Michal's Tefillin

Shalom and welcome to the first issue of Michal’s Tefillin, an online magazine for Jewish women. Our philosophy is a simple one – to promote and nurture an environment of superlative creative talent and to encourage the diversity, the strength and the chutzpah of Jewish women from all walks of life.

Michal, the daughter of King Saul, wife of King David, had chutzpah. She wore tefillin while she prayed, such was her aura and strength that not even the sages, not usually open to women taking the reins, could complain about her. While Michal’s role in the Torah was limited to being a wife and a daughter, reading between the lines, we see a woman of wit and wile, a woman who carried out the strength of her convictions, despite the consequences.

Our modern day Michal, the beautiful Sharon Novikov, a multi-lingual science undergraduate who also happens to be a photographer, model and actress, epitomises the spirit of the modern Jewish woman – talented, intelligent, independent and vibrant. Sharon is one of life’s rare beauties, beautiful inside and out, and it is her strength of spirit and determination, even in difficult times, that single her out as a true daughter of Michal.

Photo: Sharon Novikov

To kick off our inaugural issue, we have an interview with Maggie Anton, author of the bestselling novels Rashi’s Daughters. The third and final book in the trilogy, Rachel, has just been released to rave reviews. Maggie’s three heroines all put on tefillin as they prayed, a subject that she expounds upon in her interview.

We also feature the glittering talents of ceramic artist, Ooty Reut Raz Yaacobi; our pithy columnist and in-house giver of acid advice that you need to hear, Alexandra, is here to dispense her wisdom; Shiri Cohen comments on the Joshua Project and how it seeks to eradicate Judaism through Christian conversion and we take a look it into the witty world of Noa Ben Dov Bibi’s sock dolls.

We chose Rosh HaShanah to launch Michal’s Tefillin because the new year is a time of contemplation, spiritually and emotionally, when we plant the seeds of positive action to ensure a good year for us and everyone who comes into contact with us. We are all part of the first, original soul, we are all linked together inextricably. Instead of seeking to break bonds, we should be trying to heal them.

Shana Tova!

Basia Ellen

Editor-in-Chief

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Rashi, perhaps one of the greatest Jews who ever lived, the man who made the Talmud accessible to everyone and not just yeshiva students, is currently enjoying something of a renaissance on the literary scene. The humanist chacham is the subject of a new book by author, Shoah survivor and ethical genius, Elie Wiesel, and he also takes a centre-stage appearance in Maggie Anton’s latest novel, the third and final part of her Rashi’s Daughters trilogy – Rachel.

For those of you unfamiliar with the books, Rashi’s Daughters are pieces of exquisite history, set in medieval France, a world that has come to be synonymous with the barbarity of the Crusades, a time of darkness, when Europe was plunged into early fundamentalist religious fervour and hatred for anything or anyone who wasn’t Christian.

In the midst of all this, one of the most dazzling minds that ever existed, was busy educating his daughters in the ways of the Talmud, something that was just not de rigueur in those days. And when the girls weren’t studying tractate berachot with their father after dinner, they were leading the services for women in the synagogue, becoming mohelet (a female mohel) and securing only the best yeshiva students as husbands.

It was indeed one of Jocheved’s sons, Jacob Ben Meir, who became known universally as Rabbenu Tam, who declared that any woman who wants to, for their own nachat ruach (spiritual satisfaction), can perform the men’s mitzvot from which she is exempt, such as the wearing of tefillin, as long as she recites the blessing (BT Rosh HaShanah 33a).

As Maggie points out, “All Ashkenazim today follow the decisions of Rabbenu Tam”, yet they do not allow women to don tefillin or tzitzit. Says Maggie:  “You would think that Chabad, whose purpose is supposedly to get more Jews to perform more mitzvot, would offer encouragement to women who want to take on tefillin and tzitzit. Well, I’m sorry, but nobody can convince me that God prefers for men to pray wearing these and women not. And because I’ve studied enough Talmud to know what Rabbenu Tam said [Talmud study is another mitzvot that Chabad women don't perform], I am well aware that women may indeed put on tefillin – provided they say the blessing.”

