May 20, 2004
For the Kids
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What a Woman!
On Shavuot we read the Book of Ruth. In this story we come to know this extraordinary woman. Even though her husband has died, she decides not to desert her mother-in-law, Naomi. She leaves her home in Moab to accompany Naomi -- who lost her two sons and her husband -- back to Israel. Ruth cares for Naomi and goes to work in the fields of her relative Boaz. She later marries him, and lives, I suppose, happily ever after.
This book is about friendship, loyalty and compassion. In fact, the rabbis say that Ruth's name comes from the word for friendship in Hebrew -- Re'ut. That is why it is so important to read this book on the day we celebrate the giving of the Torah. All the laws and commandments of the Torah would be worth nothing if we did not, before anything, know how to be a good friend.
Delicious Commandments
Here's a great way to serve cheese blintzes on Shavuot:
Put two cooked blintzes side by side on a plate. Fill a cake decorator with chocolate syrup. Carefully squeeze the Hebrew letters alef through hey on the right one and then vav thru yud on the left one. Slice an orange so that you get two half circles. Put one on top of each blintz. Now they look like the Ten Commandmants.
