Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 May 1974 — Page 16

Friday, May 1974

THE JEWftFFPoST

WHAT FOODS THESE MORSELS BE

Some Customary Dairy Dishes For Shavuot

By SARAH UEBER Shevuot is coming up next week and it’s a traditional time

for confirmat i o n parties and yomtov c e 1 e b r ation. Dairy dishes are customary. Many delightful recipes use milk, cream, cheeses and

Sarak eggs as the protein whether for main dishes or for desserts. They’re fine for feasting at any time, but specially for milchig holidays. SOUR CREAM TWISTS

1 pkg. dry yeast

V4 cup warm water 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 cup (ft lb.) butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. Stir butter or margarine into flour using wooden spoon. Add eggs to sour cream, salt and vanilla and blend. Add dissolved yeast and beat dough until smooth. It will be sticky. Cover with damp cloth and refrigerate overnight. When ready for baking, add cinnamon to sugar and sprinkle board or pastry cloth liberally with the mixture. Roll out dough into rectangle about 15x18 inches. Turn dough over to coat with sugar mixture. Fold dough over three times. Sprinkle with sugar mixture. Roll out thin, then refold and sprinkle until all sugar is used. Roll out to ^-inch thickness. Cut into strips 1x3 inches. Twist each strip and place on lightly greased baking sheets, allowing space for spreading. Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375 degrees until very lightly browned. Remove at once to cooling racks. COCONUT CUSTARD PUDDING 3 eggs, slightly beaten

2 cups milk, divided one-third cup sugar V4 tsp. salt 2 tsps. vanilla 1 can (3ft oz.) flaked coconut nutmeg Beat sugar, salt and Va cup of the milk into slightly beaten eggs until well blended. Stir in vanilla. Scald remaining milk and stir into mixture carefully. Add coconut and stir to distribute. Turn into greased 1quart baking dish. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Place baking dish in pan with hot water which reaches up to ft-inch of sides of dish. Bake 1 hour at 300 degrees or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or chilled. Serves 6. BANANA-GINGER CREAM PIE ft cup sugar 3 tblsps. cornstarch Vi tsp. salt 2 cups skim milk 3 egg yolks, slightly boated 1 tsp. vanilla

15 gingersnaps (or other round cookies) 3 medium bananas Mix sugar, salt and cornstarch. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over low neat, stirring constantly until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat and stir a small amount of the sauce into beaten yolks, beating constantly. Add to remaining milk mixture and cook over lowest heat, stirring until thick (about 2-3 minutes). Add vanilla and cool mixture. Cut six gingersnaps in half and stand around inside of 9-inch pie plate to form a border. Crush remaining cookies and press down as bottom crust. Slice 2 bananas and arrange over bottom of cookie shell. Pour cooled filling into shell over banana slices and chill thoroughly. Just before serving slice remaining banana and garnish top of pie. Serves 6 to 8. SPINCH AND NOODLE CASSEROLE 8 oz. elbow or shell macaroni,

cooked and drained Va cup margarine, melted 4 tblsps. flour 1 tsp. salt Vi tsp. pepper pinch of nutmeg (optional) 2 cups hot milk 1 cup grated cheese 2 cups cooked, chopped spinach, drained 2 hard cooked eggs, sliced paprika and chopped parsley for garnish Make a sauce by stirring flour into melted margarine and blending in flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Gradually stir in hot milk and cook until thick, stii> ring constantly. Add half the grated cheese and cook only until cheese is melted. Arrange layers of macaroni, sauce and spinach, ending with sauce. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees until brown and bubbly. Garnish with a ring of chopped parsley. Serves 6.

iTorah And Flora

f I

Flashbacks In Jewish History

For Food And Contentment | For 'AAll^/^lor , Portion of the Week: Bam- clothing and to the “bread, f ■mil KA I a W m%Am V* I

4.20. oil and drink” which the

• ;

idbar, Num. 1.1 —

Haftarah, Hosea 2.1-22. The wanton and lascivious wife | verse discussed is Hosea 2.5 of the prophet expected to i By L.I. RABINOWITZ receive from her lovers for ! There are two stock her favors, there is added i phrases in the Bible for the “flax and wool.” Of all these 1

a g r i c u 1- products of the field men- JJ tural products tioned in the haftarah, to j of the Land of which one can even add the i Israel insofar protective hedge of thorns, I as its edible wool is the only one which | products are though indirectly a “product | concerned and of the field” does not belong | each has a dis- to the world of flora but to \

