Parshas Emor

Explanation - this week's parsha has all of the Yomim Tovim and Shabbos - In a Circle, Rosh Hashana - shofar; A machzor for Yom Hakippurim - asking for a kapara, a lulav & esrog for Succos, Matzos for Pesach, a calendar page for Sefira & A bundle of wheat for the Chag Hakatzir - Shavuos

Parshios Acharei Mos - Kedoshim

Parshas Tazria-Metzora

Explanation


This week's parsha discusses tzaras - A person only becomes a metzora if a kohen declares his blemishes tzaras. Tzaras on regular skin is white patches with two white hairs. On a bald spot is a white patch with red streaks, on a bead is a white patch with golden hair and on a burn it is red or green

On clothing, tzaras is red or greeen.  Tzaras on a house must be on at least two walls on the inside of the house that is made of stone, wood, and mud that are red & green

Parshas Shmini

Explanation 

 

Shmini - kosher fish must have fins (dorsal) & scales that are separate from the skin

Parshas Shmini - kosher animals must have split hooves and chew their cud - a pig ONLY has split hooves so it is NOT kosher (although the cake is leftover pesadik stuff)

Parshas Shmini - kosher animals must have split hooves and chew their cud - the rabbit ONLY chews its cud  so it is NOT kosher (although the cake is leftover pesadik stuff)

Parshas Shmini - kosher animals must have split hooves and chew their cud - the camel ONLY chews its cud  so it is NOT kosher (although the cake is leftover pesadik stuff)

Technique

1. Fish is duncan hines!!

2. The nonkosher animals are all from leftover pesach cake that seems to take on a special status after Pesach. 

Parshas Tzav - Kosher L'Pesach to boot

Explanation 

 

Terumas Hadeshen - Before the start of the daily service in the mishkan, one shovelful of ashes from the previous day's Korbanos was lifted from a mound of ashes and deposited next to the Mizbayach ramp. This was called the Terumas Hadeshen. ("The Kohen shall don his fitted linen Tunic, and he shall don linen Pants on his flesh, he shall raise the ashes which the fire will consume of the Olah-offering on the Altar, and place it next to the Altar." [Vayikra 1:3])

 

From http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5767/tzav.html

What is the symbolism of this Avodah? What is the symbolism of the fact that every single morning, the first thing the Kohen did was gathering the ashes from the previous day's offerings and placing them next to the altar for today's offerings?

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch says something here that is strikingly beautiful. I quote (from the English translation of Hirsch's original German commentary): "The Jewish today has to take its mission from the hand of its yesterday." This means, we have to bind today's Avodah [Divine Service] with yesterday's Avodah. This is because yesterday's Avodah and today's Avodah are the same Avodah. In Judaism, there is no such thing as "Oh that was yesterday's challenge. Today is something different."

No. Today is the same Avodah as yesterday. As Rav Hirsch explains "The very last Jewish grandchild stands there before G-d with the same mission of life that his first ancestor bore."

Technique

1. Cake is Brownie Pesach Recipe

2. Formed ashes into a mound

3. Mixed Crushed Brownie with Confectioner's Sugar and sprinkled it all over the top.

4. Stuck in a kosher l'pesach plastic shovel

Parshas Vayikra

Explanation 

 The Korbonos in this week's parsha can be from Cow, Sheep, Goat, Flour & Oil Or Bird. Every Korban needs salt and cannot have sourdough or honey.

Technique

The cake is made from Duncan Hines cake.

Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei

Explanation 

 לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם - You shall not kindle a fire in all of your dwelling places.

On Shabbos - one may not light a fire or do any of the other 39 categories of work used to build the mishkan. 

