Purim Revelry Starts Early at Temple B’nai Hayim in Sherman Oaks

There’s a Jewish joke used to describe holiday observances that goes: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.”

That phrase is particularly apropos for this weekend’s holiday of Purim, when Jews are commanded to read the Book of Esther, which relates the courage of the queen who saved her people from a murderous plot in Persia during the 5th century BC. The reading is followed by celebrations that include wearing costumes and masks, making merry, giving gifts, drinking and eating.

Like most Jewish holidays, this one is associated with a special food. This time it’s cookies called hamantaschen. Rabbi Berryl Padorr of in Sherman Oaks tells me the name is derived from a German pastry. Taschen means pockets; Haman refers to the villain of the Purim story, who was said to have worn a three-cornered hat, which is represented by the triangular cookie filled with fruit or poppy seeds.

(More on the story of Purim next week when we do a roundup of Sunday’s Purim carnivals at synagogues in our Patch).

Earlier this week, students and sisterhood members at B’nai Hayim were hard at work getting those hamantaschen ready for the celebrations to come. Patch was there to film the prep and sample the sweet treats.

Hebrew school students from grades three to eight gathered together to roll out pre-made dough and fill their cutouts with cherry or chocolate chip filling. Pinching the circles into triangles was a challenge for some little fingers and a work of art for those more dexterous. Though they didn’t get to retrieve their own creations from the oven, the little noshers found them all equally delicious.

After the children’s baking was done, sisterhood volunteers swept in to knead, fill, pinch and bake enough cookies to sate weekend worshippers, plus dozens more to sell at Sunday’s Purim carnival and to fill gift baskets for purchase and donation.

“It’s a mitzvah, a good deed, a commandment actually,” said Padorr, “to send gifts to your friends and also gifts to the poor.”

When you make a donation of $18 to the temple, a food basket will be delivered on your behalf to a friend or to a nursing home or hospital.

Purim at Temple B’nai Hayim starts Saturday morning when the regular is followed by a Purim “Lunch and Learn.” Saturday evening, after the havdallah service, the holiday kicks off in earnest with the Megillah reading and a shpiel. Everyone is invited to come in costume.

Sunday opens with a children’s Megillah reading and costume parade at 9 a.m. followed by the big fundraiser for the Temple’s Grau Religious School, the annual Purim carnival.

That runs from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Rain or shine, prepare to be wowed by games, prizes, a PlayStation game room, ponies, petting zoo, bubble lady, entertainment and holiday foods.

Download the movie