Monica

On the ritual foods of the Purim seder

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 02:05:31 GMT

Shameless self-promotion:

As we know,[1] the evening meal for Purim starts with Wacky Mac, a dish that features four pasta shapes: wheels, shells, spirals, and tubes. What is less widely known is how we are to eat this ritual item. Like the Pesach seder a month later, the meal has specific requirements and specific meanings! And like at the Pesach seder, your child should ask you to explain why this night is different from all other nights and what the laws and customs are and what they mean. It is only because of the other celebratory aspects of this holiday that in most families the child is too inebriated to ask (and the parents too inebriated to answer). So prepare yourself now, so you can both fulfill the commandment and explain it to your child.

First, we must examine the symbolism. [...]

See the full article at Judaism Codidact.

Pass the wine! :-)

P.S. For the programmers, we have this question on type systems and the use of void -- more answers welcome!

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the season of Purim Torah

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 23:30:48 GMT

Purim Torah uses the style of traditional torah but is, err, different. Some years ago Mi Yodeya began a tradition of accepting Purim Torah questions, which of course have to be answered in the same style, for a couple weeks a year. Last summer, active (or formerly-active) community members from there founded Judaism Codidact, which we hope will keep growing. It's off to a good start.

We've just opened a place for Purim Torah on the Codidact community. Because Codidact has the concept of categories, we can segregate it so it's hard to confuse with the serious Q&A. And because Codidact supports other types of posts besides questions and answers, we've set it up to support articles too, so that Purim-flavored d'var torah or talmudic analysis has a place.

The category is new so there are only a couple posts so far. I asked a question that arose out of yesterday's torah portion, which has gotten a good answer (that prompts more questions), and I just adapted my best-received past Purim Torah answer into an article on the ritual Purim meal and its symbolism. I'm looking forward to seeing what else shows up.

Perhaps some of you have questions or essays in this spirit to share?

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topical Purim torah

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 01:56:04 GMT

I was pointed to this piece of Purim torah from Mi Yodeya. The question asks, based on a text, "why is Mi Yodeya so angry>?". Isaac Moses, site founder, posted this answer, which I'm copying here for personal posterity.

And it was in the days of Ahashuar. Who? Ahashuar, who reigned over the royal treasury, from a throne in a palace, high above Shushan, the capital. And Mi Yodeya was at that time a province of the kingdom. There came to be promoted one hundred and twenty-seven governors of Personnel and Media higher than any of their fellow officials in the palace.

There was a Jewish woman in Shushan, the capital, by the name of Mordeca. And she was foster to many of the provinces of the kingdom, including Shushan, the capital. And she was highly regarded by the Jews and popular with the multitude of her colleagues, bearers of the royal signet. And she found favor in the eyes of the ministers of the court.

Now the one hundred and twenty-seven governors said to themselves, "there is a certain individual who is spread out among many of the provinces of the realm, whose language is different from the language of the palace, and who does not follow the laws of the kingdom, and it is not in our interest to tolerate her." And they were filled with rage, so they hurried messengers posthaste to remove the royal signet from Mordeca's hand, and they impaled her upon the book of records. And the governors sat down each week to celebrate, but the city of Shushan was confused.

In every province that the governors' command and decree reached, there was great mourning, wailing and weeping. And many of the people of the capital cast off their signets, for the fear of the governors had befallen them.

Some time afterward, a royal edict was issued, including in the laws of the kingdom that "the people in all the provinces of the kingdom shall speak the language of the palace, omitting nothing of what we have decreed."

And many of the residents of Shushan came before the court, and said, "if we have won your favor and the proposal seems right to you, let dispatches be written countermanding those which were written, and let the royal signet be returned to the hand of Mordeca." And they spoke to them day after day, and they would not listen to them. Then the governors dispatched their ministers to say, "if Mordeca will kneel and bow low before the palace, then there will be a poor ... that is, a chance, that she can be returned to her place in the palace gate." But they said to their ministers inside the inner court, "Now that this decree has been written in the name of the palace, it may not be revoked. The royal signet will not be placed upon her hand." And Mordeca would not kneel and would not bow low.

Some time afterward, when the anger of Shushan had subsided, the one hundred and twenty-seven governors thought about what they had done and what they had decreed against Mordeca. And they asked themselves "What should be done to a person whom we desire to honor? And whom should we desire to honor more than ministers who are beloved of Shushan and who intercede for the welfare of the people of the realm?" But the opposite happened, and they impaled Shaashgaz and Carshena upon stakes, for they were ministers who were beloved of Shushan and who had interceded for the welfare of the people of the realm. And Harbona, another of the guardians of the signet-bearers, who is also remembered as good, went out from the palace. And the city of Shushan was again confused.

Yes, "Shaashgaz" and "Harbona" have seen it. (I'm not in contact with "Carshena".)

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Purim Torah!

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 02:06:50 GMT

Purim Torah season started on Mi Yodeya tonight-ish. Here are a few questions currently on the front page (some new, some from past years):

May Sauron's ring be used for kiddushin (marriage)?
Is money-laundering permitted during the Nine Days? What about airing dirty laundry? (the question refers to a period of mourning during which wearing freshly-laundered clothes is forbidden)
Can my gravatar wear clothes from the "wrong" gender? (this one is mine and currently has a bounty up for grabs)

There are more, and I'm sure there will be many more over the next two weeks. Look for "PTIJ" ("Purim Torah: in jest") at the beginning of question titles.

There's also this answer, which I can only kind-of sort-of read but I see my name in there (made the mishna, apparently!). Um, I hope it's good? :-)

And a couple from past years that I enjoyed: one about losing an hour of Purim because of DST, and one about accepting the messiah.

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authenticity vs. accessibility

Sun, 25 Feb 2018 18:54:45 GMT

My synagogue had a Purim carnival for adults last night (the one for kids/families was this morning). I'd like to see more Purim activities that aren't focused on kids, so I went both to enjoy it (which I did) and to help encourage it (which I hope I did).

There was an expectation of costumes, so I went as Vashti and added a bit of modern commentary (see Esther 1, starting v. 10). The latter is where the dilemma came in.

Here's a picture:

And here's a close-up of that badge:

So, I was actually going to write גם אני on the badge, but on Shabbat afternoon it occurred to me that Vashti wasn't Jewish so would have no reason to write in Hebrew. So last night I asked Google Translate to help me out with Persian and used what it came up with. Modulo linguistic changes over the centuries (which Google Translate is not equipped to help with), this was more authentic and, I hoped, mitigated against people thinking I was Esther.

Some people wouldn't have understood גם אני either, but some would have. As it turned out, the hashtag was not sufficient clue on its own, even in a community that has talked about sexual harassment and related issues several times recently, so I ended up having to tell people that the text said "me too". Oops.

Were I to do it again, I suppose I'd add גם אני in parentheses after.

For people not familiar with the commentary: the rabbinic understanding is that when King Achashverosh commanded Queen Vashti to present herself to his buddies wearing the royal diadem, it meant and nothing else and that's why she refused. The guys have been on a drinking spree for seven days at this point, and the king is shown to be rather a dim bulb throughout the entire book.

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Purim torah!

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 02:08:11 GMT

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.

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