Purim

[cellio]

Purim is underway. I am, apparently, a cheap drunk. (I'm not drunk, but I'm tipsier than I expected to be. I wasn't trying tonight.) Perhaps I had insufficient caffeine today to counter-balance.

Megillah readings are enhanced by puppets and rabbis with a sense of humor. The "kinder, gentler, megillah reading" for adults is way more fun than the one with all the kids. :-)

Our associate rabbi made an etrog cordial. It was an interesting first effort. I explained to him about using just the zest (not the white part of the skin) to cut down on bitterness, and about the commonly-used option of sugar syrup along with the fruit and vodka.

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I know you're going to get tired of me asking for explanations of everything Jewish eventually, but I hope you'll indulge me here again: :)

What's the Megillah?

[cellio]

Not a problem. I'd rather neither mystify my friends nor tell them things they already know, and sometimes I miss the balance point.

The generic term "megillah" refers to any of the five special books/scrolls that are read on certain holidays -- Esther (Purim), Song of Songs (Pesach), Ruth (Shavuot), Lamentations (Tisha b'Av), and Ecclesiastes (Sukkot). Esther is the only one that is conventionally read from a scroll (as opposed to a modern book), and people make a bigger deal out of that one than the others sometimes.

So last night I went to the public reading of the book of Esther, which is part of the observance of Purim. Today I fed people, in the long tradition of most Jewish holidays: "They tried to kill us; we won; let's eat".