[Note: Sending electronic cards via e-mail is the last option at the bottom of the page.]
The holiday of Purim is coming up on Thursday night, March 20 and Friday, March 21!
Purim, as retold in the Book of Esther, commemorates the victory of a group of Persian Jews over Haman, through the actions of Esther, a Jewish queen. In addition to reading the Book of Esther aloud, giving money to the poor, and children dressing up in costumes, there is a Purim tradition of giving gifts of food to friends and loved ones. These gifts are called "mishloach manot" or "shalach manos" in Hebrew. This is in imitation of the Jews of Persia, who initiated this practice during their original celebration after the fighting ended (Esther 9):
| יז בְּיוֹם-שְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר, לְחֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר; וְנוֹחַ, בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר בּוֹ, וְעָשֹׂה אֹתוֹ, יוֹם מִשְׁתֶּה וְשִׂמְחָה. |
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17: That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and merrymaking. |
| יט עַל-כֵּן הַיְּהוּדִים הפרוזים (הַפְּרָזִים), הַיֹּשְׁבִים
בְּעָרֵי הַפְּרָזוֹת--עֹשִׂים אֵת יוֹם אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר לְחֹדֶשׁ
אֲדָר, שִׂמְחָה וּמִשְׁתֶּה וְיוֹם טוֹב; וּמִשְׁלֹחַ מָנוֹת, אִישׁ
לְרֵעֵהוּ. |
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19: That is why village Jews, who live in unwalled towns, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and make it a day of merrymaking and feasting, and as a holiday and an occasion for sending gifts to one another. |
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Table to Table, an Israeli food rescue organization, offers you the unique opportunity to extend Purim wishes to family and friends, wherever they may live, in addition to or in lieu of sending mishloach manot food baskets on Purim. You can purchase printed Purim cards that will be sent to your home or request that Table to Table send cards out on your behalf via regular mail or e-mail. The proceeds from Table to Table’s Purim cards campaign will help fund their ongoing food rescue work benefiting Israel's needy.
Since its establishment in 2003, Table to Table has grown to be the largest and most innovative food rescue organization in Israel. Each week the organization's staff and volunteers salvage 15,000 excess meals and 75 tons of produce and manufactured items that would otherwise be destroyed from hundreds of food producers and redistribute this food to 100 NGO's throughout Israel working with the needy.
During 2007, Table to Table:
- Hosted 4,000 volunteers per month, making it the largest volunteer organization in the country.
- Developed a non-kosher food rescue project specifically serving African refugees living in Israel.
- Created a work project, hiring 10 unemployed people to glean excess agricultural produce.
- Increased from 10 to 40 the number of NGO's being serviced in Israel's northern region.
- Developed a support program for both food producers and NGO's in the beleaguered Sderot region.
- Introduced a pre-Passover chametz collection and distribution project benefiting non-Jews in Israel.
- Expanded its "Sandwiches for Kids" project to 4,000 volunteer-prepared meals a day.
Table to Table anticipates continued growth in its activities in 2008, with particular emphasis being placed on the rescue of excess agricultural produce from orchards and fields throughout the country and the growing involvement of Israeli corporations in its volunteer activity.
For more information and to send cards, please click here.
[Note: Sending electronic cards via e-mail is the last option at the bottom of the page.]
