Here it is, folks. The OG. The Grandaddy of them all. The first and original parsha that inspired me to make a specific food. It was 22(!) years ago that Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb gave a drash to the students of The Conservative Yeshiva for Parshat Toldot and shared with us his grandmother's recipe for red lentil soup. I have been making Jenny Fish's recipe ever since. The soup is made to highlight the story in this week's parsha when Esau comes back from hunting and is
famished/worn out. Jacob had been making a stew and Esau says "Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”. Jacob only agrees to sell the stew to Esau in exchange for the birthright. This episode should lead to some interesting discussion. Is Esau wrong to give up his birthright so easily? Was he really in dire need? Was Jacob right to require payment from his brother? I'm considering a few modifications to Jenny's recipe (less sweet, more spices) and I'll report back on how it goes.
Until this year, that dish would have been the only part of the meal that was parsha related, but now I strive to have a few items each week. Joining the red lentil soup will be two dishes - stuffed peppers and brookies.
The stuffed pepper were chosen to represent wells. I was looking for something that had the shape of a well dug into the ground, or at least felt a little like that. In this parsha, Isaac travels back over the area where his father had dug wells and "dug them anew." He digs these wells and then is
chased away from them by the quarrels of the people in land. So he dug another well and they argued over that one too. So, he did it a 3rd time and this time there was no argument. "...so he called it Rehoboth, saying, “Now at last יהוה has granted us ample space to increase in the land.”
Finally, the brookie - I was thinking of all the hiding and deception in this parsha (Jacob as Esau to get the blessing, Rebecca being passed off as Isaac's sister) and wanted to have a dessert that had something hidden too. There are lots of options, but I settled on something I expect to be a fan favorite - the brownie "hidden" underneath the cookie layer.
Shabbat Shalom and B'Tayavon!
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