Where are all the Queen Esthers and Mordecais? For almost my entire life every Jewish little girl wanted to be queen Esther on Purim. Here was the once-a-year chance to be the heroine queen who saved her people from annihilation! And also, of course to wear flowy chiffon scarves and skirts and maybe a tiara and a few bracelets and your mother’s best fake-rhinestone necklace.

And the boys always wanted to be Mordecai, who refused to bow to Haman and thus provoked that man’s rage into a fury.

Today a lot of the kids will dress up as ladybugs or Spiderman. Or princesses — hey, don’t they realize that a QUEEN has a higher rank and more jewelry than a princess??

And a lot of other Hallowe’en leftover stuff.

I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as it’s fun. Still, this year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Hadassah, the worldwide Jewish women’s volunteer organization. Hadassah is named for Queen Esther. So it seems fitting that there should be more Queen Esthers out there celebrating. 

Anyway, our local Hadassah hosts an Afternoon Tea every other Tuesday for cancer patients and their caretakers at Stamford Hospital. I am one of their bakers. I often make quickbreads because they are moist, sweet and easy to eat. Like this Chocolate Bread, which is rich and dark and luscious. It’s a good choice for a Tea, afternoon snack or dessert. To celebrate Purim, Hadassah, Queen Esther or any time at all!

Chocolate Bread

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cups sugar

1/3 cup shortening

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup chopped pecans, macadamia nuts, cashews or walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. Melt the chocolate and set it aside to cool. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium, cream the sugar and shortening until well mixed. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat the ingredients until they are well blended and smooth. Add the flour mixture in portions, alternating with the buttermilk. Blend the ingredients thoroughly. Blend in the melted cooled chocolate. Fold in the nuts, if used. Spoon the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one bread

Purim is very very noisy. Ask any parent. It’s the holiday when the kids are encouraged to yell and laugh and stamp their feet and grog their groggers in the synagogue sanctuary, all in an effort to “stamp out” the sound of the evil name Haman, a man who tried to destroy the Jewish people.

So it’s a lot of family fun. Even if you sometimes want to put on earmuffs or take an aspirin or two.

There’s some pretty good food too. Usually Hamantashen, the triangular cookies (stuffed with prune, apricot or raspberry lekvar or, these days, with chocolate and all sorts of modern fillings). Or kreplach, also triangular, this shape to resemble Haman’s hat.

But after all is said and done and we make merry as we should, one of the best parts of Purim (next Wednesday night, March 7th) is re-connecting with others. Reconnecting with community, friends and family. By offering small gifts of food.

It’s a delightful tradition. Unfortunately, like so much else, over the years it has become sort of commercial and some people feel as if they have to spend a fortune on fancy packages from fancy stores. 

But you can make a little something instead. Banana bread. Lemon scones. Vegetable soup. Guacamole dip or salsa. Homemade jam. Anything small and handy enough to bring over to a neighbor or a friend.

Like these chocolate dipped crystallized chunks of ginger, which would taste really good with coffee or brandy after the kids go to sleep and it’s quiet in the house.

Chocolate Dipped Crystallized Ginger

3 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 tablespoons whipping cream

30-35 pieces crystallized ginger

Melt the chocolate and cream in the top part of a double boiler over barely simmering water. Let the ingredients melt, remove the top part of the pan from the heat and stir to make a smooth, uniform mixture. Dip each piece of crystallized ginger in the chocolate mixture, shake off the excess and place on waxed paper or parchment paper to dry. Makes 30-35 pieces

Although Passover has already passed, today I remember a stirring passage from the Haggadah where the Israelites have escaped and the Red Sea envelops and drowns the pursuing Egyptians. The Israelites are cheering but G-d tells them not to celebrate because all people are His children.

So, maybe we should not cheer that Bin Laden has been killed but we can be satisfied that justice has been done, be thankful that this monster is dead and be very grateful for our splendid American forces and our president, who have done such a spectacular job in getting this done.

And yet on Purim don’t we celebrate Haman’s death, another who sought to destroy a portion of mankind?

All of these thoughts are especially important today, Yom Hashoah, on which we remember the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

Would that American forces had captured Hitler before the genocide.

All stirring thoughts.

On Purim we celebrate with Hamantashen. On Passover we celebrate with matzo.

What shall we celebrate with this time?

Ronnie –

I really loved your “Balagan” blog entry, and took the liberty of copying and printing it out (with a tiny bit of editing and adding your next day’s entry about Jayne Cohen’s contest) for the folks who attend informal Shabbat services at the independent/assisted living center where Carl’s mom now lives.  On March 18^th, the services (which are held at 2 p.m. for those folks who can’t last through an “after sundown” service) are going to be abbreviated to accommodate a little Purim shpiel written by one of the volunteer service leaders who are sent courtesy of our Pasadena Temple.  Many of the people who attend these services are really “cultural” Jews, and attend because they’re looking for a comfortable Jewish community in this facility of more than 200 people, of whom about 60 are Jewish (anywhere from 4 to 15 regularly attend services, but many more come to the Highlands’ Chanukah celebration and Pesach seders – and even interested non-Jews attend those dinners).

Since we only have an hour in the space allotted for services, this first-ever Purim party will definitely NOT be a balagan, though all the “Esthers” will wear silver crowns and the Purim play Esther has a gold one (all are paper, and recyclable, of course!).  We will have graggers, but I think those with hearing aids (like myself, now) will use them gingerly.  Carl’s mother is already worried that people will drown her out every time her last name is mentioned (she is “Heiman” – pronounced “Haman”!)  We won’t be reading the “whole Megillah” (or any of it, come to think of it), but the Purim play should suffice.  I think your little resume of the Purim story will act as a brief for some attendees on the 18^th (Jews and non-).  Of course, we end the event with hamantaschen for all, and special little shalach mones goodie bags with more hamantaschen..

