Pesach Recipes: Random Mix 3

Once again it’s time to add to my tumblr collection of Pesach recipes! Let’s see what I can offer you this year.

(Click through for: Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Rolls), Roasted Artichoke-Leek Soup, Cherry Chicken with Rosemary, Chicken with Olives, Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Zucchini Butter, Tomato Tarts, Hummingbird Cake, and Granita/Sorbet.)

Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Rolls)
(fromhere)

Ingredients

• 2 cups tapioca starch
• 1 teaspoon salt (optional – I find with most brands of kosher Parmesan, extra salt is unnecessary)
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ⅓ cup water
• ⅓ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 6 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet

Place tapioca starch and salt in a large bowl.

Bring vegetable oil, water, and milk to a boil over medium heat until a white foam appears. Pour milk mixture over tapioca starch and stir until well mixed; allow dough to rest for 15 minutes.

Mix eggs and Parmesan cheese into dough. Shape dough into 1½-inch balls and place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven until rolls are browned, 15 to 20 minutes.

—–

Roasted Artichoke-Leek Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (14 oz.) frozen artichoke bottoms
• 1 large leek, white and pale green parts only
• olive oil for roasting
• fresh thyme, minced garlic, lemon juice, black pepper, salt to taste
• 1 medium-to-large onion, chopped finely
• mixture of olive oil and schmaltz (or butter or margarine) for sauteing
• 2 strips lemon zest
• 2 bay leaves
• chicken or vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 410°F.

Thaw artichoke bottoms and cut into quarters or sixths, adjusting as necessary as per the size of the artichokes; pieces should be of roughly uniform size. Wash leeks thoroughly and cut into rings or half-rings, keeping as intact as possible. Toss artichokes and leeks with seasonings in enough olive oil to coat, and spread in a single layer on baking sheet. Roast until leeks are translucent and starting to brown, and artichokes are tender enough to pierce through easily with a fork.

In the bottom of a deep skillet or soup pot, saute onion in your choice of fat over medium-low heat until translucent, golden, and close to caramelized. Add roasted artichokes and leeks, and enough stock to cover the vegetables. Add lemon zest and bay leaves, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn down to a simmer and leave covered until artichokes are tender enough to cut with the side of a fork. Allow to cool.

Using an immersion blender, puree soup thoroughly. Pour through a mesh sieve, adding more stock or water if the mixture is too thick. Discard any remains that will not pass through sieve. At this point, the soup may be refrigerated for later use.

Serve cold or reheated, garnished with more fresh thyme and/or grated lemon zest.

—–

Cherry Chicken with Rosemary
(adapted from here)

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs or the equivalent, bone-in (I usually make it with wingless breasts and drumsticks or leg quarters)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• black pepper to taste
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey (or a mixture of honey and sugar-free honey substitute)
• ½ cup olive oil, plus extra for sauteing
• 1 cup minced shallots, about 2 large or 4 medium
• 1-2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, plus 3-5 additional whole sprigs
• 1-2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 cups cherries any kind, pitted (I usually use frozen)
• white zinfandel for basting

Instructions

• Saute minced shallots in a little olive oil until golden and translucent. Let cool.
• Combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, olive oil, sauteed shallots, chopped rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Place the chicken in a resealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Seal the bag and make sure all the chicken is coated. Let sit at least an hour and up to overnight in the fridge.
• Meanwhile, pit the cherries (if using fresh, or thaw the cherries if using frozen) and set aside. If desired, add the cherries to the marinade 30 min before taking it out of the fridge. (I’ve also done this with adding the cherries to the initial marinade and it works well that way too.)
• To cook chicken: Take out of the fridge 30 minutes before placing in hot oven, so chicken can come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place chicken pieces skin side up in a shallow roasting dish or cast iron skillet. Pour the marinade and cherries over the chicken, moving the cherries around so that as much chicken skin as possible is exposed, and tuck the reserved rosemary sprigs around the pieces. The marinade should generously cover the bottom of the pan.
• Slide the pan into the oven and cook for roughly an hour (depending on the amount of chicken), rotating the pan every 10-12 minutes. If the bottom of the pan begins to get dry, add a quarter-cup of white zinfandel.
• Serve hot, with the cherries on and alongside the chicken. The rosemary sprigs may be discarded or used to garnish the serving platter.

