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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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