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7 Nissan 5760 - April 12, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
Ballad of a Salad - a Parable
by Mira Neufeld

Once upon a time, a long time ago (two years?), I chanced upon a most intriguing salad recipe in the Yated. Easy to make, its special flavor adds nice variety to any menu, so it was a natural choice for a family simcha some months ago. Although I had often served it over the years, perhaps the simcha permeated the taste and made it an especial big hit this time. Afterwards, many asked for the recipe, among them my daughter-in-law Malky. Not only did Malky enthusiastically pass it on to friends and relatives on her side of the family, but in her typically creative fashion, even brought the salad into the classroom!

And the snowball rolled on, gathering velocity and momentum.

After having competed with the Purim spirit for the attention of her fourth graders for over a month, that is, since Rosh Chodesh Adar I - Malky found it was getting harder and harder to teach a standard lesson. But the ever- conscientious teacher racked her brains for some novel idea for the last schoolday before Purim, and thought of The Salad! The next morning, Malky's classroom was hit by The Salad Snowball, which had now grown into several bags worth of bug-free celery and dill, fragrant garlic, huge cans of pickles and mountains of take-home containers and a slew of kitchen knives.

When the unsuspecting Purim revelers arrived at school, they were greeted by this unexpected display. The girls were treated to a lesson about the perils of bug infested vegetables and how to check for same. The laws of Purim were discussed, re: the superlative shalach monos as something to be eaten at the seuda, and each child received two containers to take home: one for the family seuda and one to give to a friend. Malky mentioned the advantages of good nutriton and the pitfalls of too many sweets. Then math was used to divide up the recipe for each pupil's share, and an appropriate note was composed to decorate each container. Soon heads began to peek around the door - was it all that garlic or the different tone to their excitement? Soon, even the principal soon joined them to sample the results. And once again, dear Malky was victorious as a `teacher par excellence', preempting obstacles with her ingenuity and making learning and Yiddishkeit very sweet (perhaps pungent is better), relevant and exciting.

THE LESSON OF THE SALAD BALLAD

Little had I dreamed what repercussions that one salad would have! Yet months after the recipe was transmitted, in a far off city which I have never visited, thirty families were enjoying the results and gleaning nachas from their children's efforts! And another thirty friends were being treated to the thoughtfulness of a made-special-for-you shalach monos, while thirty children were enjoying the mitzvos in an adult, creative manner. Over one hundred people benefitted immediately from that salad.

And the snowball rolls on! Who know how many more people will yet be affected by that one humble salad! We often are admonished to consider the far reaching effects of our words and deeds, but nonetheless, we may find it hard to visualize how very far those effects can reach. I shudder to think how I would have felt had I, G-d forbid, discovered that some careless remark had rolled on and on, to eventually hurt more than a hundred people!

And just in case I've whetted your appetites or curiosity, here is the recipe, good for Pesach too, thanks to Yated's dear Rivka Tal, from the Alei Katif recipe booklet:

INGREDIENTS:

1 package celery stalks / 1 package dill / 7 cloves garlic (no less, this is a magic number) / 7 (salt) pickles, sliced or diced / 4 tablespoons mayonnaise / juice of one lemon

 

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