Pass the Cookies for Purim

Saratoga Springs, NY — You’ve got to like a holiday that’s symbolized by a cookie.

Rabbi Abba Rubin of Saratoga Chabad uses his car as a mobile billboard for Jewish culture, attaching cutout symbols of the holidays to the roof. While most people with a passing knowledge of Judaism recognize that the menorah symbolizes Hanukkah, the triangle currently sticking up from his burgundy sedan like a shark fin might be a little less recognizable.

It’s a hamantashen, a cookie filled with jam or other sweet fillings eaten to celebrate the festival of Purim, when the Jews of ancient Persia were delivered from the evil Haman’s plot to destroy them. The cookies are shaped like a triangle to represent Haman’s hat.

Purim is one of the most joyous of the Jewish holidays, when children and adults dress up in costumes and gather for festive meals.

Even the Purim service is more raucous than most; during the reading of the Megillah, which tells the Purim story in the Book of Esther, the congregation rattles noisemakers, or graggers, every time Haman’s name is mentioned.

“Purim is very much a kid’s holiday,” Rubin said.

Rubin and his wife will be holding a Purim celebration Sunday that will have a birthday party theme with clowns and jugglers, since it coincides with their son Moshe’s 5th birthday. Last year, Rubin said, they had a Chinese theme.

No matter the theme, though, hamantashen are always a part of the celebration. Rubin demonstrated how to make them at his Circular Street home Monday — rolling out the dough, cutting out circles and filling them with jam, then folding up the edges to make the three corners.

“You have to be an expert at pinching them together,” Rubin said, or the cookies may lose their shape in the oven.

HAMANTASHEN

4 cups flour

4 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup margarine, softened

1 Tbsp. orange juice

2 tsps. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 tsp. orange rind

1 pound strawberry or apricot preserves

or apple or prune butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease cookie sheets.

Place all ingredients (except preserves/filling) in a large mixer bowl and beat together. You may add a drop more juice or flour, depending on the consistency of the dough. Roll dough into a ball. Divide into four parts. Refrigerate until chilled.

Roll out the dough on a floured board to about a quarter-inch thickness. Cut out circles with a glass. Put a teaspoon of filling in the center of the circle, then pinch up the sides into a triangle. Bake about 15 to 20 minutes, until a light golden brown.

THE STORY OF PURIM

During the time of King Achashveirosh in Ancient Persia, a beautiful woman named Esther became queen. The king did not know she was Jewish, and she didn’t tell him.

Meanwhile, her cousin Mordechai, who had adopted her as a child, incurred the wrath of one of the king’s ministers, Haman, when he would not bow down to him. As revenge, Haman convinced the king to agree to have all the Jews killed.

Mordechai asked Esther to intercede on the Jews’ behalf, which she did. The king took Esther’s side. The Jews were saved from destruction and Haman was hanged.

Today, many Jews fast the day before the Purim celebration in remembrance of Esther’s fasting before she spoke to the king.

Four mitzvot (commandments) are part of Purim: to hear the Megillah, to give charity, to give out prepared food and to have a festive meal.

“Today, we also have people who want to destroy us,” Rabbi Rubin said. “(The Book of Esther) is a very joyous story. We’ve always overcome all obstacles.”