Technique

The cake is made from Duncan Hines cake. I  split the batter into 2 8-inch tins

1. I used chocolate frosting between the cakes and on the side.
2. The top was covered with white frosting
3. The Fire is made out of red, yellow and blue fruit roll up cut and layered to look like a flame.
4. The no fire sign is made out of pull and peel twizzlers
5. The cup is white frosting mixed with 3 drops black food coloring,
6. The grape juice is made from crushed up Paskes purple lollipops.
7. The match is a pretzel stick topped with red fruit rollup

Parshas Ki Sisa

Parsha Cookies

Explanation each male 20 and up was required to give a half a shekel. It was collected in Adar to be used beginning in Nissan

Technique

Made from the Sugar Cookie Recipe from Susie Fishbein's Kids in the Kitchen.  rolled out some of the dough to write 1/2 on the cookies.  Made Glaze from confectioner's sugar, water, and corn syrup. Dissapointingly, the black food coloring turned purplish rather than silverish.

Parsha Cake

Explanation 


After Moshe spent 40 days and nights on Har Sinai, he came down and saw the egel hazahav, the golden calf. He took the egel, ground it and put it in water for the people to drink

יט וַיְהִי, כַּאֲשֶׁר קָרַב אֶל-הַמַּחֲנֶה, וַיַּרְא אֶת-הָעֵגֶל, וּמְחֹלֹת; וַיִּחַר-אַף מֹשֶׁה, וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ מִיָּדָו אֶת-הַלֻּחֹת, וַיְשַׁבֵּר אֹתָם, תַּחַת הָהָר.

19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount.

כ וַיִּקַּח אֶת-הָעֵגֶל אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ, וַיִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵשׁ, וַיִּטְחַן, עַד אֲשֶׁר-דָּק; וַיִּזֶר עַל-פְּנֵי הַמַּיִם, וַיַּשְׁקְ אֶת-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it

Technique

The cake is made from Duncan Hines cake. I  poured the  majority into 9x13 disposable tin and the remainder into a pyrex bowl and put both in the oven to bake.

After baking, both cakes were cooled in the freezer for over 45 minutes. I leveled the cake that was in the bowl with a knife.

The big cake was frosted with white frosting mixed with a spoonful of chocolate, a drop of yellow & 3 drops of green. 

The water was made with white frosting tinted with neon blue food coloring.  I sprinkled yellow sugar crystals on the water to make the ground up golden calf.

Har Sinai was made with white frosting colored with regular green frosting. I crumb coated it first and then did a final layer. I used a paper scraped against the cake to smooth the frosting. I sprinkled flower toppings on Har Sinai. The broken luchos were graham crackers covered with frosting and blue sugar. 

Purim Cake

Explanation

Purim Cake of the 10 sons of Haman and Haman hanging on the gallows. 

Designed by the boys (could have figured that one out). One son had wanted me to litter the bottom of the cake with the weapons of the ten sons that dropped out of their pockets but I couldn't figure it out in the 2 minutes we were decorating the cake.

Technique

Devils'Food Duncan Hines in a 9x 13 pan. Frosted with White Duncan Hines. piped the gallows with Chocolate Duncan Hines in a ziploc bag. 

Made thh stick figures with a can of black frosting that comes with tips.  My black frosting can went psychotic in the middle, probably drunk on Purim and wouldn't stop squirting the frosting. Hence the artistic license for some of the stick figures

Parshas Tetzave

This Parsha has the clothing of the Kohen Gadol. One of his most famous garments is the choshen and urim v'tumim which my children and I depicted in this weeks Parsha Cake 

Explanation

The Choshen was set on a fabric that was 1/2 an amah by 1/2 an amah (about 9 square inches) 

The fabric  was woven with a mix of red, purple, gold, and white and gold thread. Designs were woven into the fabric instead of being embroidered on top.

The stones were set in gold and mounted in four rows of three. 

Row 1: Reuven, Red, Shimon – deep Green, Levi - Red, White, and Black Striped

Row 2: Yehudah - Bluish-Green, Yissachar - Blue, Zevulun - ClearRow 3: Dan - Blue, Naftali - Purple, Gad - GreyRow 4:  Asher - Blue-Green, Yoseph - Black, Benyamin - A Stone Possessing All the Colors

The order  of the stones is a subject of dispute.

