L IFESTYLES /C ULTURE
Continued from Page 19
Baby’s version, but any good
quality, hearty bread like cia-
batta will work.

Gilberg grills his, but brush-
ing with olive oil and toasting
it is a reasonable facsimile for
home cooks. He recommends
a “schmear” of buff alo mozza-
rella on each slice, then a light
drizzle of the basil honey, see
recipe below.

Th e basil honey is a won-
derful condiment; if you have
left overs, Gilberg recommends
using it with cheese plates,
mixing it with lemon juice for
a salad dressing, drizzling it
over roasted lamb or tossing
it lightly into couscous with
toasted almonds.

two days before the season
started, husband-and-wife
restaurateurs Bridget Foy and
Paul Rodriguez responded.

Th e quartet worked well
together and decided to col-
laborate on a Philadelphia
restaurant. Th ey found the
site at Th ird and Bainbridge
streets, visited Italy last fall for
a crash course in Italian cui-
sine, designed the menu, and
the rest is history. Foy runs
the front of house, Rodriguez
handles the beverage/bar oper-
ations, Gilberg is the chef and
Goncalvez is the pastry chef.

Judging from the crowds,
they have a winning formula.

BASIL HONEY
One popular menu item is Makes about 2 cups
the bruschetta selection. Four
or fi ve options are off ered daily,
1 pound basil leaves
and a favorite is the basil-honey
¾ cup vegetable oil
buff alo mozzarella. Goncalvez
¾ cup olive oil
makes the focaccia for Cry
1 cup honey
Bring a large pot of
water to a boil and blanch
the basil for a few seconds.

Remove the basil from the heat
and immerse it in ice water
immediately. Drain thor-
oughly, squeeze dry.

Place the basil in blender
with both types of oil. Puree.

Place a strainer lined with
cheesecloth over a large bowl
and pour in the oil mixture.

Allow the mixture to drain,
reserving the fl avored oil.

Discard the basil solids or save
for another use.

Mix the oil with the honey.

Use as desired.

LEMON BASIL SALAD
DRESSING Makes about ⅓-cup dressing
Th is dressing is wonderful
on just about any salad. Th e
fresh citrus burst of the lemon
plays well against the sweet-
ness of the honey and the her-
baceous basil fl avor. Try it on
a caprese salad or baby greens
tossed with grapefruit sections
and avocado.

1 tablespoon fresh
squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons basil honey
Mix well, toss over salad
immediately. COUSCOUS WITH BASIL
HONEY AND TOASTED
ALMONDS Makes 2 servings
Th is is a wonderful side dish
to accompany meat, poultry
or fi sh. Add a cup of canned
chickpeas for extra protein
and you have a light, healthy
vegan meal.

1 2
⅓ 2
cup couscous
cups vegetable stock
cup sliced almonds
tablespoons basil honey
(to taste)
Salt and pepper
Bring the stock to a boil in
a medium-size saucepan with
a cover. Add the couscous, give
it a stir, remove it from the
heat, cover and let it sit for 6
minutes. While the couscous steams,
toast the sliced almonds in a
dry skillet over medium heat.

Shake them frequently, and
watch them carefully so they
don’t burn.

Remove the cover from the
couscous, fl uff the couscous
with a fork and add the basil
honey. Mix well. Season with
salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the couscous into a
serving bowl and top with
toasted almonds. ●
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20 MARCH 7, 2019
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Food



T orah P ortion
Mirror Reflects More Than an Image
BY RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
PARSHAT PEKUDEI
“AND HE SET the laver
between the Tent of the
Meeting and the altar, and put
water there for washing. And
Moses and Aaron and his sons
washed their hands and their
feet…“ (Exodus 40:30–31)
Before the priests would enter
the Tent of Meeting or approach
the altar, they were commanded
to wash their hands and feet
from the laver. Not doing so was
a capital offense.

The washing of one’s hands
and feet may have been the eas-
iest of all the required rituals,
but that didn’t make it any less
significant. On the contrary,
not only was it the prerequi-
site for the priest’s presence in
the sanctuary, but the washing
of the priests has become an
essential part of the halachic
life of every Jew.

Therefore, it’s interest-
ing that the last physical item
connected to the rituals of the
sanctuary that the Torah men-
tions is the washstand, or laver.

The portion of Pekudei closes
the book of Exodus. Pekudei
means “These are the accounts
of…” and that’s exactly what
the portion does.

And what is the last sanc-
tuary “furnishing” recorded
in the Torah? The washstand.

True, the enclosure is also
mentioned, but the enclosure
is not a physical item.

If it’s true that the Torah
wants us to pay particu-
lar attention to this wash-
stand, then we must reread its
description: “He made the copper laver and
its copper base out of the mirrors
of the service women [armies
of women] who congregated to
serve at the entrance of the Tent
of Meeting.” (Exodus 38:8)
It is significant that the
Torah speaks of the mirrors of
the women. After all, a mirror
is one of those objects which
is, at best, taken for granted as
we gaze into it and check for
excesses and wrinkles and, at
worst, causes us slight embar-
rassment at our vain concern
with physical appearance. Is it
not strange that such “vanities”
are to be considered worthy
of being used by the priests to
sanctify their hands?
When the commandment
was originally given in Ki
Tissa, the Torah did not com-
mand the women to donate
their copper mirrors. Indeed,
Ibn Ezra calls the women’s con-
tribution a victory of spiritual
values over physical vanity.

