Written after Oct. 7, Cooking Together – The Israeli Pantry: Recipes originating from the Gaza Envelope is a labor of love and support for the area of the country that fell victim to the most horrendous attack the Jewish people have suffered since the Holocaust.
Commemorating the 76 years of the State of Israel, the book is a collection of 76 kosher recipes divided into 10 sections: “Sun Vegetables,” “Fruit of the Land,” “White Cheeses,” “Tahini,” “Puff Pastries,” “Grain,” “Citrus,” “Fish,” “Pargiyot (Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs),” and “Minced Meat,” showcasing produce grown in Israel, mainly in the Gaza border area. It could almost be described as the ultimate Israeli cookbook.
Cooking Together was printed at the Kibbutz Be’eri Press. Kibbutz Be’eri was the hardest hit of the Gaza border communities on that hellish day. An homage to the farmers and communities of the western Negev and to their produce, Cooking Together encourages the ongoing commemoration of those who survived and those who so tragically did not.
The most notable recipe in the book is the one for Rachel’s Cookies.
Rachel’s Cookies
Rachel Edri is a mother and grandmother from Ofakim, who for almost an entire day and night kept Hamas terrorists at bay by treating them as guests and feeding them.
On Oct. 7, at 7 a.m., Rachel and David Edri ran to their nearby bomb shelter to take cover when they heard air raid sirens in their community of Ofakim – 26 km. from the Gaza border. After waiting the appropriate time, they made their way home. Within minutes, five heavily armed Hamas terrorists broke windows and stormed into their home, making the couple their hostages.
“I saw five ‘Rottweilers’ breaking through my windows,” Rachel told Israel’s Channel 13. “They had grenades, Kalashnikovs, and so on. ‘We are martyrs, we are martyrs,’ they yelled.”
Although terrified beyond words, Rachel was able to maintain a state of outward calm and managed to keep herself and her husband alive for the next 20 hours, even while the worst kind of carnage was taking place in so many other homes in Ofakim and other Gaza border communities.
Concluding that “If they’re hungry, they’ll be angrier,” she decided to treat the monsters as if they were her guests: “I told myself, ‘I have guests,’” she said in the interview. She kept offering them cookies and coffee, and also fed them a meal of chicken.
The Edris’ two sons are police officers. One of them was among the police officers who arrived outside their house to attempt to negotiate with the terrorists. Through the window, Rachel managed to hand signal to them the number of terrorists that had invaded her home.
Addressing the Hamas monsters, she asked: “Did you eat? Would you like coffee or tea? I will make it for you.”
She engaged them in conversation. “I fed them, I chatted with them: ‘How old are you? Where are you from?’”
In a video on Instagram, Rachel later said, “I wrapped them around my little finger, those disgusting monsters.”
She even managed to bandage the wounds of one of the killers, who had been shot. She sat with him and stroked his hand. “I was trying to distract them so they wouldn’t kill us,” she explained on television.
At one point, she and her husband even sang Israeli songs with their hostage-takers.
At another juncture, she encouraged one of the terrorists to take a nap, telling him he looked tired.
At 2 a.m., after 20 long hours in which Rachel had kept herself and David alive by her wits and by prayer (“We said ‘Shema Yisrael.’ I thought, ‘There’s no way we are surviving this’”), and thanks to their son’s sketch of the layout of their home, special forces were able to break in through the ceiling of her shower room and kill the terrorists.
“They [the terrorists] were right next to us. It’s a miracle they managed to kill them and get us out,” Rachel said.
About the IDF, she said: “They are our lions, our heroes.”
Rachel’s inspirational story caught the imagination of a nation in deep shock and pain, becoming one of the rays of light in the darkness that engulfed the country that day. She became a heroine and the subject of many memes and artwork.
In a video posted last October on Chabad.org, Rachel called for the lighting of Shabbat candles in honor of Israel and the IDF, saying, “The true weapon is in your hands. Friends, the sacred Shabbat candles are this weapon.”
She added: “We are alive, we have God, friends, and the main thing is to just be happy.”
- COOKING TOGETHER – THE ISRAELI PANTRY: RECIPES ORIGINATING FROM THE GAZA ENVELOPE
- By Foody Israel
- Gefen Publishing House
- 178 pages; $27.80
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