Maggie Anton began Talmud study when her children had grown up and left home. She discovered Rashi wanted to make being Jewish as easy as possible. He believed in finding the most lenient legal opinion possible without “building fences around the Torah” and he believed in permitting rather than in prohibiting, which makes this Medieval man a true man of our times.

Maggie says:  “The evidence we have is that Rabbenu Tam ruled that women may perform the male mitzvot if they wished, using tefillin as his example. He also ruled that those women who perform these mitzvot must say the blessing, ‘Who commanded us,’ even though they are exempt. Rabbenu Tam’s edict is still in force today. There is certainly evidence that some women in medieval Ashkenaz wore tefillin and tzitzit [tallit and kipot did not yet exist], so it seems reasonable to assume that Rashi’s daughters did.”

Maggie was intrigued that Rashi, having no sons, had daughters whose reputations hinted at being learned in a time when women were forbidden to study sacred texts – and this lead to her spending many years researching Rashi’s family and the era in which they lived.

Given today’s rabbis forbid women to perform male mitzvot, what would an intelligent, caring individual like Rashi have to say about it all?

Maggie’s response is to the point: “I think Rashi, who always fought against fences around fences, who didn’t want Judaism to be a burden for the people, would be appalled at how all these patriarchal rules try to ‘out-frum’ one another and at how women have been excluded from religious life.”

Maggie’s research also threw up some other interesting facts – the Shabbat lights blessing was based on the Hanukkah lights blessing, and not the other way around, and that in Rashi’s time this blessing was the subject of great controversy that wasn’t settled until years after his death. She also discovered that women were able to demand a divorce from their husbands, while a man couldn’t divorce his wife without her consent.

Says Maggie: “When modern Jewish women create new rituals and new blessings, we are following in the footsteps of Rashi’s daughters and doing what our female ancestors were doing 900 years ago.”

For those of you who may not be able to cope with the fact that there will be no more books in the Rashi’s Daughters series, Maggie gave us a hint of her new plans and projects. She said: “I am not planning to write “Rashi’s Granddaughters.”  I feel that I have mined the lives of medieval French Jews as much as I can and so I have begun researching a new historical setting. I do have a new Jewish heroine in mind, a nameless (for now) woman who lives around 300 C.E. in Babylonia, during the time when Persia defeats Rome to become the wealthiest, most powerful empire in the world, when Constantine makes Christianity the official religion of Rome, and when the Babylonian Talmud is being composed. This time period, crucial to Jewish history, yet one that very few people today are familiar with, will set the scene for my next historical novel.”

by Basia Ellen

Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel is reviewed in our reviews section

To purchase Maggie’s books, visit her Amazon page.

Would you like to win a copy of Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel? Click here to find out how!

Popularity: 35% [?]

As it’s Rosh HaShanah, what could be more perfect than a perfect golden apple? What could be more beautiful than a precious piece of delicate terracotta bathed in shimmering gold to adorn your festive table?

This delicious collectible is the work of one of Israel’s most talented and interesting artists, Ooty Reut Raz Yaacobi. From her studio north of Tel Aviv, Ooty works with ceramics and paper to make stunning confections of jewellery, silhouettes and specially commissioned pieces which sell via her own website and the online handmade store, Etsy.

We caught up with Ooty and found out more about what inspires her:

Tell us about your artistic background? Did you go to art school?
For as long as I can remember, art was huge part of our home. I was playing with clay was from my very first early days. My mother had a ceramic mold factory and Hobby school, so this is how I was first introduced to it, and I’ve been using it ever since. I never went to an official art school, I tend to have hard time with artistic instructions since I work from my stomach and heart and can’t follow any rules in that matter. When I have felt that I needed fresh technical or challenging issues, I go to other ceramic artists to learn from their experiences (I find it much more interesting!!). I also combine my love for traveling with ceramic studies around the world. When I travel, I always find a ceramic school or studio that would have something new for me.