The daughters of Israel didn’t
need these mirrors anymore;
they wanted to serve God by
emphasizing good deeds over
good looks.

Rashi, in questioning the
Midrash Tanĥuma, describing
how the women enticed their
husbands by means of the mir-
rors to have sexual relations
with them, stresses that one
should not be quick to reject
the physical — even sexual —
aspect of our existence. If any-
thing, Judaism ennobles sex
and love within marriage.

When two people become
physically united to become
partners with God in creat-
ing another person, they are
engaging in one of the holiest
acts a human being can pur-
sue. And if a mirror can help,
what finer material is there for
the sanctification of the priest’s
hands before he performs the
divine service?
Moreover, the mirrors signal to
God the women’s profound faith
in a Jewish future. Imagine Egypt
under Pharaoh’s rule. Knowing
that his sons would be drowned in
the Nile and his daughters forced
to live with Egyptian slave-mas-
ters, why on earth would any
Hebrew want to bring more chil-
dren into the world?
But thank God for their
wives, the Almighty is teach-
ing Moses. The women
CAND LE LI GHT I NG
Mar. 8
Mar. 15
remembered the
divine promises that fore-
told the ultimate redemption
of the people and their entry
into the Promised Land. The
women urged their husbands
not to despair, to believe in
a Jewish future. In the midst
of torturous persecution, slav-
ery and infanticide, bringing
more Jewish children into the
world was an act of supreme
faith. And the mirrors were the
instruments for the expression
of that faith.

Yet another lesson lies in
the sanctity of the mirrors.

The Hebrew word for mirror,
marah, has the same letters as
mareh, appearance. And seeing
our appearance in a mirror does
not only emphasize our physical
selves. We realize that we are
more than that which the mir-
ror reflects. After all, the mirror
does not show our inner selves,
our memories and aspirations,
our dreams and our fears.

Let us ponder: Who com-
monly came to the sanctuary?
People in search of atonement,
individuals bringing guilt and
sin offerings. Hence, the dan-
ger would lie in how easy it was
to forget the individual behind
the person who arrived with
his offering. It was too easy for
the priest to make his judg-
ments based upon the single
5:42 p.m.

5:49 p.m.

instance when he would see the
supplicant with his sacrifice.

One of the important les-
sons the mirror taught is that
people are not how they appear
to be on the surface. Just as
the priest understood that the
face staring back at him in the
laver is hardly the total picture
— there’s a lot more to us than
what stares back in the glass.

And is this not the true
message of the women’s gift?
After all, the women who beau-
tified themselves for their hus-
bands were an easy target for a
cynic. But perhaps the message
of the mirrors was the exact
opposite: Don’t look at me only
as I appear now in the mirror;
look at me also as you saw me
as a bride, and look at me as the
mother of your future children.

Thus we see the central role
of the washstand — the faith
of the Jewish women despite
the fact that their husbands’
spirits were broken, and the
importance for the priest to
look deep and hard at himself
as well as others to ascertain
a true and full picture. In the
final analysis, our reflection in
a mirror is only a small part of
who we really are. l
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the chief
rabbi of Efrat.

Documentary Continued from Page 9
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Katz
said. “It means the world to me
to be an Israeli and even more to
play with the Israeli flag and the
Israeli name on my chest.”
Katz, a natural righty who
pitches with his left hand,
began playing baseball when
he was 4 or 5 on a Little
League team. A few years later,
he began pitching, playing on
travel teams and for his high
school, and then college and
professional teams. At the end
of day, for Katz the goal is
to win. “Winning is definitely
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM everything, you don’t play the
game to lose,” he said.

Matt Wasserlauf, executive
producer of Heading Home 2,
stayed up “into the wee hours
of the night” glued to the tele-
vision watching Team Israel’s
success in the World Baseball
Classic. “They had this improb-
able run,” Wasserlauf said,
recounting their wins against
Cuba and the Netherlands, and
a number of games that no one
had thought they would win.

For Wasserlauf, the story
of Team Israel has the poten-
It means the world to me to be an Israeli and even more to play with
the Israeli flag and the Israeli name on my chest.”
ALEX KATZ
tial to bring a positive light
to both Jews and Israel in the
media. While anti-Semitism
is something Wasserlauf has
had to contend with “as a liv-
ing, breathing Jew,” he said,
he believes that the story of
the underdog emerging tri-
umphant will overpower the
JEWISH EXPONENT
potential negative responses
from anti-Semitic or anti-
Zionist angles.

“The message that comes out
is that wonderful things can
happen if you apply yourself
and you work hard,” Wasserlauf
said. “At the minimum, I hope
we raise some interest and eye-
brows and that people are look-
ing at Israel and Jews in a new
light, in a different light than
they had before.” l
Victoria Brown is a staff writer at
Baltimore Jewish Times, an affil-
iated publication of the Jewish
Exponent. MARCH 7, 2019
21