—–

Chicken with Olives

• 1 chicken, whole or in pieces
• 2-3 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (or ground dried rosemary)
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic (I use the Polaner brand that comes in a jar, but fresh works fine too)
• ground black pepper
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning (ground dried sage and a little thyme if you haven’t got poultry seasoning)
• 2-3 tbsp pitted sliced green olives
• olive oil
• ½ cup white zinfandel wine
• ½ cup lemon juice

Arrange chicken in greased roasting pan. Combine herbs/spices, olives, and olive oil in a small bowl. Slather this mixture all over your chicken, inside and out – work some under the skin for best results. Let sit for at least ten minutes while preheating the oven to 375°, and then put in oven.

After about twenty minutes, baste chicken with the wine and lemon juice. Return to oven and cook for another forty minutes or until done.

—–

Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Zucchini Butter
(method for potatoes from here; method for zucchini adapted from here)

For the zucchini butter:

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds zucchini (about 3 large zucchini)
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed (optional)
• ¼ cup basil leaves, chopped, stems reserved
• Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation

• Coarsely grate the zucchini, or slice into very thin ribbons or very small dice.
• In a large (at least 12-inch) cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter and oil. When it’s foaming, add the zucchini, garlic, basil stems and basil leaves. Season with salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook until pooling with liquid, 5 to 7 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid evaporates and the zucchini starts to sizzle, 7 to 10 minutes.
• Continue to cook until the zucchini is very soft, dark green, and reduced to about 1 cup, another 20 to 25 minutes. When you see a buildup of browned bits on the skillet, add a couple tablespoons of water or stock and stir, scraping up the browned bits. Repeat anytime more browning occurs. If you see burning, deglaze with water and lower the heat.
• When fully caramelized, allow the caramelized zucchini to cool, and then puree with an immersion blender to make zucchini butter. (You can also skip the pureeing step and serve the caramelized zucchini as its own dish, or use it to dress pasta.)

For the mashed potatoes:

Make with about 4-6 yukon gold potatoes; peel if desired, but ideally leave the peel on. Cut potatoes into small dice.

Melt a little butter or margarine with a little olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Toss in enough of the diced potatoes to cover the bottom in a single layer, then fry and stir until potatoes are generously browned on all sides.

Add the rest of the potatoes, plus enough water or vegetable stock to just barely cover. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are thoroughly tender. Take off heat, allow to cool slightly, add the previously-made zucchini butter (or save it to add in dollops when serving), and whip with electric beaters until mostly smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, and then decide if you want to add anything else: more butter or margarine, cream cheese, whatever you like.

Serve hot.

—–

Tomato Tarts
(adapted from here)

Ingredients:

• 1 kosher-for-pesach pie crust (use premade, your favorite recipe, or the one in this previous post)
• several ripe-to-slightly-overripe tomatoes, sliced about ¼-inch thick
• kosher salt
• 1 small or ½ large red onion (or sweet onion of any kind), chopped, plus olive oil for frying
• 2-3 spoonfuls mayonnaise
• about ½ cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
• a few sprigs of fresh parsley (optional)
• black pepper to taste
• lemon juice to taste

Instructions:

1. In advance, cook the chopped onion with a generous splash of olive oil in a frying pan over medium to low heat until thoroughly caramelized, about 1 hour. Allow to cool completely.
2. Line a baking sheet or large platter with a double layer of paper towels. Arrange the tomato slices in a single layer on the paper towels, sprinkle with the salt, and set aside for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the pie crust as called for, depending on what kind you’re using.
3. Stir the mayonnaise, caramelized onion, fresh herbs, lemon juice, and pepper together in a small deep bowl or wide jar. Using an immersion blender, puree until the mixture forms a coarse paste.
4. Spread the mayonnaise mixture in an even layer over the pie crust. Arrange the tomato slices in a single layer on top of the mayonnaise.
5. Bake about twenty minutes or until tomatoes reach your desired degree of doneness. (If necessary, cover upper edge of crust with tinfoil to keep it from burning.) Remove from the oven and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Serve hot. (May be reheated.)

Variation: Add other thin-sliced vegetables, such as zucchini or large mushrooms. Sautee first if desired.