Technique

I made one yellow cake mix and divided into 5 bags and dyed blue, purple, red, yellow and left one blain. I piped the mix into the pans and then used a fork and toothpick to make the pattern. 

The squares were made with yellow Duncan Hines frosting.

For the stones, we used jelly bellys for some. For other colors we didn't have in jelly belly we crushed dum dums. To make the black and gray stones we added black food coloring to the clear dum dums. 

Learning Hebrew the fun way

I teach high school and middle school kids some of whom never learned the basics of hebrew language. Last year I read this theory about second language learning that kids needed visual and verbal cues. I figured that only translating the hebrew words into english as I had always done was not ideal. It was all linguistic and auditory and neglected visual learners. I made up flashcards for the most common nouns & verbs in Tanach and put them on a big ring. I only used the most common words because with the common words  a person should be able to translate 85% of all pesukim.

When we encountered the word in the Tanach, the student drew a picture of it on the front of the card and wrote the english translation on the back. 

It worked well for a few weeks, and then I stopped tutoring one student. I brought the ring of cards home and left it lying around. S. was in kindergarten and learning his א-ב and nekudos. He would sit around and ask me to read him the cards.

I started having him fill in the nekudos on the cards to practice his nekudos and so that I wouldn't have to do all the work.

Then, I had him draw the pictures and fill in the nekudos.

 

His big incentive was that he had this cool big stack of cards he could draw on. My incentive was that I could make dinner and have him practice his kriya somewhat painlessly.

The cards have since been floating around the house. Occasionally I spot my kids looking at them. Tonight, S. wanted me to sit next to him and listen to him read. He got 80% of the words translated correctly. We thought he was just looking at the pictures so my husband covered up the picture and he still got the translations correct.  Who knew these would actually work?

Shalach Manos - for kids

The kids were bored Shabbos afternoon so they each got to plan what they wanted to make their shalach manos bags look like.

S. wanted his to be an alien like last year. Today he designed the alien and cut out the shapes. A great first grader, he practiced his writing by copying the text I had spelled correctly for him

Y. , who is in Nursery School, decided he wanted to show Mordechai HaTzaddik protecting Esther & Achashverosh behind a shield and Haman attacking them with a sword. He suggested we use the puppets he made in Nursery. Baruch Hashem for that idea because I had no clue how we were going to pull his idea off. We photocopied the puppets with the shield and sword, reduced the size and got this inspired artwork to tape to his shalach manos bags.

CS is 2 so he just sort of scribbled on his bag. I drew a funny clown for him.

Today each kid cut and taped their pictures to brown paper bags and filled the bags with assorted nosh.

Kept them busy for a good few hours.

Terumah Cake

Note: For a non-edible version of this cake go pop up mishkan model made from paper
This cake shows that the mishkan had 3 coverings

The first which was only visible from the inside was called the mishkan. It was woven from purple, turquoise, red & linen threads. Embroidered on it were kruvim - holy images. The mishkan covering covered the sides and back and left 2 amos (cubits) showing on the side.

The second layer was called the ohel made from goat hair. It hung over the sides revealing one amah of the silver krashim. It was made from 11 pieces sewn into 2 big pieces that were joined by copper loops.

The ohel covering hung over the front two amos

The front entrance of the mishkan was covered by the masach which was made like the paroches from purple, turquoise, red and linen thread with an image embroidered into the fabric. It was held up by gold posts.

The back of the ohel covering that draped from behind like a brides dress drapes behind her

The top layer was made from red sheep skin and from an animal called the tachash. The tachash was an animal that was only alive during the time of the construction of the mishkan. It had a single horn and a luminescent skin that was multicolored. There is a machlokes about the top layer.