How did you get involved with ceramics?
As I have said before, I owe a great deal to my mother. The minute I was old enough not to break it – I was there at her studio playing with all kinds of clays. Over the years I have found which types I like the most to work with, and have developed my own style. And still, ceramics is such a great, great material there is always something new to learn or experience with it!

Apart from ceramics, what other materials do you prefer?
I love paper! I enjoy parchment crafts and paper cutting silhouettes as well. I also practice some painting but not in a professional way.

What inspires you?
I make clear separation between my ART and my crafts. So as far as craft muses, anything can come to my mind from a walk on the beach or playing with kids at the playground in the afternoon as well as kids TV shows and my pets.  But, when it comes to Art… Mostly it is the demons in my head and, well, life, and the way people hang in there…

Where can people order from you?
I have an ETSY shop which offers a few of my earrings and latest work. But it is best to follow my blog for the latest updates on my work. I am also available for custom orders. I love custom orders since it is always great to have such challenge!

For more information on Ooty Reut Raz Yaacobi and her work visit her website at www.ooty.co.il

Popularity: 49% [?]

Earlier this month as I was floating around blogs on the internet, I came across the Joshua Project and its unpleasant little widget. For those of you who remain unaware of what this does, the Joshua Project widget, displayed on many blogs, features a different people every day -  a community that hasn’t been reached by Christianity, and it urges all good Christian people to pray for these ‘unreached’.

While it is a well-meaning project born out of concern for the eternal welfare of these heathen populations, it has always made me shake my head. However, what I saw that day made me throw the mouse down.

First of all there is the whole thing about Judaism being the original monotheistic religion on which Christianity is based. Christians use the Tanakh to validate their own theology, therefore the whole thing doesn’t make sense, but let’s just ignore this. We can also ignore the blatant factual inaccuracies, like the number of Israeli Jews.

This widget makes it appear as though the “Jew, Israeli, Sabra of Israel” has never been exposed to Christianity.

And I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but….

…the Crusades; Auto da Fés; enforced conversions; the Inquisition; the Progroms of Eastern Europe that spanned centuries; the purposeful Christianization of Holocaust survivor children and Christmas specials all over. If anything, Jews have been over-exposed to Christianity.

It has been the conscious choice of many generations of Jews to remain faithful to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We are not an unreached people. We are a people who have been standing strong against Christian arrogance, for nearly 2,000 years. The Joshua Project refers to Judaism as a mere ‘ethnic religion’ while Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other world faiths are named directly. Judaism is dismissed. While this may be an oversight on the part of the Joshua Project or maybe they are completely ignorant, which isn’t such a leap of faith given that they have reduced G-d’s Sinai revelations to mere ethnicity, I leave you to come to your own conclusions on why they did this. Perhaps they are ashamed of the fact that their Jesus was a Jew, a Jew who often refused to help non-Jews.

The Joshua Project is Christian arrogance at its worst. While not particularly fueled by anti-semitism – the site doesn’t exclusively target Jews – the whole idea of the Joshua Project reflects Biblical ignorance and comtempt for everyone else in the world.  Most Christians are not aware of the fact that    G-d gave Noah certain laws to live by. These laws, the Noahide Laws, still apply to humanity, with the exception of G-d’s covenant people, who were, and still are, the children of Israel.

G-d never promised universal redemption through a Messiah. He doesn’t exclude people from Heaven just because they never ran into some missionary.  The righteous of all nations have the same promises as the children of Israel.  People who live in their own cultures don’t need the Christian Messiah to commune with G-d. We, as Jews, don’t need the Christian Messiah to be happy or to keep our touch with the divine.

Unreached? No. We are not unreached. We are aware of Christianity. Every last person in Israel, be they Jew or Muslim, must be aware of Christianity, simply because you can’t ignore it. Christian tourists flock to our land, to walk where Jesus walked, bringing their Bibles, their hymns, their devotionals. Christian churches are easily accessible to anyone in the country.

