A Colorful Shabbat Lunch

I know, I know, I've been ridiculously remiss in not writing to you. And the more things happen, the less I want to write. Should I tell you about my adventures in trying to get a student visa at the Ministry of the Interior? Maybe I should write about my vacation to Jordan. Should I write about the incredibly controversial Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem? What about when I went camping in the North with a bunch of hippies for a few days? Maybe you're just interested in what I'm learning nowadays and what my every day life looks like. So with all the things I'd like to write, I end up writing nothing at all – quite counterproductive, I know. Anyway, here's a short email to hopefully get me warmed up and in the email-mode once again.

So I moved to a new apartment, I have a great new flatmate (as many of you know - I'm now living with my amazing friend Shoshanah from UF). Between the two of us we end up hosting one large meal/event just about every weekend. Sometimes we host Shabbat dinner Friday night, sometimes Shabbat lunch Saturday afternoon, sometimes get-togethers Friday evenings, and sometimes weekday lunches to help us eat our leftovers. Tonight as we're recovering from the huge meal Shoshanah hosted Friday night, I thought I'd share with you the meal I hosted a few weeks ago.

As you may or may not know, every week around the world Jews read from a specific section of the Bible in synagogue. The section is the same the world over, for example today Jews in every corner of the globe read the story of Jacob and Esau. A few weeks ago everyone read the story of Noah and the flood. In case things got a bit foggy from your long-ago Sunday school classes here's a quick summary: God tells Noah to build an ark. Noah builds it and brings lots of animals on board and miraculously doesn't die of the stench of hundreds of animals cooped up on a boat with one window for a month and a half. It rains. A lot. Eventually the rain stops and God promises to never ever flood the world again. The symbol of God's promise is the rainbow.

I hosted a Shabbat lunch on the week of this story with the theme of rainbows. Everyone was assigned to bring some words of Torah (or anything really) related to an assigned color. Shoshanah made decorations. I took care of the rest. When my guests arrived around noon they were greeted by a sign on the door illustrated with pictures of the story, colorful rugs around the room, and rainbow colored flowers arranged in rainbow colored water in multi-colored vases. As we sat down to eat I explained the premise of the day. First came the soup – tomato soup is red. Then barbecue lentils for a bit more red. Next came sweet potatoes – orange. Then tofu chickpea curry – yellow. Then broccoli with lemon and garlic – green. And the less-than-appetizing-at-first-glance-but-still-delicious pasta in cream sauce with a lot of food coloring – blue. For dessert we had homemade berry cheesecake – purple. And some fresh plums for a bit healthier purple. Throughout the meal people shared their colorful words of Torah, ranging from the color symbolisms in the Bible, the way the eye perceives color, and the benefits and disadvantages to seeing things 'in black and white.'

All in all the meal was a great success and I had rainbow colored leftovers to last the entire next week – what more could I ask for?

[Oh, and if you are actually interested in photos of the food or more information about the previous adventures I alluded to above, let me know. I might be convinced to post photos or write another back-entry about what I've been up to the past few months.]

Hope everyone is having a gratitude-filled Thanksgiving weekend!
Sarah