Parsha Inspired Menus - Emor

Have you heard this trend of Marry Me Recipes? It's a recipe sensation on TikTok and other social media platforms. I did a little research into the history and it appears that the origin is a dish called Marry Me Chicken, created in 2016 by Lindsay Funston for Delish. In a story about how this dish got this name, Lindsay recalls "...I developed a "Sicilian Chicken Skillet", but wasn't sold on

the name...until a stroke of genius hit on video shoot day. After we spooned the sauce over the chicken for the last shot, our videographer Chelsea grabbed a fork to try the final result. Once she took a bite, she blurted out, "I'd marry you for that chicken!" and the now-famous name was born." Marry Me Chicken has spawned a collection of the other Marry Me dishes as it moves through the world of viral recipes.

So, why the history lesson on Marry Me recipes? Well, our parsha has a lot of information about who a kohen can NOT marry. It's a list with a lot of restrictions that feel at least a little grating in our modern Jewish world. Interestingly, the one that I knew most famously - that a Kohen wasn't supposed to marry a Jew by Choice, is more of an interpretation than explicit. There is repetition in the parsha..."He may take [into his household as his wife] only a woman who is a virgin.' (21:13) and "Only a virgin of his own kin may he take as his wife" (21:14) where the difference is the language "of his own kin" which could be interpreted to mean born Jewish (though I am SURE we could think of a few other interpretations of this verse.) Also, medieval commentators had a deep distrust and disrespect of non-Jewish women, so they made assumptions about their sexual behaviors and didn't want that background with a member of the priesthood. Another reminder to look closely at the things we "know" to be Torah-based law. So, with this marriage talk, it seems fitting to make Marry Me Chickpeas. (This recipe is dairy, but you can find vegan ones too, if you want it to be pareve.)

Speaking of seeming reptition with minor variations, our son was reading along and said "Moshe didn't do what God told him!" By way of explanation, he pointed out that at the start of Emor God says "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:...", but then after giving the information it says "Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites." Moshe added in the Israelites! Since these rules were all about the kohanim, you could see how it's not relevant to the whole community. Rashi explains it as "He told it to the Israelites although they

were not directly concerned with these commands in order to admonish the court regarding the priests." Basically, the rest of the Israelites had to know the rules to make sure the Kohanim were following it correctly, to check on them, because they work they did helped the Israelites worship God and they would want it down right. This #parshainspiredmenus item is a play on sound from Check to Czech! I wasn't sure what are traditional Czech recipes, but with the help of Google, I found several lists of Czech recipes and I chose ČESNEČKA (CZECH GARLIC SOUP AKA HANGOVER SOUP), This also could be made pareve, but I might recommend just doing them both dairy.

Shabbat Shalom & B'Tayavon!