tinct and dif- that of fauna,

ferent conno- As pointed out in this col- | Rabinowitz tation. umn a fortnight ago, the If The one is “corn, wine and Bible strictly enjoins that oil” and it refers to the while ministering in the ^ staples of life, providing Sanctuary or the Temple the what in modem parlance is priest could wear only called a “balanced diet” garments of linen (flax) since between them they while garments of wool were | contain starch, proteins, fats proscribed. The ordinary 1 and vitamins. The other is person or the priest while not I “the vine and the fig,” and engaged in his sacred duties the combination is usually had the choice of both linen used to express peaceful and or wool, undisturbed conditions of IT IS OF INTEREST, how- j contented life when each ever to note that a mixture §! shall “sit . . . under his vine, of both these textiles was | and each under his fig tree strictly forbidden as con- §| with none to make them stituting “Sha’atnez” — it || afraid” (Micah 4.4). was either one or the other, I IN THE HAFTARAH of but not the two woven this Sabbath both these together. This law belongs to phrases occur and each of the category of “Chukkim,” j them in the sense indicated laws for which there is ap- §§ above though the mention of parently no logical reason the vine arid the fig (v. 12) but are obligatory solely be- g is from the negative point cause they are divinely of view. The absence of enjoined. But it does suggest security is indicated by the that in the view of the Bible destruction of the vine and flora anfl fauna do not mix!

the fig.

But the produce of the field Dr L.I. Rabinowitz can be has to provide more than reached at 6 Mapu St., j food; it has also to provide Jerusalem, Israel. — mmmmS

MizrachP" Israel

Sea Israel

Wiflt Tka Builder* Of Religious Israel

200 PARK AVE. SOUTH (17 St.) N. Y. C. Phone (212) OR 3-0100

By RABBI A.P. BLOCH May 26, 1171 — Thirty-one Jews were burned in Blois, France, in the first ritual murder charge on the European continent. The tragedy had its origin in the fantasy of a frightened peasant who Bloch had gone to the Loire to water his master’s horse. At the river bank he came upon a local Jew who was als-o watering his horse. The Jew folded up his cloak and exposed the white side of a raw hide which he wore for protection against the evening chill. The peasant’s horse suddenly reared up and the peasant fled to his master to report that he had seen a Jew throw the corpse of a Christian child into the river. INFORMED of this incident, Theobold V, Duke of Blois, ordered the entire Jewish community numbering about 40 souls to be chained and thrown into dungeon. Only Dame Pulcelina, a pretty Jewess and favorite of the Duke, was exempted from arrest. Her repeated efforts to intercede with the Duke proved futile. Duchess Alix, an enemy of Pulcelina, ordered the guards to keep her away from the palace. The peasant was subjected to trial by water to prove his veracity. Satisfied with his performance, the Duke condemned the Jews to death. Three rabbis, disciples of the famous Rashbarn, were the first victims to be tied to the stake. Miraculously the cords singed by fire snapped and the three emerged unscathed, claiming vindication by trial by fire. The spectators were awed but the executioners pushed them back into the flames. RABBI JACOB TAM, the

greatest scholar of his generation, sensed the ominous implication of the ritual charge and ordered French and English Jewries to fast on the 20th of Sivan, the anniversary of the tragedy. The liturgical poet, Hillel b. Jacob, composed a dirge for the occasion. The fast of the 20th of Sivan was the first public fast instituted in the post-Gaonic period. The fast lapsed after the expulsions of the two West European Jewries. It was instituted again in the 17th century in commemoration of the victims of the Chmelnicki massacres in 1648 49.

By coincidence, 10,000 Jews of Nemirov were killed on the 20th of Sivan. Rabbi Abraham Gumbiner (1634-1680), whose father perished in the massacres, mentions this fast in his commentary on the code. Hillers 12th century poem was made part of the Polish Service. Lithuanian Jewry integrated the poem into the Yom Kippur Service. Apparently this was due to Rabbi Jacob Tam’s admonition: “Observe it like Yom Kippur.” Rabbi A.P. Bloch can be reached at 1408 Carrol St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11213.

Where Were The Children, Worshippers? Rabbi Asks

Rabbis in separate parts of the United States have expressed their disappointment with lack of attendance at Passover services. The rabbis voiced puzzlement over the attendance, especially of children, since there was no school on Passover this year. RABBI DONALD Friedman of Congregation Shearith Israel, Atlanta, wrote that “it is hard to believe that a parent will keep a youngster out of school and send him to shui on a holiday, but when that same holiday occurs when school is closed, will keep the youngster at home.” He was referring to the fact that only from four to eight members of the Junior Congregation participated in services this year as against 55 to 60 last year. At Temple Beth El, Far Rockaway, N.Y. Rabbi Allan Blaine had a similar plaint. “I HAD ANTICIPATED a large attendance by families,” he wrote in his bulletin, “since most of the Passover Yomtov was Saturday and Sundays . . .

Imagine my chagrin to find so few parents and children at services after the wonderful Passover preparation given them in our schools. In this age which sees such a rise in mixed marriage and assimilation, it simply is not enough to ‘shep nachas’ at our children’s rendition of the ‘Four Questions.* This is merely Passover window dressing.” In Greater Miami, Rabbi Avrom L. Drazin, of Temple Israel of Miramar, wrote: “We have just celebrated the festival of Passover which commemorates the first struggle for freedom of religion. Are we proud of that freedom of religion, or do we prefer freedom from religion? How many families observed Passover Seders? How many parents brought their children to the synagogue on the first day of Passover? How many children had enough pride in their heritage to stay home from school on the second day of Passover?”