In Parshas Mattos Bnei Yisroel fight a few battles and bring back the jewelry and gold from the people they conquer. We made chocolate rings out of mini-pretzel rings and non-peril chocolates.
Parshas Balak – garden – בלק
In Parsahs Balak Bilam comes to curse Bnei Yisroel but ends up blessing them. He compares Bnei Yisroel to a beautiful garden:
Parshas Chukas – Snake – חקת
Copper snake on a stick
Parshas Shelach – Pomegranate – שלח
In Parshas Shelach spies are sent to Eretz Yisroel to scout out the land. They return with some of the amazing fruits including a huge pomegranate.
Pomegranate Sherbert
Parshas Beha’aloscha – בהעלויתך
Parshas Beha\’aloscha reviews the way Bnei Yisroel traveled in the midbar. We made cookie satchels to represent the state of readiness and constant packing/traveling they did.
Parshas Nasso – nazir – נשא
Parshas Nasso discusses the nazir and the laws that apply to him. One of the laws is not drinking wine or anything made of grapes so we made grape jelly cookies.
Parshas Bamidbar – Flags – במדבר
Parshas Bamidbar discusses how Bnei Yisroel camped and traveled. Each shavet had a unique flag so that all knew where to go.
Parshas Mattos-Masei – מטות-מסעי
This week is a double parsha – Mattos and Masei. The borders of the future land of Eretz Yisroel are specified in parshas Masei.
We made Eretz Yisroel shaped cookies.
מסעי לד:ב
Masei 34:2
1- We used our standard sugar cookie recipe and icing (powdered sugar and warm water). We just used a knife to cut the shape out, it\’s pretty simple.
Sugar Cookies
1 c sugar
1 c shortening
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 c flour
Combine all ingredients and mix well, refrigerate for 20 min then roll out, cut shapes, and bake in pre-heated oven at 375 for 10 min
1 c sugar
1 c shortening
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 c flour
Combine all ingredients and mix well, refrigerate for 20 min then roll out, cut shapes, and bake in pre-heated oven at 375 for 10 min
2- We placed 3 blue chocolate lentils as the Kineret and Yam Hamelach.
3- We sprinkled green sugar crystals over the icing for the land.
Parshas Pinchas – פינחס
In Parshas Pinchas the benei Yisroel are told some details about how the land of Eretz Yisroel will be divided. One of the methods used was a unique kind of goral (lot). There were 24 tickets mixed up in a box. On 12 of them were written the names of each shevet, and on the other 12 were written 12 portions of land. The Nasi (prince) of each shevet would put his hand in and take out 2 tickets. On one ticket he would find the name of his shevet written on it, and on the other would be the portion of land intended for them.
We made little bowls with “tickets” to represent this selection.
פינחס כו:נה
Pinchas 26:55
1- We used ready-made tarts that only needed to be baked, but you can use any bowl shaped pastry.
2- We made parve pudding (substituting soy milk for regular milk) and poured a thin layer at the bottom each bowl (so it could hold the candy).
3- We sliced chocolate covered marzipan for the “tickets” mainly because they are white and can be cut thin, but you can really use any candy.