—–

Hummingbird Cake
(adapted from here)

Ingredients

• 2 medium bananas, overripe and smashed
• ¼ cup oil (I used coconut oil)
• ½ cup agave nectar
• 4 eggs
• ¾ cup crushed pineapple, lightly drained.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups almond flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• optional: ¾ cup chopped candied pecans
• 4 cups coconut whipped cream (or regular whipped cream) for frosting

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease two 8-inch cake pans; set aside.
• Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix until combined. You don’t need to separate the dry and wet ingredients for this recipe.
• Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans. Smooth the top of the batter.
• Bake for 32 - 35 minutes or until the top starts to darken and the center is set. The cakes will be a darker, but golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once cool, frost the tops of the cakes and stack them.

Instead of making this a layer cake, you can freeze one cake for later use and frost the cake with only half the amount of whipped cream.

—–

Fruit Granita/Sorbet (Any Kind)

Ingredients

• 1½ cups sugar (or granulated xylitol)
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup frozen fruit, any kind
• ¼ cup lemon juice

Instructions

• In a saucepan, heat sugar and water and cook until sugar is dissolved.
• Add fruit, bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.
• Carefully transfer mixture to blender and puree until smooth (this takes 2-3 minutes).
• Pour mixture into square pan and freeze for 4 hours.
• Remove from freezer and use fork to scrape entire mixture to loosen ice crystals, return to freezer.
• Freeze 2-4 hours and scrape with fork again, return to freezer for 2 hours.
• Granita is ready to serve any time, scrape with fork before serving.

Quarantined Jews make do

(Yes… that is a dog bone )

Seder plates by Paul Küchler, Bohemia, 1875-1930(?)

Passover cups, Bohemia, 1900s

returnofthejudai:

One of the most important parts of Passover to me is the removal of wine from our glasses for each of the ten plagues because we are not supposed to take pleasure in the suffering of others, even those who oppressed us. It’s an important lesson we shouldn’t forget. Schadenfreude is poison for the soul.

wombatking:

hintele:

kuttithevangu:

sadboybrigade:

retroactivebakeries:

sadboybrigade:

kuttithevangu:

Being kind to ghosts is a Jewish value

I was just telling my coworkers today about how part of the official Passover cedar is literally summoning an ancient ghost to get drunk with you and I didn’t quite realize how wild Judaism is until I had to explain that

Objection: Elijah never died, so whatever he is, it isn’t a ghost.

look i googled “passover elijah” and this is the first image result

if it looks like a ghost and quacks like a ghost it’s a fuckin g ghost

That’s my grandpa

Elijah Never Died He Tucked His Arms And Legs Into His Belley. Curled Up Into A Ball. And He Just Rolled Away.

We have no conclusive proof that Elijah wasn’t always eight feet tall and translucent. 

homoqueerjewhobbit:

Imagine how fucking balls to the wall amazing a Hobbit Seder would be. It’s all the things Hobbits love. You sit around a table for an excessively long meal, you make your seat extra comfortable, you tell lots of stories and sing songs telling those stories, and you eat and drink so, so much.

And you just know 18% of the time, Gandalf is standing there when you open the door for Elijah.

I did my best on my own.

forthegothicheroine:

Not enough of you know about the Birds Head Haggadah, and that

is a damn

shame

literarymagpie:

In life you had a temper.
Your sarcasm was a whetted knife.
Sometimes you shuddered with fear
but you made yourself act no matter
how few stood with you.
Open the door for Eliyahu
that he may come in.

Now you return to us
in rough times, out of smoke
and dust that swirls blinding us.
You come in vision, you come
in lightning on blackness.
Open the door for Eliyahu
that he may come in.

In every generation you return
speaking what few want to hear
words that burn us, that cut
us loose so we rise and go again
over the sharp rocks upward.
Open the door for Eliyahu
that he may come in.

You come as a wild man,
as a homeless sidewalk orator,
you come as a woman taking the bima,
you come in prayer and song,
you come in a fierce rant.
Open the door for Eliyahu
that she may come in.

Prophecy is not a gift, but
sometimes a curse, Jonah
refusing. It is dangerous
to be right, to be righteous.
To stand against the wall of might.
Open the door for Eliyahu
that he may come in.

