Monica

It's the season of Purim Torah on Mi Yodeya. Here are some of my favorites:

From this year:

• My answer to a question asking what Birkat Amazon is and what giving thanks after a meal has to do with amazon.com

• What are we supposed to do about losing an hour of Purim this year? (I answered that one too)

• Why do we shake four heretics on Sukkot? (on Sukkot we shake the "four species", different plants; the word for "species" resembles the word for heretics)

• Can one go back in time to complete a minyan?

And some from past years:

• Perl programming in the Torah

• Surviving the zombie apocalypse

• Using the Force on Shabbat

• Rejecting others' friend requests on Facebook

• And one I had a lot of fun answering, Why don't Jews accept Our Lord and Savior?

There are a lot more where those came from, and the season continues for about the next two weeks.

At the beginning of the book of Esther we're told of the rather-excessive party that King Achashverosh threw for his court. We're told that the wine was abundant and drunk from gold vessels. What does abundant mean? That each man was given wine older than himself. The drinking was according to the law -- what does that mean? According to torah -- there was more food than drink. None did compel -- what does that mean? That each man was given wine from his own country. It's good to be the king (or at least a rich king), and perhaps even better to be one of his friends. Cheers! :-)

On the seventh day when the king's heart grew merry with wine -- wait, what? Was he not merry with wine before then? He's been drinking for seven days, after all! The seventh day was Shabbat; on Shabbat Israel begins with discourse about torah and proceeds to give thanks, but the idolatrous nations of the world begin with frivolity and proceed with lewdness. This is how it came to be that they were discussing which nation's women are the most beautiful -- one would say the Medians, and another would say the Persians, and another the Chaldeans, and it was getting right rowdy. The king said that Vashti was the hottest babe and said "would you like to see her?" and they said "yes, but she has to be naked!", and so he summoned her but she refused. And because of that we get the rest of the book of Esther. (Megillah 12a-b)

I took some liberties in the retelling -- it's Purim, after all. Happy Purim! Be sure to check out this small collection of Purim-related Q&A, serious and silly.

(Today's daf is Ketubot 31.)

His disciples asked Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai: why was Israel of the generation of Esther doomed to be exterminated? Because they bowed down to the graven image placed by Nebuchadnezzar. Well then, they asked, did God show undue favor to them in sparing them? R. Shimon said: as the Jews only pretended to worship the graven image (to protect themselves), so too God only pretended to exterminate them, as it is written: for He afflicted not from his heart. (Megillah 12a)

Last week we finished Zevachim, 120 pages on (mostly) the performance of the animal offerings. The next tractate changes subject only slightly; we will join Menachot, on the performance of the grain offerings, in progress next week, assuming I have the fortitude for it. :-) (Today's daf is Menachot 8.)

Tomorrow night is Purim, which at my synagogue is usually on the, err, juvenile side. (It must be possible to be accessible to kids while not talking down to adults, but we haven't mastered it yet.) However, I learned last week that, probably at the instigation of our newest rabbi, we are also going to have an adults-only gathering after the megillah reading and spiel -- text study with food and "adult beverages". I offered to contribute a little home-brew mead and he said to bring it along. Should be fun. (But not good old "HS 98", which recently got a surprisingly-good review from a friend who found some in her basement. I only have a few bottles left and I'm saving them for special occasions. :-) )

I'm considering going somewhere else for the megillah reading and then going to my congregation for the adult study/festivities. This is hindered by the Chronicle, for the first time I've ever noticed, omitting the calendar of congregational services this week. Gee, thanks. So I'll have to look them up individually.

Purim seems a fine time for the roll-out of this contest in Peeps art. I must give this some thought. Check out the prizes -- $100 gift card, blah blah, dental hygeine products. Um, yeah. And should I enter and win, I think it highly unlikely that I would use the Peeps lip balm, though I would look with curiosity through "Peeps: Recipes and Crafts". (Understand that I can't actually eat Peeps because they're not kosher, but there's no rule against using them in art projects.) Can any of my readers suggest a punny title around the exodus from Egypt? I figure a seasonal tie-in would help, but it sounds like a pun is especially important and I'm terrible at that. ("Let my peeps go?" Needs work, I think.) If I use your suggestion, you can have dibs on the lip balm. :-)

Speaking of contests, from Snopes: in 1984 a newspaper announced a Daylight Saving Time contest to see who could save the most daylight. Fun stuff. (I think this would be better designated Daylight Shifting Time, as there is no saving involved.)

Megillat Ester describes how Ahashaverus came to honor Mordechai: he summoned Haman, his advisor, and asked how he should honor someone he favored, and Haman, thinking the king referred to him, described an elaborate public ritual, only to have the king say "go do that for Mordechai". The midrash fills in the ensuing conversation:

"Who is Mordechai?"
"The Jew."
"There are many Jews named Mordechai."
"The one who sits at the gate."
"For him the tribute of one village is sufficient!"
"Yeah, go do that too." (16a)

Some days it pays not to argue. :-)

( food analysis )

( Shabbat lunch )

( Purim SCA event )

( short takes )

siderea

Purim torah: Green eggs and ham by magid.

Cuteness alert: kitten war, from browngirl.

Calvin & Hobbes search engine (link from tangerinpenguin). I haven't done much with this, but I didn't want to lose track of it.

( Read more... )

Another problem created: I need to make sure I'm familiar enough with the insertions into the liturgy for public fast days to be able to lead them next week. Either that or get David to lead that part. (I know we insert Avinu Malkeinu after the Amidah; I can't remember if there are other changes. Fortunately, I own a copy of the siddur we use, so there shouldn't be any surprises.)

I happened to glance at next month on the calendar and noticed that the fast of the first-born (before Pesach) also falls on a Thursday, my day to lead services. This one poses more uncertainty -- it's a public fast day but only for some people. Breakfast will be held, taking advantage of a rather dubious rules hack, but I don't know what liturgical changes are implied for a day on which some people must fast and others not. Fortunately, I have a month to find out. :-)

There are five minor fasts in the calendar. Three have to do with the destruction of the temple and one falls before Purim (commemorating Esther's call for a fast before she tried to save her people). These apply to everyone, but they don't resonate for me at all. I can't say exactly why, at least in the case of Purim. Maybe it's this nagging question of why this attempt to wipe out the Jewish people in a particular area warrants special treatment when it's not a singleton -- just the first that the rabbis noted. I don't know; I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it.

But the fifth of these minor fasts is the fast of the first-born on the day before Pesach (or earlier if that would cause it to interfere with Shabbat, like this year). This fast exists because of the tenth plague, the one that killed the first-born malees. Jewish first-born were spared but this is later given as a reason that first-born men belong to the temple for service to God. (There is a redmption mechanism, called pidyan ha-ben -- which is good because otherwise those people would be stuck today.) And of all the minor fasts, this one resonates for me. Isn't that odd? I'm a first-born woman whose ancestors were never endangered by this plague, though obviously had I been there I would have been.

I'm a woman, so traditional Judaism would say I'm not obligated. But a consequence of being egalitarian is that I don't get out of it that easily; if I believe men are obligated, then I am obligated too.

I don't know if we are obligated, but I should give this one more thought. I've tended to non-observance in the past, or going along with that rules hack I mentioned, but I'm beginning to think that the correct thing for me is to (1) keep the fast and (2) not use the rules hack. I've got a month to figure that out, too.