Some Christians claim they support Israel. And vociferously. They support Israel with money, but they have their own agenda and that is evangelising Israelis. Messianic Jews want to be recognized under the Law of Return. Christian organisations that support Israel financially want access to the non-Christian population of the country.

And millions of Christians pray for the very thing that not even the Third Reich or Hamas have managed to do and that is to eliminate Jews and Judaism. The Nazis were doomed to fail as violence takes one just so far.

But now a new generation is loving Judaism out of Jews. They pray our faith out of us, or so they try. Following the footsteps of the Apostles, they are proselytising us. Out of pure ignorance, pure arrogance and being blinded by their faith they are continuing the great Christian tradition of elimination.

The only way we can avoid that is to limit our own assimilation. We need to be proud of who we are and what we believe in, and we need to stand up to conversion efforts not only in courts of law, but every day of our lives.

Popularity: 32% [?]

This article begins with a cliche. Cliches, while being annoying, tired and sometimes trite, are rooted in truth, which is probably why humankind simultaneously uses and sneers at them, because unpalatable truths are usually, well, unpalatable.

Somehow I got to thinking about this shoe story after reading the most improbable and jaw dropping piece of hatred on a youtube comment, which I’ll get out of the way now, and tell you it was this: “shut up you fucking piece of Jew scum, you oven dodger.”

My usual response to such epithets is “Is that it? Is that all you’ve got?” and then I forget about it. But I haven’t been able to forget about this and I cannot, no matter how I try, forgive it. But this isn’t a piece on irrational fear or hatred, it’s about a shoe, and a cliche.

I once saw this shoe. In a museum. It was a highly fashionable and desirable wedge heel sandal, in a chocolate brown suede leather with a narrow, pretty pale green trim. It was a little shoe, maybe European size 36. I could have put my foot in that shoe. The fit may have been a little too close for comfort as I’m a size 37, but you know, I can suffer for style. It could have been mine. The wearer must have been a petite lady too, I think she must have been super stylish and probably loved herself madly as she skimmed down the sidewalks of some city in her beautiful suede wedge heel sandals towards the cafes and the chattering and the fun. I bet she was pretty. And laughed a lot and her laughter was infectious and made everyone who heard it at least smile, if not laugh.

I fell in love with that shoe the moment I saw it and with its previous owner, even though everything I have said about her comes from my own imagination. But it frightened me. Because in another time, another world, I could have been her. And I wouldn’t have needed her pretty shoes to walk a mile in them.

There was only one shoe. One shoe in a jumbled, tangled collection of shoes. But there it was, sitting pretty in the midst of all the decaying, disintegrating footwear, amid the broken sandals and tatty leather – grey shoes, brown shoes, black shoes, red, white and blue shoes – out of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pieces of footwear, I saw just her shoe. And her.

It’s been years since I was at Auschwitz, but she’s still there. More often than not, we don’t have to go too far to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes as most human experiences are shared. But dodging ovens is not one of them. And for some reason, it hurts me to know that she didn’t.

by Basia Ellen, 2009

Popularity: 33% [?]

Photo by Elad David

Alexandra von Strauss is here to solve all your problems in her inimitable style. No matter how trivial your problem is,  Alexandra is ready to dispense the advice you need to hear.

Dear Alexandra,

My boyfriend is an atheist. Marriages in Israel are conducted by the rabbinate. My boyfriend does not believe in this because they make a lot of people in this country miserable (immigrants, gays) regarding marriage. If we were to marry, my boyfriend would want to officially marry in another country and only have the ceremony in Israel, a sort of fake wedding. People often do this if they don’t have all their papers in order and don’t want to go through hell with the rabbinate. The thing is, I’d like to have one wedding, one marriage, the real thing. Here, in Israel. Who should give?

