Sea of Galilee, supporting evidence that Jesus may have walked on water without the need for a serious miracle.

Archaeology in the Middle East must be protected

At any rate, these archeology findings show us that the Middle East region is important to protect – and that the moon and natural cycles of the earth have linked us from the beginning of history – possibly time.

We need to protect sites like the Jethro Cairn. Not just for people of today but for inquisitive ones of tomorrow. Let’s find a way to respect and protect archeology in the Middle East and vulnerable locations like Syria, Egypt, Iraq and any other region under the reign of conflict, terror and survival.

When I was in Syria 14 years ago, locals gave me gifts from archeology sites. They were wide open, and no one was there to protect them. The situation has only gotten much worse in Syria.

The post Older than Stonehenge, mystifying moon god stones uncovered in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

In addition, we contributed toward the planting of Jewish National Fund trees in Israel. If we thought about it at all, we might have imagined a bunch of Israeli trees swaying happily in the Mediterranean breezes, but in reality, the content of the holiday was distant.

More recently, Tu B’shevat has become the rallying cry for Jewish environmentalists who have used the holiday to raise awareness of ecology, the environment and the responsibility of the Jewish community — as a society which has always valued the earth that God gave us — to spearhead the drive towards a more activist approach to environmental responsibility.

Last year I taught an online class to a group of 7th graders in Deerfield Illinois via an online Jewish/Israel education project, JETS Israel. As Tu B’Shevat approached, I decided to use distance learning to make the content of Tu B’Shevat more imminent for my students.

As part of my six-week Tikkun Olam course, I introduced the holiday of Tu B’shevat as a conduit to the value of Tikkun Olam as seen through Israeli agriculture and the observance of ancient laws that have been reinstituted in the modern State of Israel after centuries of disuse.

We started out by looking at the sharing of resources through the law of Maaser (tithing): “Every year, you shall set aside a tenth part of the yield, so that you may learn to revere your God forever.”

I posted the text on the online bulletin board as a way of introducing the connection between Tu B’shevat and Tikkun Olam. The students were asked to relate to different questions that the concept of ma’aser (tithing) brings up.

• Is ma’aser a concept that is still applicable in today’s world?
• Was it easier for people in the “olden days” to give ma’aser than it is today? Why?
• Do you know anyone who gives ma’aser? Can you tell us a little about the person and which causes s/he gives to?

These questions were posted on a linoboard and students clicked on “sticky notes” to drag the note to the question and answer, based on their knowledge, experiences and feelings.

We introduced the question of “why is giving ma’aser, or any charity, an important Jewish value?” The students watched a video about the importance of charity which served as a jumping off point for them to discuss charity in their lives and in their community.

Then, using a Mindmeister board we created a mindmap of the different types of charities that the students felt that they would want to support. Each student was asked to select a Jewish charity, describe its mission and explain the reasons that s/he thought that it would be an important tzdekka to support.

The half-hour class didn’t provide me with enough time to delve as deeply into the subject as I would have liked. However, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and, their teacher told me, spoke about it among themselves afterward.

Sitting in my home in Israel (3:00 am my time!), I was able to give the students an experience of the Israel-based aspects of Tu B’Shevat that were lost on me when I was a student. In addition the kids participated on their individual laptops, giving each student the opportunity to chat in questions and answers, post on google docs and online bulletin boards and stay involved and engaged in the entire lesson. In an online learning classroom all of the students stay engaged throughout the lesson. A student can’t zone out while someone else is taking “his turn” because it’s always everyone’s turn.

The students are constantly being asked to comment, respond, think, create and produce which gives no one any time for daydreaming.

Increasingly day schools and afternoon schools are including e-learning techniques in their curriculum as a means of broadening the students’ learning experience, expanding their learning community, and enhancing student engagement. enable the students to engage

The 2014 class begins this week which coincides with Tu B’Shevat. I am looking forward to using my “classroom without borders” to enable my new students to experience Tu B’Shevat in Israel.

