Food Tourah – Chayei Sarah

November 19, 2024 in Food Tourah

Because life so often happens around food, we’re spending the year exploring the weekly parshiot and finding connections to each week’s Shabbat menu.  Sarah, a seasoned Jewish educator, brings a wealth of knowledge to our discussions, while Alison, who loves creating dishes that bring people together, is excited to explore the weekly portions in greater depth. Each week we will give a brief overview of the parsha and then suggest ways to incorporate its themes into your Shabbat menu. This is our version of Julie and Julia – the charming movie in which a blogger challenges herself to make all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking in just one year.  Lucky for us, we only have to cover 54 parshiot –  49 more to go! 

This week’s parsha opens as Sarah dies, and Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah for her burial for four hundred shekels of silver. This marks the first Jewish landholding in Canaan. After this Abraham sends his servant back to his birthplace to find Isaac a wife.  There the servant meets Rebekah who treats him with hospitality giving him water and water for his camels. To repay this kindness the servant gives Rebekah a gold ring for her nose and gold bands for her arms. With her family’s blessing, the servant brings Rebekah back to Canaan. Upon meeting Isaac, Rebekah covers herself with a veil. The two then wed.  The parsha ends with Abraham’s death at the age of 137. 

This week, Chayei Sarah really puts our parsha creativity to the test – but we are up to the challenge!  To represent the cave of Machpelah we thought these Vegan Stuffed Peppers would be a good representation of the cave hollowed out to contain something special. Next we suggest Persian Jeweled Rice as a tie to the jewels that Abraham’s servant gave to Rebekah. It is also called Persian Wedding Rice – as in the wedding of Isaac and Rebekah.  And finally in honor of Abraham’s 137 years, may we suggest a finely aged wine? We’ll leave that selection up to you! 

B’tayavon and Shabbat Shalom,
Alison (Baraf) & Sarah (Roark) 

For a more in-depth look at this week’s parsha, visit Sefaria.com.