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Lend Me









                   Your Ears












                                    The History of Hamentaschen







                                                     hat would Purim be without   In Yiddish,  hamentaschen  means
                                                     our beloved hamentaschen?   “Haman’s pockets.” (Although the cor-
                                           WThey’re an age-old tradi-            rect singular form of the word is hamen-
                                           tion, but what exactly is the origin of   tasch, most English speakers use the
                                           these delicious Purim treats? Why do   plural form interchangeably; i.e., “I ate
                                           we eat them on Purim, and what do     a chocolate hamentaschen” presumably
                                           they represent?                       to allow themselves to actually consume
                                           As their name implies, it seems they are   more than one.)
                                           connected to the defeated villain of the   The word  hamentaschen may be
                                           Purim story, Haman.                   symbolic of the money Haman gave

                                           One of the oldest mentions of a Purim   to Achashverosh in exchange for per-
                                             treat referred to as oznei Haman,   mission to kill the Jews, taken from his
                                               Haman’s ears, is from Italy in the   own “pockets” or “pouches.” Perhaps it
                                                1500s, in a skit written by Yehu-  is also a reference to the Hebrew, שת, to
                                                  dah Sommo. Although oznei      weaken, symbolizing the weakening of
                                                    Haman in Modern Hebrew       Haman. Alternatively, the original name
                                                     are synonymous with         may have been man-taschen, literally,
                                                       hamentaschen, this may    “poppy-seed pockets,” with the ha being
                                                        have been a reference to   added on later. Ha ha!
                                                        another, lesser-known    Why the three-sided shape though?
                                                       Purim pastry,  hamen-     A simple explanation is that folding
                                                   ohren, literally “Haman’s ears.”   and baking dough around a filling to
                                               Unlike their triangular cousins,   form a pouch, such as dumplings, was
                                           hamen-ohren have no filling, and are   a common form of Ashkenazi baking.
                                           actually shaped like ears. Although   A well-known legend brought by the
                                           there is a myth that Haman’s ears were   Sefer HaMoadim explains that Haman
                                           cut off before he was hanged, there is   had a three-cornered hat. The Midrash
                                           no documentation to verify this. Merely   says that when Haman recognized the
                                           hearsay...                            merit of the three Avot, his strength







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