Chuppah-Lover, Tel Aviv

Dear Chuppah Lover,

Judging by your name, you’re just like the rest of us – crazed for marriage, crazed for the ceremony, and looking for Mr. Right-Size-Bank-Account to sponsor your cream-cake wedding gown and the gigantic tropical centre-pieces.

Think of the advantages of two wedding ceremonies – two gowns, two ceremonies, two guest lists, two DJs, two videos, two parties and two alcohol poisionings.

So here’s the deal – the guy wants to have a cermony outside Israel? I say, go for it. The rabbinate in Israel does give a hard time to people, only judging on rules and not really on love. We don’t need that, do we dear? You don’t want to find yourself naked in the Mikveh with a stranger checking to see if Auntie Irma is in town for the week. So go to Cyprus, or any other resort, have him pay for the 5 star hotel you need to cope with the big loss of an old schmuck wearing black selling you to your man with a piece of paper, and then go back to Israel and party like animals, with a new set of dresses, of course.

And please, I would like my room to have a view of the sea. Otherwise I will not look my best for the ceremony, and we don’t want THAT to happen, do we? And last thing, have the mini-bar re-equipped with things that will help me deal with your family.

All the best,
Frequent Flying Alexandra

Dear Alexandra,

Recently I caught my husband wearing my sheitl while doing the housework. He seemed to be enjoying himself. I am unsure how to approach him about this. Is this cross-dressing? Please help!

from Wigless In Jerusalem

Dear Wigless In Jerusalem,

First of all, I must say that I am appalled. Wearing a sheitl while doing the housework?! getting it stained by bleach, having dust all over it? But we’ll leave that for a second. I must tell you about my first husband. He used to borrow my sheitls and my dresses when I wasn’t noticing. When I first caught him, he felt very ashamed, because I was stark raving mad – his color co-ordination was shockingly horrifying.

We reached an agreement from then on – he never borrows without my permission and without me color-coordinating him. I could not have stood the look on people’s faces when my husband went out on the street wearing Fuschia and Egg-yolk-yellow, looking like a total ice-cream fashion victim.

I benefited a lot from that – being the same size, my wardrobe grew and I never heard him complain when I went shopping at Prada. I’m trying to get him to like my shoes, too, because I need a new pair of Manolo’s to match.

So, always look on the bright side of things – it doesn’t matter if your husband is or isn’t a cross-dresser. What’s important is how big his credit line is.

Choo-choo shoe,
Alexandra

If you have a pressing issue that needs Alexandra’s attention, drop her a line at alexandra@michalstefillin.com with Ask Alexandra in the subject line.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Deep in the heart of Israel, there is a home for old, unwanted socks. A place where they go and get a new lease of life, re-emerging into the world as Sven, Sunny, Louisa, Nissim or Dorcas, where they are wanted once more but this time in the incarnation of sock dolls made by Noa Ben Dov Bibi.

Noa, who is a speech therapist by profession, started on her socksy journey after reading a book called Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy. Smitten, she asked a friend to show her how to sew and create these pursed-lipped, button-eyed, squishy aliens with personalities of their own.

Says Noa: “My first doll was made out of an old blue sock with holes. Her name is Gladys, and she is very badly sewn but I love her.”

The decision of naming each doll is as tricky as naming a newborn infant. Each doll has its own distinct personality and Noa admits to naming the dolls mostly by the character she thinks each one possesses – a thug, a nerd, a princess, the funky one – in fact, her very own Breakfast Club of sock dolls.

“I love all my dolls,” she says, “but maybe Fran is a bit more special, because after making her, I began to think that maybe my dolls were good enough to sell.

“I don’t think it will ever be my main occupation but I would like to turn it into a nice little side business as long as it remains fun and relaxing.”

A customised sock doll from Noa is a funky, quirky treasure and it’s a great way to give life back into socks you hate to part with. If you would like a Noa Ben Dov Bibi sock doll, Noa can be contacted via Facebook.

or by email : noabd76@gmail.com

Popularity: 33% [?]

