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Let's eat Mahmoud Ahmadinijad’s New York Yankee’s sombrero

Expanding on our Eat our Enemy custom

It’s oft been said that most Jewish holidays have but three basic components.

They are:

  1. Our enemies came to destroy us.
  2. We prevailed.
  3. Let’s eat.

There is one Jewish holiday, however, that adds the following additional point of order to our primary list of three:

    4.  Let’s eat them!

It’s a curious custom to celebrate triumph over one’s enemy by scarfing down an article of his clothing,

That holiday, of course, is the upcoming festival of Purim, in which we celebrate the downfall of Haman by eating Hamantashen to remember his tri-cornered hat. According to some sources, we’re actually not eating Haman’s hat at all. We’re eating the ears off the side of his head! That’s even less appealing, considering they had no Q-tips back in Persia circa 400 B.C.

Haman is dead already; maybe we could update our menu to eat the hat off of one of our enemies who’s still alive and kicking? Let try to eat Mahmoud Ahmadinijad’s New York Yankee’s sombrero.

So while we at it, in honor of Purim, let’s broaden the Eating our Enemy custom.

Grand Mufti Marshmallows --- The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem did his utmost to keep Jews from immigrating to Palestine, all the time sporting a headdress that rose so high above his head it looked like it was doing push-ups. So what could be more appropriate for your snacking pleasure than super fluffy Grand Mufti Marshmallows?

Imagine your satisfaction watching Grand Mufti Marshmallows roasting and crackling over an open campfire!

Just imagine your satisfaction watching Grand Mufti Marshmallows roasting and crackling over an open campfire! That is, assuming there are any Jews around who know how to make a campfire.

Mel Gibson Pound Cake --- The newest Jewish confection is a large pound cake with reviews of Mel Gibson’s most recent movies chiseled into the top. Reviews of the motion picture The Beaver are highlighted at center. Sadly I’ve heard that Mel Gibson Pound Cake is rather dry and tasteless. That’s a shame, but it’s still worse for Mel than for us. He’s got to eat his actual reviews.

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Jews can always find a food to tell a story.Joking Aside Here is the Real True Reason for Hamantashen

The real reason for eating hamantashen is that they symbolize the very nature of the Purim miracle. If you read the story of Purim, you notice that it was a string of seeming coincidences that saved the Jewish people from annihilation. There were no open miracles, no seas split, no plagues, just some twists and turns of history that, when viewed as separate events, seemed quite natural. Only at the end of the story was it revealed that a miracle had occurred.

Jews can always find a food to tell a story. In this case, it is the hamantash. The outside of the hamantash is just plain dough. The true flavor is concealed inside. Beyond the very ordinary veneer is the heart of the hamantash, bursting with sweetness.

Our lives are much the same. At times it seems that we are being pushed and pulled by accidental forces. Things happen to us that seem haphazard and random; there seems to be no system in place, no direction to this cold and harsh universe. This is not true. There is a system. But it is hidden. Below the surface there is a sweet hand and a warm heart that directs the universe.

Rarely do we get to see this hand. Purim is one day when it was revealed, when a crack opened in the outer shell of nature and we glimpsed what lies beyond. Purim reminds us that all those coincidences are no coincidences, and nothing is random.

We are still in the middle of our story, so it is hard to see the full picture. But in the end we will see that it’s all one big hamantash.