Laurie Rappeport lives in Safed, Israel. She teaches about Judaism and Israel for an online education concern and researches American Jewish music traditions, including traditions of the Tu B’Shevat holiday, for the Milken Archives.

George Muresan / Shutterstock.com

The post Teaching Tu B’Shevat in classrooms without borders appeared first on Green Prophet.

Growing up in the Midwest, our Hebrew School celebrated Tu B’shevat (The New Year for the Trees) as a minor holiday. We collected money for the Jewish National Fund to plant trees in Israel and munched on some carob pods and dried pineapple.

I immigrated to Israel in 1983 and soon afterward I moved to Tzfat where Tu B’Shevat is serious business. My Hassidic and Sepharadi neighbors spend a good amount of time planning for the holiday and spend a good amount of money stocking up on every possible type of fresh and dried fruit, nut and wine so that they can create a Tu B’Shevat Seder that comes as close to the Kabbalistic tradition as possible.

Origins of Tu B’shevat
The origins of Tu B’shevat derive from the Talmud where the Rabbis wrote that there are four new year celebrations in the Jewish year. The 15th of the month of Shvat is the New Year of the trees. The day relates to the Biblical mitzvoth of ma’aser (tithing), orlah (refraining from picking a tree’s fruit for the first 3 years) and shmitta (Sabbatical year). For purposes of determining the start and end dates of each year’s agricultural cycle for trees Tu B’Shevat was set as the end of the previous year and the beginning of the new year.

According to the Shulhan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law — written in Safed) fasting and eulogies are forbidden and all penitential prayers are omitted on Tu B’shevat. It’s seen as a day of great joy and is a time to thank God for all of His goodness.

Tu B’shevat, Kabbalah and Safed
Rabbi Isaac Luria — the Ari — lived in Safed between the years 1570 – 1573. The Ari instituted many different Jewish traditions which many Jews, particularly Hassidim and Sepharadim, continue to observe. These include the customs of cutting a little boy’s hair fir the first time when the child turns three, studying all night on Shavouth and the Tu B’Shevat Seder.

The Ari established a Seder — Order — in which participants eat specific produce in a particular order as they read appropriate mystical passages. The Ari’s Seder was recorded by one of his students in the Pri Etz Hadar booklet. His Seder involved twelve fruits which correspond to the permutations of G-d’s four-letter name, along with related verses from the Zohar. These first 12 “fruits” include wheat (the only one of the 12 for which the blessing is “blessed is the fruit of the earth” instead of “blessed is the fruit of the trees”), olives, dates, grapes, figs, pomegranates, citrons/etrogim, apples, walnuts, almonds, carobs and pears.

Explanations of the customs
One of the Ari’s students, Rabbi Chaim Vital, wrote that there are 30 fruits which parallel the ten sefirot. Fruits which are wholly edible (those with no pits or hard cores, skins which can be cooked) manifest in the world of Beriah, one of the four spiritual worlds. Fruits which can be wholly eaten except for a pit relate to the spiritual world of Yetzirah, which is a lesser level of purity. Fruits which are enclosed in a totally inedible, protective shell (almonds, walnuts) represent the world of Asiyah — our world. In the same way that the Passover Seder involves discussions of each of the symbolic foods, the Tu B’Shevat Seder includes discussions of the kabbalistic concepts that are manifested by each of these different types of fruits.

Discussions during the Tu B’shevat Seder relate to the different tastes, consistencies, colors and cultivation needs of each fruit.

Finally, as in the Pesach Seder, the Tu B’shevat Seder involves wine, though for this Seder the wine must be both red and white. The different colors are symbolic as well….the seder begins with white wine which symbolizes winter, dormancy and hibernation. The second cup is mostly white wine with a bit of red, symbolizing the new life force — spring — which is beginning to appear. The third cup is mostly red with a residue of some white wine and the fourth cup, symbolizing the emergence of spring, is a cup of red wine.

