Parhsa Inspired Menus - Ki Tisa

A smoothie is one of my "go to" breakfast nowadays. I usually use banana, and maybe add in some berries, yogurt, maybe some almond powder...today I actually made it with mango and pineapple so it was very yellow, which reminded me of the element of the parsha that our youngest son called out to when we were discussing what to do this week. He remembered learning this parsha last year in his Tanach class and he laughed thinking about the "Egel Hazahav smoothie." So, what's a Egel Hazahav (Golden calf) smoothie?

מִיָּדָו֙ אֶת־הַלֻּחֹ֔ת וַיְשַׁבֵּ֥ר אֹתָ֖ם תַּ֥חַת הָהָֽר׃

As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

וַיִּקַּ֞ח אֶת־הָעֵ֨גֶל אֲשֶׁ֤ר עָשׂוּ֙ וַיִּשְׂרֹ֣ף בָּאֵ֔שׁ וַיִּטְחַ֖ן עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁר־דָּ֑ק וַיִּ֙זֶר֙ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הַמַּ֔יִם וַיַּ֖שְׁקְ אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.

The Israelites were made to drink a "smoothie" mixture of water and ground of golden statue. It's a strange ritual and also calls to mind the Sotah ritual we'll learn about later in Bamidbar. In both cases, there's a question of loyalty (to God and to a husband) and so there's weird drink concoction to drink that's part of the consequnces. It's not clear in this case if the drink is supposed to help determine true guilt or not, but the parallel is too close to be missed. Drinking the "egel zahav smoothie" is internalizing the mistake done outwardly. In honor of this golden smoothie, I wanted a yellow liquid, but one that wasn't a drink, and came up with AMBA! I didn't know amba existed until getting to know Israeli cuisine more. In case you don't know, amba is a tangy, spicy, and savory sauce made from pickled green mangoes, vinegar, and spices. Upon looking it up I learned why it feels very Indian in flavor and the reason is because merchants

traveling to India brought the flavors back to Iraq and it became popular in Iraqi-Jewish food. I found this interesting looking Cauliflower Salad with Amba and Tahini.

Besides the Egel Hazahav smoothie, there's a few other immediate consequences to the people for the sin of the golden calf. One of those is that God says he will no longer go in the midst of the people, but will send an angel to go ahead of the people instead.

When the people heard this harsh word, they went into mourning, and no one put on finery.

GOD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelite people, ‘You are a stiffnecked people. If I were to go in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now, then, leave off your finery, and I will consider what to do to you.’”

So, there's definite removing of "finery" or ornaments/jewelry, depending on the translation. What jewelry is it? Some jewelry already was put into the creation of the golden calf. What's left? In the Stone Chumash, the commentary states "The Sages teach that in proclaiming their willingness to accept unquestioningly God's commandments and teachings, the Jews said, we will do and we will listen. In recognition of this devotion, angels came and affixed two crowns to their

heads, one in honor of we will do and one in honor of we will listen. Now, they lost these two spiritual crowns (Rashi)." I was struck by the idea that these Israelites, who had the most spiritual experience of direct revelation, had something special attached to them from that experience.

And then, turning their back on God has the impact of losing this connection, this special status, so I wanted to make something with crowns. I thought about broccoli crowns, but since I had cauliflower already, I wanted more variety. I found this beautiful puff pastry crown (check out this link mostly to figure out how to make the pretty crown design) and I'm going to make it with a sundried tomato spread, instead of pesto, and serve it along with salatim.

Shabbat Shalom & B'Tayavon!