By Rabbi Rachel Esserman 

I periodically get obsessed with a book, TV or movie. My latest obsession is the Sonic the Hedgehog films. I have only seen Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, but there is something about that cute, wise-cracking blue guy that just tickles my fancy. (Please note: I have never played and have no plans to play the video games the films are based on.) I’ve also become a fan of Knuckles the Echidna (the red character), who is a warrior without a sense of humor. By now, though, you are probably wondering what this has to do with Shabbat dinner. 
Knuckles was given his own TV mini-series, which also features Wade Whipple, who is a minor character in the films. I’ll spare you the plot of the first two episodes, but the third finds Knuckles and Wade hiding out in Wade’s mother’s home. To my surprise, it turns out that Wade is Jewish and it’s almost time for Shabbat dinner. Wade’s sister is also there and the family dynamic is pretty awful: Wade and his sister fight (she actually stabs him with a fork) and both stalk off to their rooms.
But Knuckles remains at the table with Wade’s mother, who pronounces his name as if it were spelled with the guttural Hebrew letter chet. (I only know this because it’s mentioned in the dialogue. I still don’t hear well enough to tell the difference between the “ck” English sound and the “ch” Hebrew used in the show.) Knuckles loves the Shabbat table filled with food, which he calls a feast worthy of a great warrior. Although at first he asks for his beloved grapes (which he is told are in the wine), Knuckles enjoys the rest of the meal. He loves the tiny hats (Wade is wearing a yarmulka), thinks the matzah ball soup tastes wonderful and even though he says the gefilte fish have “the constancy of a wet sponge,” he can’t stop eating them. 
At one point in the evening, Knuckles and Wade’s mother, who knows Krav Maga, fight a group of bounty hunters, who are trying to capture Wade. As the fight begins, Wade’s mother tells Knuckles to protect the Shabbat candles. They successfully defeat the bounty hunters, although the house is a mess with at least one big hole in an outer wall. The episode ends with this stereotypical version of a Jewish mother noting how wonderful it is to have her children at home with her. Now that’s what I call a successful Shabbat dinner.