Laurie Rappeport lives in Safed, Israel. She teaches about Judaism and Israel for an online education concern and researches American Jewish music traditions, including traditions of the Tu B’Shevat holiday, for the Milken Archives.

Image of Tu B’Shevat plate from Shutterstock

The post Happy New Year Trees, and spiritual reasons for Tu B’Shevat Customs appeared first on Green Prophet.

But don’t talk no trash about his smelly fish.  “It’s an Egyptian tradition that’s been with us for 7,000 years,” he said. “We’re used to it.”

Waiting for his order in a downtown fish shop, Maher Dahab said, “Feseekh is Egyptian, and the ancients taught us how to make it. They built the pyramids, and they made feseekh.”

The persistent popularity of both the odorous entree and the holiday point to Egypt’s millenium-long history, which, in turn, underpins its powerful sense of national identity, unique in the Arab world. That’s a unifying factor in unstable times; this holiday is celebrated by all religions, all classes, and it crosses party lines.

Conservative television preachers have tagged Sham el-Nessim as pagan holiday, but Egypt’s most prominent Islamist parties haven’t voiced opposition.

“It’s an Egyptian tradition that we’ve all become accustomed to,” said Gehad el-Haddad, a senior official with the Muslim Brotherhood, the dominant party in Parliament.

Muhammad Emara, a member of the executive council of the ultraconservative Nour Party, said, “We don’t get involved in Egyptian traditions.”

Government warnings about the dangers of eating uncooked, petrified fish have done nothing to quell demand.

According to Egyptian Health Ministry statistics, bad feseekh poisoned 49 people and killed 9 more in 2007;  sickened 26 and knocked off another 4 in 2008; and in each of the next two years, poisoned over a dozen and killed two.  The fish is a bona fide health risk that can cause complete paralysis or death.

Abdel-Nabi Shahin, perhaps Cairo’s most famous feseekh seller, shrugged when asked about the warnings.

“There are cheaters who give us a bad image,” he said, “Some have dirty fingernails or don’t wash their hands before they work with the fish.”

The job, he said, requires “cleanliness and vigilance.”

Shahin is the third-generation owner of the family business, which now has two stores that draw customers from far away seeking fish they can trust.

The process has changed little over the years, Shahin said. He starts with fresh mullet caught in the Mediterranean, which is washed but left intact, guts and all.

It is packed in salt in wood barrels and left to sit for 45 days. After that, it is good to eat for six months, Shahin said.

A kilogram of Shahin’s feseekh (about 2.2 pounds) goes for about $13, nearly twice what it cost last year because of a fish shortage, according to The New York Times.

Image of dead fish from Maxim Tupikov /Shutterstock

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It’s true, a few days before the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat occurs, the almond trees in Israel begin to shake blossoms out along their branches. Travelers along the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem highway can spot the occasional cloud of pink or white flowers among the olive groves and green fields along the way. Enjoy the beauty of mid-winter in Israel, because soon enough summer’s hot winds will change the landscape to something much drier and sere.

Strolling on ground covered with almond blossom is a lovely thing to do, and the milky new almonds, sco0ped out of their fuzzy green shells, are delicious eating. In a few weeks, you’ll be able to buy sacks of them in the open-air markets. Another way to celebrate the gracious almond tree is by picking up the best and freshest of those fallen blossoms and making almond blossom liqueur.

The Jewish new year of the trees determines which agricultural year their fruit belongs to, as explained in this post. The day is also called a new year because, as for humans, Heaven determines each tree’s fate that day. How much water will it receive? (Some of that has to do with not wasting water ourselves.) Will it survive to fruition one more year, or not?

A song Israeli kindergartners sing on Tu B’Shvat:

The almond tree is blooming
The golden sun is shining,
Whistling birds atop each roof
Bless the day’s oncoming.

