Hamantaschen is a popular dessert served on the Jewish holiday Purim. The name of the dessert has several possible meanings and origins. Certainly part of the name comes from Haman, who is the bad guy in the Purim story, which appears in the Book of Esther. As it is a circle whose sides are folded in to make a fruit-filling filled pocket, it may mean “Haman’s pockets.” It may also mock Haman as “Haman’s ears” or even “Haman’s hat.” Hamantaschen fillings include poppy seed, the oldest and most traditional, prune, various fruit marmalade, chocolate, caramel or even cheese..

But there’s a common problem with hamantaschen; it’s often very dry and crumbly. After tirelessly looking for the best recipe for these challenging cookies, the online consensus lean toward none other than Betty Crocker, who created one of the most popular recipes back in the 50’s! In true American fashion, many people apply Betty’s delicious recipe for sugar cookies to making hamantaschen! No wonder we made to the moon first! (you can find the URL for a charming story about applying Betty’s recipe to hamantaschen and Betty’s original recipe at the end of this blog)

May your hamantaschen be moist and delicious this Purim! And remember to send a loved one a fun Purim e-card from our selection!

Here’s the Betty Crocker hamantaschen recipe: http://pizzabagelschmaltz.tumblr.com/post/3638673195/rachels-hamantaschen

Scene from our “Dancing Hamantaschen” ecard for Purim

Aren’t you grateful for a holiday that’s based on just plain fun? (Sorry Christmas but you can get a little heavy-handed sometimes.)

The Jewish holiday Purim encourages you to be silly and make a racket. Which we could all stand a dose of, right?

So a quick look at the history of Purim:

Purim marks the day Queen Esther of Persia outwitted Haman, her husband’s evil henchman, who planned to kill all of the Jews in the kingdom. It usually falls in March, on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar.

Purim consists of a day of readings, feasts, games and giving to charitable causes. And (get this) it’s the one holiday where drunkenness is encouraged. This isn’t common in Jewish law—in fact just the opposite—except for this one day:

Part of the mitzva of the Purim Seudah is to get drunk until we are unable to distinguish between Arur Haman (Cursed is Haman) and Baruch Mordechai (Blessed is Mordechai). This is in memory of the miracles of Purim which were all associated with the drinking of wine.

This is a very unusual mitzva because drunkenness is usually strongly discouraged by Jewish law since it can lead to sin. The minimum (and sometimes recommended) requirement is to drink more than one is accustomed to and then go to sleep.

So eat, drink and be merry…and send one of our fun Purim ecards to a loved one. (Trust us…we know silly!)

Source: Ahavet-Israel.com