One opinion is that red sheepskin covered the whole top and then on top of the red was the skin of the tachash.

Top view of the mishkan according to the opinion of R. Yehudah

The other opinion is that the top layer was half tachash and half red sheep skin.

Top view of the mishkan according to the opinion of R. Nehemiah in Gemara Shabbos 28

side view of ohel with one amah of krashim showing

back view with the ohel covering draping

front view of second opinon with ohel overhanging the front by 2 amos.

Parshas Mishpatim

This Parsha has in it לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו. Do not cook a goat in the milk of its mother. From this pasuk we learn the prohibition of eating, cooking or benefiting from meat and milk cooked together.

Technique


I made one Chocolate cake mix and one brownie mix. I split the chocolate cake batter into an oven safe bowl, and 2 8" round tins. I split the brownies into 2 8" round tins.

I mixed 2 TBSP of chocolate frosting, a few drops of yellow and a lot of white to make the bun.  I mixed some of the bun color with red to make the tomato.

To make the lettuce and cheese I used fondant. I mixed yellow food coloring with a drop of orange to get the right shade for the cheese. For the lettuce, I colored the fondant neon green. When I had mixed it in evenly I added some regular green to make the streaks. I rolled out the fondant.

To assemble:
1. Crumb coated the cakes. This means to first chill the cake and then put on a layer of frosting to seal in the crumbs. Put back in the freezer.

2. Started assembling from the bottom up.
3. I cut the fondant after it was put on the cake
4. I rolled out a thin layer of red fondant to wrap around the tomato layer.
5. I used the edge of a cake smoother/decorator to put in the sesame seed indentations on top.

Reaction
"It tastes as good as it looks"

I wouldn't use the brownie layer again since it made it very hard to serve.

Parshas Yisro

Tu B'Shvat cake

Parshas Beshalach

An Egyptian getting stuck in the much before the water comes down on him after the Jews crossed on dry land. Chariot wheels are coming off like it says in the pasuk.


chariot is made out of parve chocolate bar and choc cookies, mud is pudding, dry land is graham crackers and as always cake is duncan hines

Why I send my child to a Jewish preschool

Last night, I went to a fundraiser for my children's day school. I had been helping out all week and had run out of the house soon after Shabbos to help it get set up.

This morning, I was sitting with my three year old when he asked "Mommy, how was the party?"

"Very nice, a lot of people gave tzedaka"

"That's nice, we also give tzedaka in my school. We put it in something called a PUSHka. Did you put it in a pushka?"

"Yes dear"

He begins to sing the song "When the pushka comes around, we shake it up and down. Give, give tzedaka with a smile" with gusto.  He pauses and looks at me with a wrinkled brow. "Mommy, did you give your tzedaka with a smile?" 

"Yes, yes I did dear"

He smiles, very proud that his mother knows how to act appropriately in Mitzva situations. "How many dollars were there?" (It was just Chanukah, so he knows about dollars now after getting some gelt from some nice relatives)

"Thousands of dollars of tzedaka, honey"

"Hmm." He pauses. "That's a lot of dollars. We also have dollars of tzedaka in my school. I'm happy you gave tzedaka. I like giving tzedaka too."

We hug, and he runs off to play tzedaka with pretzel sticks and a cup.

Day School education starts at age 5. Yet there are so many beautiful moments of Torah learning that occur before  that time. As preschoolers, our children are first experiencing the richness of life. A Jewish preschool exposes them to the values by which we lead our lives so that they can share in our most precious moments. 

Parshas Bo

and the locusts ate the rice.

darkness wasn't fun

and the last one was the death of every first born son.

Parshas Va'era

Ten Makkos, Makkos Ten - the Mitzrim were punished again and again

water turned to blood

Frogs were everywhere

Lice that came from mud

Wild animals were a scare

A plague that left them dead

Boils that spread and spread

Hail with fire & ice 

(to be continued)