Credit to my two younger boys for some great ideas for #parshsainspiredmenus this week. We were all at Shabbat mincha together because of a Bat Mizvah (Mazal Tov HA!) and I asked them to read the parsha to come up with some ideas. Both took an interest in the dreams of Pharoah. One suggested a turducken to represent the cows that ate the other cows, but didn't get bigger (one inside the other....) The other suggested some kind of wheat inside wheat from the same idea. I even toyed with some kind of chicken stuffed with meat, but it just wasn't feeling quite right, but I was a fan of the concept so if you come up with something, let me know!
I am going to take another suggestion that came from this reading - 7 layer cake for the seven
years of plenty, which was, of course, followed by 7 years of famine. I feel like the cake is more about the "good years," but in this case the good comes with the bad, so it's important to mention both. This is also an instance when I am going to make it really easy on myself and buy a 7 Layer Cake at the store.
The rest of the story in this parsha is a really great one, so much excitment, intrigue, and drama. One detail that caught my attention was what happens when Joseph first refuses to give the brothers food, saying that he suspects them of being spies and demanding that they bring their youngest brother, Benjamin, to Eygpt. After keeping them all for 3 days, he relents somewhat and says that rather than keeping them all and sending one, he'll keep one and send the rest. Reuben tells his brothers "Did I not tell you, ‘Do no wrong to the boy’? But you paid no heed. Now comes the reckoning for his blood.”
Then Joseph
וַיִּסֹּ֥ב מֵֽעֲלֵיהֶ֖ם וַיֵּ֑בְךְּ וַיָּ֤שׇׁב אֲלֵהֶם֙ וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֲלֵהֶ֔ם וַיִּקַּ֤ח מֵֽאִתָּם֙ אֶת־שִׁמְע֔וֹן וַיֶּאֱסֹ֥ר אֹת֖וֹ לְעֵינֵיהֶֽם׃
"turned away from them and wept. But he came back to them and spoke to them; and he took Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes."
There's a number of interesting commentaries on why he chose Simeon. I think it will be interesting to share these over dinner and see what our guests think. Here they are, in no particular order:
1) Tur HaAroch: ויקח מהם את שמעון, “he took Shimon away from them.” Actually, he should have taken Reuven, seeing that he was the oldest. Usually, the oldest is taken as hostage for the younger ones. Seeing that it had been Reuven who had saved him from imminent death at the time, Joseph kept Shimon as hostage.
2) From The Torah: A Woman's Commentary: Leah’s second son is taken hostage until Benjamin, Rachel’s second son, comes down to Egypt and appears before Joseph.
3) Rashbam: In order to separate him from Levi, so that the two between them would not hatch a plot to cause major damage as they had done in Shechem at the time.
4) Rashi: he had cast him into the pit and it was he who had said to Levi “Behold, this dreamer cometh”. Supported by further commentary by the Siftei ChaChamim: Rashi deduced this because it is written [prior to throwing him into the pit]: “A man said to his brother, ‘Here comes the dreamer...’” (37:19). And it is written in 49:5, “Shimon and Leivi are brothers.” (Re’m) [You might object: Did Shimon alone throw him in?] Is it not written (37:24), “They took him (ויקחהו) and threw him into the pit,” in the plural form? The answer is: ויקחהו is written with the middle ו missing, so we [could] read it ויקחֵהו, in the singular form.
To get our Shabbat conversation to Simeon, I wanted a food that I could connect to this character. After some research and playing around I decided to go with the rhyming strategy - Shimon (Simeon in Hebrew) rhymes with Rimon (pomegranate) and Limon (lemon) and I found this Rimon and Limon Chicken to try!
Shabbat Shalom & B'Tayavon!
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