According to Jewish lore, the sun is in the exact position each 28 years as it was when God created the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day (as recounted in the Bible’s Book of Genesis).

The Blessing of the Sun is all about gratitude and appreciation of nature. Around the world, services will be held outdoors. Jews have celebrated this event more than 200 times, including in 33 A.D., the year most scholars believe Jesus died. The next Birkat Hachamah will be in 2037.

For more about this celebration, visit Chabad.org.

(photo credit: Newscom)

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Jewish Earth Day

We got to check out the Stick Puppet Party Purim kit from Tigercandy Arts the other day. As you can see, everyone jumped right in and helped me test it out.

The kit comes with everything you need except scissors and crayons or markers. There was even a container of glue.

Make sure you keep the cover of the kit handy, because it provides a guide for how your finished puppets should look. We didn’t really look at the cover until we were done, so our puppets looked very different. The important thing is that we had fun making them, though!

The puppet kits came with faces to color, but the instructions mentioned that you could also use faces from magazine ads. The bodies are precut from sturdy cardboard and the arms and legs are from card stock. There were also several pieces of decorative paper that we could use to make costumes for our puppets. There were five stick puppets in the kit and a page that tells the story of the Purim holiday.

These puppet kits are recommended for ages 6 and up.

Photos by me

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Purim Puppet Kit Review

Today, October 9 (2008), is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The observance began last night at sunset and continues through today. Yom Kippur, one of the most holy days in the Jewish calendar, marks the end of ten days of contemplation and prayer that begins on Rosh Hashanna.

Most able-bodied Jews fast for 24 hours from sunset on Yom Kippur eve to sunset on Yom Kippur. The day itself is spent in prayer and reflection on the preceding year. The breaking of the fast is celebrated with a feast for family and friends.

^{(photo © Newscom)}

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Yom Kippur

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Cooking for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah

In addition to being the month of Halloween, October is Apple Month, National Book Month, Seafood Month, and Caramel Month. It’s also Vegetarian Month and German-American Heritage Month. Below are just a few of the daily holidays we’ll be talking about in October:

• October 1 – World Vegetarian Day
• October 3 – World Animal Day
• October 6 – German-American Day
• October 8 – Yom Kippur
• October 13 – Columbus Day
• October 13 – Thanksgiving in Canada
• October 16 – Bosses Day
• October 18 – Alaska Day
• October 21 – Apple Day
• October 26 – Austria National Day
• October 31 – Halloween

^{(photo © Newscom)}

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October Holidays

The Jewish celebration, Passover, begins on Saturday, April 19 at sundown. The holiday commemorates the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and slavery. I’ve asked fellow blogger and friend, Jill Miller Zimon of “Writes Like She Talks” to share a few thoughts about Passover. This is what she writes:

The story of the Exodus that Jews read, discuss and sing about during Passover, aka Pesach, never changes: Jews suffer. Pharaoh is cruel. Plagues plague. Jews leave. Moses parts the Red Sea. They all make it to the Promised Land, but are very constipated (an inside joke about digestive issues that will be familiar to anyone who has eaten a lot of the unleavened flatbread called matzah that many Jews eat during the eight days of Passover).

The manner in which the story of the Exodus is told and enjoyed, however, changes from year to year. Family members may swap hosting duties from year to year. Many Jew invite non-family members, often friends or acquaintances who are non-Jews. Sometimes the hosts will use a different book, or Haggadah, than prior years. And sometimes, they will vary the food choices, though given the staple item always being the flat matzah, instead of the prohibited leavened bread and many other items as deemed not kosher for Passover, you can only extend the food options so far.

These variations on the same theme help keep everyone both excited and anticipating the holiday. In my home, the ones who express the most excitement and anticipation of Passover are the children because in our rendition of the story, we work hard to make it come alive. This twist helps not only to keep our celebrations fresh and unforgettable, but also to make sure that they are in fact memorable.