We eco-conscious treehuggers can also ask ourselves how active our commitment to  stewardship has been this past year – what we’re doing to prevent a scenario as depicted by this artist, in a world with no trees.

Tu B’Shvat gained special mystical importance in Safed’s 16th century kabbalistic traditions. The great Rabbi Isaac Luria instituted a Seder for the holiday in which participants eat thirty kinds of fruits and drink four colors of wine, stopping to meditate on the symbolism of each variety. It’s also great fun; remember, you’re expected to drink four cups of wine!

Read our post on the Tu B’Shvat seder, which includes a link to downloading instructions on how to conduct one. For some recipe ideas, follow the links below. And remember safety for your little ones under age five: cut hard fruit like apples into small pieces; likewise cut grapes in half; and either don’t allow them nuts, or break nuts up into small, un-chokable pieces ahead of time.

Some recipes that celebrate the native fruits of Israel:

• Almond Torte with Pomegranate Molasses
• Carob Nut Balls
• Cool and Hot Arabic Almond Milk
• Warm Freekah, Feta, and Fig Salad

Images of almond blossom and green almonds via Shutterstock.

The post Tu B’Shvat is Jewish New Year For The Trees appeared first on Green Prophet.

“We’re one of the most environmentally friendly cities in Israel,” says Kfar Saba mayor Yehuda Ben Hamo.

In Israel, each municipality raises a Jewish holiday temporary tent called a succah for the benefit of local workers and visitors. This year, the very first succah illuminated by solar energy will go up in the central-region town of Kfar Saba. This showcase project will hopefully stir popular enthusiasm, especially in view of the government’s lagging investment in solar energy.

Mayor Yehuda Ben Hamo said, “The city of Kfar Saba is a city that was established on a green agenda.  A green and energy-saving succah operating on solar energy is only appropriate.”

Maybe soon every succah will be able to follow Kfar Saba’s example, using DIY solar panels made of grass – which would be really fitting to this week-long harvest holiday.

The post First Solar Succah Goes Up In Kfar Saba, Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

With so much health news circulating around about the health benefits of eating at least one average sized banana per day, the big question that arises is just how beneficial is this long, yellow fruit that when eaten green more resembles a vegetable and when ripe is more like a fruit?

This question is particularly important for people suffering from depression, which may be at least partially caused by lack of enough sleep and not eating a proper diet.

Regarding eating bananas to help combat symptoms of depression, the old saying: “a healthy mind in a healthy body” is especially relevant regarding bananas that contain many B vitamins, including vitamins B₁, B₂, B₃, B₆, B₉, as well as C.

The fruit also contains beneficial  amounts of potassium or vitamin K  as well as beneficial amounts of  magnesium and a certain amount of dietary fiber. For depression sufferers, whose bodies are often worn down from lack of proper nutrients, the vitamin B6   found in bananas contains the amino acid tryptophan that helps the body make serotonin, a brain chemical that regulates moods.

But despite this, one cannot say that bananas themselves will cure a person who is suffering from depression; even a mild form of this all too common ailment. Bananas are very beneficial anyway as they also provide certain nutrients and antioxidants to help protect the body against ailments such as heart disease.

Bananas are cultivated in various parts of the Middle East; including the Jordan Valley, the Nile River valley, Israel’s Carmel mountain side (western slopes) and in the Tigress River valley regions in Iraq.

It should not be construed though  that due to bananas containing these healthful ingredients they will cure people of conditions like depression. In reality,  eating bananas themselves is not a cure-all for conditions like depression. What eating bananas can do is provide essential nutrients to help our bodies fight conditions like depression.

Protect Your Heart With Bananas
Going Bananas Over Food Miles: Putting the Eco Back Into Economics
10 Ways to Eat More Halal
Cold Tarator Soups for the Nine Meatless Days before the Ninth of Av

Image of banana blossoms from Shutterstock

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