RASHI’S DAUGHTERS: RACHEL   by Maggie Anton

The third and final book in the trilogy has been long awaited by Maggie Anton’s legions of fans and it does not disappoint. Centred on the great Talmudist Rashi’s youngest daughter, the beautiful and willful Rachel, aka Belle Assez, this is once more an incredibly detailed tapestry of life in medieval France. From herbal medicine to food preparation, shopping, religious and family life to wine growing in the Middle Ages,  these books are sparkling historical gems.

While the stories of the family are gripping and cleverly interwoven, the greatest thrill is learning about the Talmud and studying Rashi’s amazing clarity on tricky subjects. It made me want to be one of his daughters.

Rachel is perhaps the darkest of the three books. While we’ve experienced tragedy and death in the preceding books, history takes a turn for the worst in Rachel as growing anti-semitism turns a rather pleasant, almost bucolic existence into one fraught with horror, something that European Jews will be forced to endure for the next 900 years.

Ms Anton’s novels are meticulously researched and she has spent many years studying the Talmud. While each of Rashi’s daughters have their own personality stamped quite clearly on their relevant stories, Rachel is something else – witty, flirtatious, free of the pressures that were placed on her elder sisters, and as Rashi’s unashamed favourite child, she is full of confidence that everything she does will be a success. But events will show her just how fragile her life is as a Jew and how everything she held dear is about to be shattered in the face of early fundamentalism.

Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel is available from Amazon

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Seth Breitman is a poet who happens to play sweet guitar and sings like an angel. His album, Waking From The Dream, is a beautiful collection of gentle melodies with pointedly poignant lyrics.

Breitman describes his album as “music for the heart, the soul and the hips” – he sings of what it’s like to be down in the depths in ‘What’s Love’ – when the grief takes over and it gets colder and you feel like you have died, when your body keeps on living but the rest is suicide – to the awakening highs of ‘Song of Ascents’ and ‘Break Free’.

Kabbalah is a big part of Breitman’s life and his lyrics echo this profoundly – teacher talks about a parallel universe, he sings in ‘Break Free’, I’ve been waiting life times and life times for this… he’s not the only one.

Seth Breitman’s Waking From The Dream is available from his website, www.sethbreitman.com or from www.kabbalah.info

Popularity: 29% [?]

RASHI  by Elie Wiesel

Maggie Anton described this latest book by Elie Wiesel as “a love story between the author and Rashi” and she is absolutely right. A short book, only 128 pages long, Wiesel’s Rashi is a beautiful paean to a beautiful mind, a man whose enlightenment has been lost by many of today’s rabbis.

In the book’s preface, Wiesel writes:  “Ever since childhood, Rashi has accompanied me with his insights and charm. Ever since my first Bible lessons in the Heder, I have turned to him in order to grasp the meaning of a verse or word that seemed obscure.

“He is my first destination. My first aid. The first friend whose assistance is invaluable to us, not to say indispensable, if we’ve set our heart on pursuing a thought through unfamiliar subterranean passageways, to its distant origins. A veiled reference from him, like a smile, and everything lights up and becomes clearer.

“Of course, it is the Jewish child in me who thanks him. But Rashi’s appeal is addressed to everyone. What I mean is this: his passion for delving in a text in order to find a hidden meaning passed on by generations can move, interest, and enrich all those whose life is governed by study.”

The book includes a brief biography of Rashi and examples of his commentary, but the heart of it is Rashi’s lucid responsa, which reveal not only the depth of the man’s insight and intelligence, but also the gentle spirit in which he lived his life.

Rashi, who lived in France, was around long enough to feel the anti-Jewish violent impact of the first Crusades in Europe in 1095. Wiesel was also a yeshiva student who found refuge in France after surviving Auschwitz. The parallels between the two men, some 900 years apart, are both heartbreaking and resonant.

