xiphias: (Default)
xiphias ([personal profile] xiphias) wrote2007-03-02 11:43 am
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I just learned what was done with Haman's body after he was executed`

They ate him.

It's right in the Bible: Exodus 16:35

וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, אָכְלוּ אֶת-הַמָּן

U-vinei Yisrael ochlu et Haman.

U-Vinei (And the children) Yisrael (of Israel) Ochlu (they ate) et (a not-really-a-word that says that the next word is the direct object of the sentence) Haman.

[identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com 2007-03-02 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not a metaphor. It's a pun.

Look up what's actually going on in Exodus 16:35.

[identity profile] chanaleh.livejournal.com 2007-03-02 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
... Centuries before the reign of Achashverosh! What does this tell us about the nature of reality as b'nei Yisrael wandered in the desert? That we were ALL present at Sinai!

(Isn't "mahn" also what they call the poppyseed filling? This is how we know poppyseed is the One True Flavor: as it is written, oznei ha-mahn!)

[identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com 2007-03-02 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, and, to be serious for a moment, or, at least as serious as I get right before Purim, that's where the name of the pastry comes from.

"Hamentashen" are the same thing as a medieval German cookie called the "mohntash", or "poppyseed pocket". Apparently, someone speaking Yiddish one day said, "Hey, look at the mohntash," or something like that, which would be "ha-montash", and someone else said, "Hee! That sounds like the name of the bad guy in the Purim story," so they made a bunch of mohntashes for Purim and told everyone they were "ha-montashen", and everyone thought that a) that was funny and b) they actually tasted pretty darned good, and you had to give shalach manot anyway, so they stuck around.

[identity profile] chanaleh.livejournal.com 2007-03-02 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I adore you.

[identity profile] delerium69.livejournal.com 2007-03-02 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah-ha. I got it.

And after reading your following posts, now I have an intense craving for the delicious poppyseed pastry I had in Paris.