There are moments for each
of us when you summon, when
you call the whirlwind, when you
shake us like a rattle: then we
too must become you and rise.
Open the door for Eliyahu
that we may come in.

(source)

hachama:

the-library-alcove:

oisinslament:

didyoumeanxianity:

oisinslament:

didyoumeanxianity:

oisinslament:

progressivejudaism:

didyoumeanxianity:

If you are a Christian that wants to host a Passover seder this year:

1) Don’t. It’s appropriative and gross.

2) Still don’t.

3) Jesus never participated in the type of seder that Jews have today. He lived (if he existed as described in your Christian holy books) during the Second Temple Era of Judaism, when worship was Temple-focused and ritual sacrifice was a key facet of the holiday. The modern seder takes most of its traditions from rabbinic Judaism, which was not the Judaism of Jesus.

4) Don’t do it. Don’t. No, there is no good reason for you to do it.

5) Given the Christian antisemitic violence traditionally inflicted on the Jews during this time of year (the lead up to Easter), it is EXTRA awful for Christians to try and appropriate our traditions related to Passover.

6) Don’t. Pesach is our holiday, and our religion is a semi-closed practice. Don’t appropriate our stuff. Don’t make our stuff about Jesus.

7) There are no exceptions to the rule that Christians should not host Passover seders.

Hope this helps.

Yep

Unless your religion keeps its secrets then there’s no “closed” or “semi-closed” about it. The traditions of every religion are usually built upon some other tradition. What if kosher practices turn out to save lives and increase healthfulness? There’s nothing wrong with people adopting those same practices—even if they shroud it in ceremony or religious garb.

The religion you practice is the religion you practice with those you directly practice it. What the goyim do with it isn’t going to hurt that if you have religious discipline. This is especially true if the goyim are just trying to learn more about your people.

That said, it is objectionable when people mock religious practices. It is objectionable when they try to warp the thing to take on different meaning that detracts in a broad, general public kind of way from the more original meaning. That’s a valid complaint. But as soon as you start using the term “appropriation” like it’s a dirty word, then you’ve morphed into gatekeeper mode that lessens or eliminates your position.

I love the Christian hegemony in this response. Really leaps off the page. You can almost taste it. Kinda tastes like jarred gefilte fish in jelly. (Which is to say, the worst kind of gefilte fish.)

Judaism is a semi-closed religion. We accept converts, but we do not seek them out or otherwise proselytize. We limit inclusion to those that are Jewish under the prevailing laws and norms of our own community. We don’t have to be a secret mystical sect to limit our inclusion to people that are Jews. Limiting Judaism to Jews is how our religion works.

What the goyim do with our religion, when they take it and twist and turn it into something it’s not, can absolutely hurt us. In fact, there’s over 1000 years of history that prove that point. It has nothing to do with Jews “religious discipline” (what does that even mean?). It has everything to do with Christian hegemony, appropriation, and antisemitic oppression.

If goyim want to learn about us because they are interested in who we are, great. I’m here for it. If they want to steal traditions from us that they’ve spent a thousand years murdering us for? They can go fuck themselves.

So your goyische opinion has been noted, but ultimately I fear it is both irrelevant and wrong.

I am a gatekeeper. And I will bar the gate against Xians that want to take and twist my religion for their own purposes.

I’m not a Christian and could give a flying fuck about them over any other group of people, so I don’t see how “Christian Hegemony” comes into play here. The point is that it is the best parts of human nature that take the good others have discovered and try to incorporate that good into their way of life. Nobody should be trying to stop that.

That the Jews have been historically persecuted makes the gatekeeping understandable but it doesn’t make it a best practice or even a good idea. And while the religious leaders in the Jewish community get to decide whether or not I am accepted into a congregational fold, if I wanted to I could decide to be Jewish without their (and your) blessing. That’s reality. You can whine about it and try to persecute people despite it if you want. But You don’t own ideas. It’s not YOUR religion to gatekeep. It’s a faith you’ve chosen, but you don’t get to control the religious choices of others.

Christian hegemony - the societal structure that privileges Xianity, Xians, and Xian culture in the west. It is relevant because, as someone in the west, your worldview and understanding of various concepts (such as religion) are steeped in Xianity. It doesn’t matter what your personal beliefs are, vis-a-vis Xian theology, if you grew up in the west you either benefit from or are injured by Xian hegemony.