My favorite mechanism for doing this is not, alas, my idea. But it is one that we employ when we host the sederim, as we will this year: props. “What props?” you might ask. A prop for each of the ten plagues:

• Blood
• Frogs
• Lice
• Wild Beasts
• Cattle disease
• Boils
• Hail
• Locusts
• Darkness
• Death of the Firstborn

I won’t spoil our secrets for re-creating these travesties, but there are a lot of marshmallows and flexible plastic figurines involved.

However you choose to honor this annual re-telling of the Exodus story, I wish you a Chag Sameach.

A Passover Quiz: Can you name all ten commandments? Here’s some help from About.com. Here’s an interesting rundown from Beliefnet.com of The Ten Myths about the Ten Commandments.

…and finally, RIP, Charleton Heston.

For more about Passover, see:

• Cooking for Passover
• Passover Roast Chicken with Stuffing
• Passover, Seder, and a Modern Twist

^{(photo © istockphoto)}

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A Guest Passover Blog:

“Same Old, Same Old: Bring it On”

Passover, the Jewish festival that celebrates the Jews’ exodus from slavery in Egypt, begins on April 19 (2008) at sunset. The eight-day celebration is marked with prayer and meals with family and friends.

Food is an important part of the Passover celebration, but there are strict guidelines that can make cooking for the Passover meal a little challenging. Certain foods are prohibited, including:

• leavened bread
• cakes and crackers
• cereal
• wheat, barley, oats, rye
• corn, millet
• legumes (beans and peas)

Most Jewish households use (unleavened) matzo instead of bread during the holiday season. The people at Cabot Creamery in Vermont have created several unique recipes using matzo, including this one for Roasted Vegetable Lasagna:

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

1 medium eggplant, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 medium onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/4 cup peanut oil
salt and pepper
2 cups meatless marinara sauce
2 matzos
10 slices (10 ounces) Cabot 50% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese (or substitute
by cutting 10 one-ounce slices from a whole bar of Cabot 50% Reduced Fat
Cheddar Cheese)
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat broiler. Spray a broiler pan with non-stick vegetable spray.

2. Arrange eggplant and onion on prepared broiler pan and brush
generously with peanut oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Place under preheated broiler. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until
vegetables are beginning to brown and soften slightly.

4. Turn off broiler and set aside.

5. Preheat oven to 350°F.

6. Spread 1/2 cup marinara sauce over the bottom of a 9-inch square
baking dish.

7. Top with a sheet of matzo and then with 5 slices of Cabot 50% Reduced
Fat cheese. Layer the eggplant and onion on top and pour 1 cup of the
marinara sauce over.

8. Top with remaining matzo, marinara sauce and Cabot cheese slices.

9. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with milk. Pour over ingredients in
baking dish.

10. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until lasagna is set in
center. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting into portions with a sharp
knife.

Serves 4-6

^{(photo © istockphoto)}

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Cooking for Passover

Today is the first full day of the Jewish celebration of Purim (it began at sundown on Thursday), the holiday that commemorates the Jews deliverance from the Persian Empire’s plans to destroy them, as told in the Bible’s Book of Esther.

Rather than tell you about Purim myself, I’d like to have my friend, Jill Miller Zimon explain the traditions of the holiday. Jill, in addition to being the mother of three, is a political blogger who has been interviewed by Public Radio and CNN, among others in association with her blog, “Writes Like She Talks.” As good as her politicial insights are, I happen to think she does her best writing when she’s adding to her series of “What Jews Do” posts.

In her 2007 post about Purim, she comments on the significance of Purim falling during National Women’s History Month:

It’s interesting that Purim falls during National Women’s History Month since the Book of Esther celebrates the strength and persuasive abilities of Queen Esther yet King Ahasuerus only marries Esther after he dumps his first wife, Queen Vashti because she refuses to do as he asks (she declined to dance naked in front of drunken men – can you imagine?).

In the rest of the post, she goes on to tell about how her family celebrates Purim and the meaning of their traditions.

^{(photo © istockphoto)}

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The Jewish Celebration of Purim