Chag Sameach
Purim! Yeah, baby, time to chow down on poppyseed hamantaschen!
Last night BB and I celebrated with the gang at our friendly neighborhood shul. Because the shul rents space from a church, and yesterday was Maundy Thursday (the rabbi had written a very funny song, to the tune of "Monday, Monday," about this juxtaposition), the service/party was held in the gym at our local Waldorf school. Plus to this: we got to see examples of the kids' knitting. Minus: the place isn't really wheelchair accessible and getting inside was a bit of an adventure. As I said to BB, this is how I get sucked into joining stuff -- if I had been the one to write the flyer, there's no way it would have directed people to get to the building by climbing a flight of stairs. Some nice guys offered to help me carry BB up, but as there were more than 20 steps I declined (I think 3 is probably my limit, and BB's too). Eventually we got it figured out.
It was a fun time -- lots of gragger twirling, costumed kids hopped up on sugar, costumed adults hopped up on sugar and a bisl schnapps, and hot sweaty Israeli dancing (my fave). The folks in the band kept playing "Taps" whenever Haman's name was mentioned. BB and I contributed the hamantaschen we'd baked earlier in the week (prune, sadly, as I didn't have time to go on a quest for Solo poppyseed filling) and a bottle of caffeine free Diet Coke. Wild times. Rabbi Liz, dressed in a clerical robe and collar, kept saying "the Lord be with you" and "let us pray." When she said it was time to pass the peace, no one (except BB and maybe 1 or 2 others) knew what she was talking about, so we all held up our fingers a la Nixon or Mr. Spock, as the spirit moved us. Some guy had made a papier mache pinata shaped like Haman's head, and the kids all went nuts.
After all the Torah study BB and I have been doing, I felt kind of let down by the fact that we only heard snippets from the Megillah, plus a short English summary. I felt that way in shul last Shabbos, too. Interesting how my Jewish intellectual life is developing. Last night I felt kind of wired so I got out the Oxford Jewish Study Bible and started reading the Megillah on my own. It really is a great satire and there were a lot of details I hadn't remembered. I haven't finished it yet -- will probably get to it tonight. One detail I learned that I don't think I had ever heard anywhere -- Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman not because Jews don't bow to anyone but God, as reported in The Jewish Child's Bible Stories 30 years ago, but because Haman was a direct descendant of Amalek, may his name be blotted out. The rabbis added the bit about God later. Famously, of course, Megillat Esther doesn't mention That Guy at all. I still have to go back and read about Amalek. I think the printout I got off the Internets has the maftir for Purim wrong.
Oh yeah -- I went as Vashti.