rosh hashanah »
continued from page 54
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
L’Shanah Tovah!
Sheri and David Jaffa
Eden, Kevin, Skylar and Zachary Elbinger
Sabrina, Brian, Jadyn, Kendyl and Reese Kaufman
John Klein munches on some ma’amoul cookies, a Rosh Hashanah family tradition
from his Syrian great-grandmother.
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
L’Shanah Tovah!
Arlene and Chuck Beerman
L’Shana Tova!
Wishing my friends,
family and community
a Happy and Healthy
New Year.
Ask for
Milt Neuman
today!
Laurel Park Place I 37544 West Six Mile Rd., Livonia, MI I 48152
734-462-5851
May the New Year
bring to all our friends
and family
health, joy, prosperity and
everything good in life.
Steven, Merle and Michael
Band
56 September 29 • 2016
2119150
Rosh Hashanah
2016
5777
meals — after Kiddush with wine —
eating sweet challah. Natan reports
that Sephardi communities serve
water breads, dismissing sweet chal-
lah as just a kind of cake. Ashkenazi
Jews generally serve round challahs
on Rosh Hashanah. Natan reports that
Sephardi communities serve their
breads in straight forms (like the let-
ter vav, which has a value of six. Two
times six equals 12, the number of
breads arrayed in the Temple from one
Shabbat to the next).
On Rosh Hashanah, Ashkenazi Jews
dip their challah in honey and wish
each other a sweet year. Sephardi Jews
dip their bread in salt first, then sugar
and then repeat the process two more
times, following the advice of Ben Ish
Hai (Haim Yosef, the famous sage of
Baghdad, who died in 1909).
Cohen notes that some Sephardi
Jews avoid honey on Rosh Hashanah
— who wants to associate the New
Year with bees and their stings? That’s
why Ben Ish Hai recommended using
sugar to sweeten the bread.
Some Ashkenazi Jews avoid nuts
on Rosh Hashanah because they may
damage the voice or because the
numerical value of the Hebrew letters
of “nut” approximates the value of
“sin.”
Whether we observe the symbolic
foods at our Rosh Hashanah meals,
only some or none at all, Jews of all
flavors and from all communities wish
each other the blessings of a good new
year.
MA’AMOUL COOKIES
(John Klein’s great-grandmother’s)
Dough:
3 sticks of shortening (butter or
margarine)
3 cups flour (all-purpose)
3 cups semolina, finely ground
¼ cup sugar
4 tsp. water
½ tsp. rosewater*
Fillings:
• Date: Use the freshest dates you
can find. Pit them and peel off the
tough outer skin.Shape them into balls
the diameter of a penny.
• Walnut:
1 cup walnuts
½ cup sugar
Pulse in food processor until all
pieces are the size of sugar crystals.
(Do not over process!)
Preheat oven to 375F degrees.
Mix flour, semolina and sugar. Cut the
shortening in little cubes and pulse in a
food processor with the dry ingredients.
Mixture should resemble streusel.
Add the rosewater and the water
to the mixture 1 teaspoon at a time
until the dough just holds together.
Warning: If too much water is added,
the dough will become stuck to the
mold.
Take enough dough to line the walls
of your ma’amoul mold or other cookie
mold, leaving an empty cavity for the
filling. Add filling. Flatten some more
dough between your palms and use it
to cover the top of the mold, forming
the cookie. Pound the mold on the
countertop, mold side down, to release
the cookie. Place the cookies onto an
ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake in the oven until you see a hint
of brown on the bottom of the cookie.
Cool and sprinkle with confectioner’s
sugar.
*
* Rosewater is available in Middle
Eastern markets. Look for ma’ammoul
molds there, too, or at amazon.com.