PURIM

The Jewish holiday of Purim started yesterday at sundown and continues to sundown today, March 1, 2018. I’m not particularly interested in Purim, but this is just the setup for the amusing paragraph below written by a woman and published in the Tablet. You can skip the historical background if you want.

Purim is the celebration of the saving of the Jews from the evil Persian minister, Haman, who was determined to kill them all. Traditionally, it is a day of gaiety, eating and drinking while making noise and wearing costumes. Sort of a combination of Mardi Gras, Christmas (there are small gifts of food and drink) and Halloween.

Like so many Jewish holidays, there are traditional foods that go with the stories of the heroes of the day. This hero is Queen Ester whose Biblical book, The Book of Ester, tells the story about her role and that of her first cousin, Mordecai (who was, perhaps her husband?) and the food is the cookie, the hamantaschen.

Brief story—Haman, the evil aide to the king (most likely, Xerxes of Persia), was angered that Mordecai would not bow down to him, so he contrived and edict of the king to exterminate the Jews. Through the efforts of Ester, the king discovers the truth that Mordecai saved his life, and the edict is reversed.

I find these stories fascinating, and the manner in which the Jews have not only survived multiple extermination schemes but steadfastly passed their faith down generation after generation is rare in the history of humans. But now, the point of all this, the paragraph.

Before my mother-in-law stopped baking hamantaschen, she passed her recipe on to me, on three index cards covered with her loopy, barely legible handwriting. The recipe instructed me to brush the tops of the cookies with milk before baking, and then sprinkle them with sugar. But on the back of the last card, at the point where the cookies are out of the oven and already cooling on the rack, she’d added one last note: “I don’t bother sprinkling with milk and sugar—it doesn’t add anything.” This last sentence, informing me that what I had just done wasn’t really worth doing and didn’t meet with her satisfaction anyway, pretty neatly expresses the essence of our relationship.