That’s not a personal failing, by the by, just a feature of living in a Xian-dominant society.

Incorporating “good things other people came up with” is fine. No one is saying we have to give up using Arabic numerals or something. But that’s not what’s being discussed here. What’s being discussed is “can someone from a privileged group take religious rituals from a group they’ve spent a millennium, up to today, oppressing?” And the answer is they can, there’s no law against it, we can’t physically stop them, but doing so is inappropriate and wrong.

And, point in fact, you can’t just decide for yourself you’re a Jew. Just like I can’t decide I’m an Indiginous American. You can’t, on your own, opt into an ethnic group you aren’t part of. Judaism is an ethnoreligion, and our religion is not severable from our ethnicity/culture/peoplehood.

You think you can just opt-in because you think all religions operate like Xianity - that it is predominantly a question of faith or belief - which is why I pointed out your post was and is steeped in Xian hegemony. Many religions, Judaism included, don’t work like that. You could start believing in Hashem tomorrow and undertake each of our commandments all you wanted, and it would not make you a Jew. And if you called yourself a Jew, you’d be wrong. Because your belief, at the end of the day, doesn’t matter.

It is not your place, or at all appropriate, to tell Jews how our community structure and laws should work. First, because you fundamentally don’t understand us. Second, because you clearly are uninterested in understanding us. And third, because you aren’t one of us.

Gatekeeping is built into our religion. That’s a feature, not a bug. It helps prevent total assimilation into the dominant culture, which here in the west is Xianity. It keeps our culture alive.

You’re right, I can’t stop you from doing something appropriative, antisemitic, and awful. But I will call it what it is: wrong.

I’m always saddened when good ideas get conflated with and used as foundational support for bad ideas—as it appears has happened here. I get the distinct impression that the OP is a good and thoughtful person. But that doesn’t mean the conclusions that are being drawn are correct or right.

There’s a giant difference between being an active oppressor (in word, deed, and outlook) and living in the world where the oppressor’s ancestry and systems still dominate. Anybody who is a white American benefits from the advantages—privileges—of white Americans—in this way. That includes all the white Jews in America. That white Jews are part of an oppressor system doesn’t make them oppressors. This is a thing that all the “privilege” talk gets wrong. Some of us old white dudes actively try to push away from the thinking that allows for those wrongs. Hence my spending time arguing that not everyone who tries to learn through even limited practice a religious observance is going wrong.

It’s not Christian hegemony. Freedom of religion is actually a secular concept that—despite your argument—makes the practice of religion and spirituality a protected thing. It’s one of the things that has helped support the existence of a Jewish state even. Yes, it is my place to say that secular concepts of religious freedom trump your actual religious beliefs or worldview. You seem to think that your religion exists easily without that fundamental, bedrock assumption. It doesn’t.

You can’t create ethnicity. So if your religion is—by design—limited by some ethnicity then you couldn’t actually allow converts. Yet the leadership of organized Jewish religion adopts people into it all the time. True that you can’t just say you’re an indigenous person. Even if they adopt you then you still wouldn’t be. Except they would consider you as such. So it looks like ethnicity in those respects is more like tribalism and less about genealogy. The whole of identity bumps into this issue.

If leaders of organized religion can adopt others into the religion then the basis for “belonging” to it isn’t really ethnically based. Please stop lying to yourself and everyone else about that.

Anyway, you have an opinion that it’s just plain wrong. I suspect that there are a lot of examples where the thing that got done (“appropriated”) was ugly in its execution. But from a wider perspective (the one you think is the privilege) it’s not only not “wrong” it’s a good thing. It’s that freedom that helps protect and insulate your freedom. Again, your religious discipline helps to ensure a practice is not diluted by anyone who sees things or practices things differently.

Are you suggesting that there aren’t different sects of Judaism? Obviously, the purity of practice varies so much that one should even wonder what actual purity there really is. So much so that your gate keeping seems a bit silly when taken to it’s logical conclusion.

I’m not “one of you.” If you think that means I’m somehow less-than in any discussion then it highlights your actual ignorance and tribalistic mentality. You may believe that mentality to be correct and justified. But it’s the same logical underpinnings of white supremacists and Nazis.