Rashi by Elie Wiesel is available via Nextbook Press and online bookstores Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Popularity: 34% [?]

…Not Just Another Hasidic Zombie Movie…Ok, so it’s not the latest of films, but it’s such a cult piece of classic schlock, we felt we had to bring it to a wider audience.

So, if there are any dreidel spinners reading this, hang onto your yarmulkes because this is going to be bloody and sinister, all those things we Jews excel at!

Set in some backwater back woods, let’s call it some kind of re-shtetlment, the eating of some poisoned matzah (is there any other kind?) turns the locals into flesh eating zombies with added extras – killer peyos, zombie rabbis – and it’s up to a stranger to fight the rabid Hasids with some of the most unkosher food known to man and Moses.

Short and side-splittingly kitsch, The Night of The Living Jews is available to buy on DVD from www.nightofthelivingjews.com Horror and Hasidim won’t be the same again.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Women are imbued with irresistible procreative power

and so men must cower

and tremble in shame

that while they carry the seed,

Women are the flower that blooms

the womb

the fruit that ripens and brings forth

both seed and flower and fruit again

the eternal journey

Partners with the One who creates and destroys.

A woman dancing, her power on display

Turn away…

Popularity: 29% [?]

Spare a thought for poor old Boabdil, the last Muslim king of Granada, who on being forced to leave the treasured Alhambra Palace by Queen Isabel la Catolica in 1492, turned to look one last time at his glorious citadel high in the Sierra Nevada. And he wept.

History records that at the now aptly named Suspiro del Moro pass (the Moor’s Sigh), he was rounded upon by his mother who whipped him with her words: “Now you weep like a woman over what you could not defend as a man.”

Perhaps a little pie filled with delicious raisin-sweetened spinach and cheese would have soothed Boabdil’s soul. Just about everywhere on the shores of the Mediterranean, and beyond, boasts a flaky pastry pie. Spanakopita, boreka, empanada, sambusak, samosa, boyos – they are all a variation on the same theme. I read recently that sambusak, so beloved in the Middle East, is actually Persian (the -ak at the end of the word indicates this) and as the Persian Empire stretched to India in its heyday, I am wondering who gave what to whom in the first place. I think it’s possible the Jews brought back the little stuffed pies from their Babylonian exile, but it is historical fact that they did take the idea to the Ottoman Empire, when they too fled Spain at the hands of the bloodthirsty Isabel. Before the Islamic invasion, there were Jews in Spain. But it was during the “Golden Years” of Muslim rule in Al-Andalus that the Jews thrived.

The Jews took these new foods, such as chick peas and aubergines, around Spain, where they became part of Spanish kitchens and there they still remain. If you’ve ever eaten a savoury dish with pine nuts and raisins, you’re eating Spanish-Jewish heritage. Jewish merchants delivered oriental spices to medieval markets via Kiev and when the conquistadors returned with foods from the New World like tomatoes and chile peppers, the Jews were the ones who took them to all corners of the Mediterranean and Europe.

Cumin, mace, cinnamon and honey were the favourite flavourings of Spanish Jews back in the days of Al-Andalus and throughout the terrible years of the Spanish Inquisition. Today, the flavours of oranges, lemons, almonds, pine nuts and raisins persist in Spanish cooking and are, in part, legacies of its Jewish past.

In summer, the Sierra Nevada range is a hazy blue. In Granada, even in the height of summer, the highest peaks are always snow covered and they form a barrier against any winds sweeping down from the high plains of central Spain. Known as Spain’s Ice Cube, the Sierra Nevada is the perfect place to sit, while the rest of the peninsula bakes in 44C heat, on a hill where your view swoops over aquamarine alpine lakes, picturesque eggshell villages clinging impossibly to the sides of mountains, down to the dancing waters of the Mediterranean. If you would like a recipe for the raisin-sweetened flaky pastry pie, please go to:

http://basiale.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/spinach-feta-raisin-pine-nut-pie/

Photo by FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Popularity: 21% [?]