The Biblical Book of Esther is a story of courage and loyalty. Unlike many Bible stories, it enjoys a happy ending. Nevertheless, it has a dark side.
“Maybe we need to say that, that joy and struggle are part of life, and that that’s reflected in every religion,” Andrea Cohen-Kiener suggested to me when we spoke last week. Cohen-Kiener is the rabbi at Temple Israel in Greenfield. She and her congregants are getting ready to celebrate Purim.
This holiday remembers Esther. Her story takes place during the fifth century B.C.E., when Judean people were in exile in Persia. When the king, Ahasuerus, becomes displeased with his wife and sets her aside, his eye falls upon the beautiful Esther.
An orphan who was raised by her foster uncle, Mordecai, Esther marries the king but conceals her Jewish identity. She is fearful of antisemitism in general and of the king’s capricious temper in particular.
Mordecai also finds favor with the king when he exposes a plot to assassinate the ruler.
Mordecai makes a powerful enemy, however. The king’s chief adviser, Haman, is offended that Mordecai refuses to bow down to him. On a pretext, Haman gets the king’s permission to kill every Jew in Persia.
Esther knows that no one is allowed to appear before the king without being summoned, upon pain of death. She screws up her courage and approaches him, however, in order to save her people.
The king receives her graciously and eventually recognizes Mordecai’s loyalty and Haman’s perfidy. He executes Haman. Instead of having the Jewish people killed, he gives them permission to kill anyone who wishes to persecute them.
Andrea Cohen-Kiener sees the contemporary resonance of the story of Esther. She underlined that resonance by using modern-day terms.
“The Judeans became the subjects of targeted discrimination,” she noted. “Haman was resentful that Mordecai the Judean refused to bow down to him. So Haman organized targeted hate crimes and basically planned a genocide.”
Appropriately, she told me, the feast of Purim is divided into two parts, one serious and one joyful. On the first day of Purim, which begins on the evening of Tuesday, March 15, and lasts until sunset on the 16th, she and her congregants will fast.
On the second day, March 17 (beginning at sunset on the Wednesday the 16th), they will feast, read the story of Esther, dress up in costume, and sing songs.
“The first day is very serious, and it’s really appropriate to the dire straits that the Judean exiles were in,” said Cohen-Kiener.
“The second day is a celebration of, I think, both relief and joy. The story centers on a Jewish woman who is absolutely key. Her actions, her intentions, her cleverness move the whole narrative.”
Purim gives people freedom to dress up and play. “It’s traditional to wear costumes of the heroes of the story or whoever you like,” said Cohen-Kiener. “Even in traditional circles you can have a kind of a gender bender. It’s really funny to see rabbis in drag.”
She remembers loving Purim as a child and still has a photo of herself dressed up as a princess for the holiday.
During the pandemic, Cohen-Kiener explained, Purim helped build community in her congregation. The holiday is honored by giving gifts to people in need. It is also traditionally celebrated by presenting edible gifts to family and friends.
“For the last few years, we’ve had little Purim elves who have baked and delivered (treats) to all the congregation,” recalled Cohen-Kiener. “People were just so touched and happy.”
One of the main treats associated with Purim are cookies called hamantaschen. These are triangular pieces of sweet dough with a semi-hidden filling — jam, chocolate, whatever the baker likes. They are named after the wicked Haman and are said to be shaped like his tricorner hat.
This year Cohen-Kiener has her eye on some homemade raspberry jam to use for her hamantaschen … and a little peach jam as well. She has used other fillings, including apple butter, in the past. I know from personal experience that if one puts in too much filling, the cookies tend to ooze.
Cohen-Kiener doesn’t eat gluten so she is using Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour blend, which can be substituted on a one-to-one basis for all-purpose flour.
Happy Purim! Sing a few songs, tell the story of Esther, bake some hamantaschen, and don’t forget to share what you have with others.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold sweet butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup (4 ounces) cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1 egg
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
About 2/3 cup jam or other filling
Instructions:
You may use either a bowl with a pastry blender or a food processor for combining the dough. Mix or pulse the flour, the sugar, and the salt to combine them; then add the butter and the cream cheese.
Blend or pulse until you have coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together the egg, the syrup, and the vanilla; then add them to the flour mixture. Mix or pulse just until the wet and dry ingredients begin to come together. (Do not over mix.)
Gather the dough into a ball and flatten it into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Halve the dough, keeping the second half wrapped in the refrigerator while you work on the first. On a lightly floured cool surface, knead the first half 2 or 3 times to make it less crumbly.
Roll out the dough until it is 1/4-inch thick. Use a 3-inch-round cookie cutter to cut out as many rounds a possible.
Use a spatula to transfer the rounds to the first baking sheet. They should be about 1/2-inch apart. Reroll the scraps of dough you have left, and cut out more rounds. Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each round.
Carefully fold up the edges around the filling to form triangular cookies resembling a three-cornered hat, pinching the corners together and leaving some filling exposed.
Pinch the dough tightly enough so that seams are no longer visible and the sides are high and taut enough to prevent the cookies from leaking filling as they bake. Using your finger, dab a little water on the seams of the cookies to help seal them.
Bake the hamantaschen in the middle of the oven until they are a pale golden color, about 20 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; then transfer them to racks to cool completely.
Make more hamantaschen with the remaining dough and filling in the same manner. Hamantaschen may be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
Tinky Weisblat is the award-winning author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.” Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.