You actually suggested that I’m anti-Semitic too. Smh. If your worldview is so weak that you have to make it personal then maybe you should revisit your rhetoric and your position.

You do not have the moral high ground you think you do—even if you’re motivation is well-intended. Please think about it.

This is one of the finest examples of leftist antisemitism I’ve seen recently.  Really, this person should be proud of how bigoted they are.  I haven’t seen anything this antisemitic since Marjorie Taylor Greene posted about Jewish Space Lasers.  

We have, just from a skim:
Dictating to Jews what we’re allowed to do with our own culture.
Rationalizing support for cultural appropriation.
Denying their own antisemitism.
Comparing our cultural identity’s semi-closed existence to white supremacists and Nazis.
Saying that other people stealing Jewish culture is the price of freedom, if I’m reading that right.  
Making an all-or-nothing and incredibly ignorant argument that the existence of Jewish sects means that the semi-closed nature of the culture and religion is “a bit silly”
Oh, and generally speaking up in defense of Christians appropriating the Jewish seder.
And I’m sure there’s more in there, but that’s all I could stomach.

Just wow.  You should be proud. 10/10.  Take the super-bigot badge.  

Our communities are closed.  Conversion is a mutual adoption, not a random whim.  It takes a long time and it’s deliberately difficult.  Our traditions are not free to a good home.  They’re ours.  It is as appropriate to take the Passover Seder out of its Jewish context as it would be to steal my cat and claim that he’s happier with you.  And only Jews get to decide where the line is.  Not goyim.  

Some handy-dandy tips to make sure you don’t come across as an entitled ignorant know-it-all like @oisinslament!

Look up what you’re about to claim about a culture, group, religion, or (yes!) an ethnicity to make sure you’re correct! If you don’t, you may (you will) come across as entitled and stubborn.

Jews are an ethnoreligiousgroup[32] including those born Jewish, in addition to converts to Judaism.(Judaism entry on Wikipedia)

When someone tells you you’re wrong about something you don’t know anything about, don’t double down! Don’t allege they’re making something up! You’ll look completely obstinate! When yet another person tells you you’re wrong, sit back and try to imagine that you may be wrong about something! Try to imagine that someone within a group may know more about that group than you, a person who is not part of that group.

And guess what! It’s okay to be wrong! I’m wrong all the time! But it’s not okay to make a nuisance of yourself because the very idea that you’d have to apologize is more abhorrent than the idea of learning something new.

A world in which you have to say, “Sorry! That’s on me! I’ll do better next time!” is a much better world than one where it strikes you as appropriate to tell a bunch of Jews attempting to teach you about our culture that they’re somehow following “the same logical underpinnings of white supremacists and Nazis” because you’d rather be stewing in your willful ignorance than admit you were wrong and need to learn more.

terefah:

happy passover! / חג שמח / chag sameach! and shabbat shalom! / !שבת שלום

tikkunolamorgtfo:

I forgot to tell you guys the cutest Passover story! 

So last week my congregation held its annual communal Seder (I led it, actually!) and after dinner, all of the kids went off to find the Afikomen. I thought I heard them say they found it out in the foyer, but then when I went to check in on their progress, a few of them told me the search was still going on. Another ten minutes passed, and when I went back out in the foyer, most of the kids were just hanging out, watching on and giving hints while the smallest of the children looked around for the Afikomen. 

I asked them what the deal was and they explained to me that the guy who had initially hid the Afikomen put it up in a spot that was kind of up high, so naturally it was the older kids who found it. They decided this wasn’t fair to the others, so the 11-12 year-olds re-hid it for the 7-10 year-olds, and then told them that once they had found the Afikomen, that they should then re-hide again it for the 4-6 year-old kids. 

So without any adult input, a group of about 15 children between the ages of 4-12 made the group decision to have an equal-opportunity Afikomen hunt for kids of all ages and sizes. 

I just think that’s the best and sweetest thing, and it makes me so proud of the kids at our schul and gives me hope for the future. 

Веселого та кошерного песаха!

koshercosplay:

shiraglassman:

What if we just decided that the Wednesday of Pesach was Frog Day

Because of the frog plague + It’s Wednesday My Dudes memes

ETA: i wanna see a meme with a bunch of frogs rushing at Pharaoh shouting it’s Wednesday

SAY NO MORE