This segues nicely into my thoughts on your last Friday’s blog on The Happy Prince, which made a deep impression on me as a child.  I had both the book and the record, which I, like you, played over and  over and over.  The other day, the phrase, “swallow, little swallow…”  came to me out of the blue, prompted by our preparations for Purim and discussion about shalach mones.   I couldn’t for the life of me remember where the phrase came from, but it resonated deep in my psyche.  You can imagine how happy I was to see your blog about it a day later(!), reminding me of the story’s name and author.  It brought back such flood of memories (I think this may have been the first story that made me cry).  I remember I SO wanted the swallow to fly south and save himself just as I wanted him NOT to leave the prince.  If I remember correctly, radio programs for kids, which I listened to, featured the Orson Welles reading around Christmas.  (Did you remember that Bing Crosby was the voice of the Happy Prince? See the whole thing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIPaS10r-T0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JApl4-mgZ0).  In any case, I began thinking about how Chanukah, a relatively minor Jewish holiday, has replaced Purim, which – says my mother-in-law who grew up on New York’s Lower East Side speaking only Yiddish till she was 5 – used to be the major gift-giving holiday of the year for Jews.  Families baked goodies, including hamantaschen, and kids and their parents delivered these gifts – shalach mones – to friends and relatives throughout Purim.  Visiting was important.  What a wonderful tradition!  Why have we lost this?  Our Temple has recently instituted shalach mones  goodie bags, which people can order and send, with a “Purim wishes” card, to friends and family (or people can pick up their bags at the Temple).  Still sending and picking up aren’t exactly in the same spirit as human contact. What next – shalach mones over the social network?  Happy Pre-Purim 

Submitted by Carol Selkin (carol_selkin@sbcglobal.net):

Carol:

So happy to be a tiny “part” of your Purim celebration! Hope it went well and that all the Esthers and Mordechais had fun and enjoyed the hamantashen and the quiet “balagan.”

I do remember that when I was a child Purim was a much more important holiday and resembled Chanuka/Christmas festivities. But in the United States we follow the corporate culture so often and that culture says it makes more sense to have everyone going to the store in the last quarter. So maybe that’s part of it.

As for The Happy Prince, I don’t remember it on radio because we listened to the record, at least once a week. I think my brothers and I had memorized the entire script and the accents of the bird, the mayor, the prince and the town councillors. It is a wonderful story; I recently have read versions of it to my grandchildren, who were all mesmerized and have asked me to read it over and over. It’s timeless and priceless. 

Oh the glories of the Internet!

I recently blogged about the Purim hamantashen I bought from Kosher Care Packages (you can order stuff here: http://www.koshercarepackages.com/) and I mentioned that I didn’t order enough with chocolate (I bought mostly traditional apricot, prune and raspberry filled cookies). 

Well, yesterday I got a rather generous gift package of guess what!!!!! Traditional jam-filled hamantashen dipped in chocolate! Take a look at these. Doesn’t that chocolate look good?

They are!

Happy Purim everyone and THANKS, KAREN at Kosher Care Packages.

A Balagan

Some words are difficult to define, exactly. You have to actually be in a situation that fits the word in order to get the real meaning.

Like the Hebrew word “balagan.” It means “a little chaotic.” But that’s really tame. And lame.

If you’ve ever been to a supermarket before a big snowstorm you may begin to understand the word a little. Or an airport when a few flights have been cancelled. Or if you’ve ever seen old time newsreels showing the pushcarts on the Lower East side at the turn of the 20th century.

But if you want to really understand what balagan means, go to a Purim celebration. You know how you always tell your kids to quiet down and behave? On Purim it’s just the opposite. You schlep them to synagogue, all dressed up as Queen Esther (if it’s a girl) or Mordechai (if it’s a boy) and you instruct them to make a lot of noise and run around and every time they hear the name “Haman” they shout, stamp their feet and make noise with their graggers, which are special toy noisemakers intended to kill your hearing as much as any rock concert would and designed to make senior citizens who are there with their grandchildren grateful they are old and can talk a trip to the bathroom for a few minutes.

It’s all in a good cause though. Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jews of ancient Persia, who were to be annihilated by order of Haman, who was the Prime Minister at the time. But Esther, who was married to the Persian King (Ahasueras), begged her husband to save her people. Mordechai, Esther’s cousin led the Jews in revolt. In the end, Haman was hanged, Mordechai was appointed the new Prime Minister and all was well. 

On Purim we are supposed to celebrate, to eat, drink and make merry. And so the costumes, the parties and the graggers, which are designed to blot out the name of the evil Haman. This year it all begins at sundown on March 18th. 

The food? Mostly Hamantashen, a three-cornered cake-cookie that’s supposed to resemble Haman’s hat. I don’t usually make hamantashen. Sometimes I buy them at The Bakery in Plainview, New York, but I’m not there very often (I live in Connecticut after all) and so this year I’ve chosen hamantashen from Kosher Care Packages (you can order them here: http://www.koshercarepackages.com/). 

My box came yesterday and I found I made a BIG mistake. I ordered the prune and apricot, which are really good — tender and not too sweet and also just the right size. Most hamantashen are too big. But Kosher Care Packages also has chocolate hamantashen and I, traditionalist, only ordered TWO. My grand daughter Lila and husband Ed said the chocolate was the best one! And now I have NONE LEFT! The raspberry was good too.

Who knew?! I do now, for next time.

Make sure you order some in chocolate (with sprinkles, which Lila said tasted great “like bubble gum.”)