This week is a double parsha, but I had a whole menu in mind before I got very far into studying the parsha, so all the references are in Nitzavim. We are still in a section of the Torah that talks a lot about what happens when we do or don't follow God's commands. I particularly liked this line though "Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach." (Dvarim 30:11) I know translation is commentary, but I can't help but hear this in a semi-sarcastic...it's not too baffling for you...But really, I like that it's saying this is for YOU, not just leaders or rabbis.
The Torah goes on to say:
It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”
Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” (30:12-13)
To reference how not far the Torah is and to remind us that it is within reach of all of us, this week's menu includes a main entree of salmon (or any other fish dish you like, so long as it makes you
think of the "sea") and mashed potatoes, which fell kind of like the clouds in the heavens to me.
In a similar vein of Torah is for everyone, the first pasuk in the parsha says " You stand this day, all of you, before your God —your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, every householder in Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer—" While later interpretations limit the access to Torah and ritual for many of these groups, I love that everyone is included in the list and you can't help but wonder why the woodchopper and water drawer are the examples. It could be included a range of laborers, or classes within laborers, or something else entirely, but seems like a good conversation for the Shabbat table, so to get us thinking about it, the menu includes roasted vegetables on wooden skewers!
Finally, for dessert I would make a cake that looks like a tallit. Maybe vanilla cake with white frosting and then as creative as you want to be with the decoration. The rationale for this is based off the pasuk that talks about how after the Israelites have been banished and spread throughout the other nations, God will gather the Israelites... "Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there your God will gather you, from there [God] will fetch you." This made me think of the tefillah Ahava Raba where it talks about gathering the Israelites and says "Bring us back in peace from the four quarters of the earth and lead us upright to our land" and while we say this we gather the tzitizt. Now, as Rosh Kohavim from camp says, there are not actually four corners of the earth, because the earth is round, but IT'S A METAPHOR!
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