Monica

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!

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.

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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.

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

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.

It's Purim Torah season at Mi Yodeya, where, in addition to the regular, serious questions, we also welcome parody questions. Our policy (yes, we have a policy) says:

It's gotta be distinctly "Purim" (not serious), distinctly Torah, and distinctly Q&A. Purim Torah questions that don't have all three of these qualities may be closed.

So, post sincere-looking questions (you know, the kind that invite answers) that:

• misinterpret a real Torah concept or Jewish text, or
• apply a distinctly Torah style (e.g. Talmudic analysis) to an irrelevant topic

Here's a sampling from this year. Purim Torah is welcome through this week, so feel free to join in.

• If Rabbi Google quotes Mi Yodeya, can i rely on his advice?
• How can I connect with God on Facebook?
• Using the Force on Shabbat, for Jewish Jedis.
• What kind of horns did Moshe have? (my first Purim Torah question)
• Why didn't Adam use the pen of earth? -- based on a misunderstanding of the first verse of the torah and the observation that the pen is mightier than the sword so he should have been able to get back into the garden
• For whom should I vote? (US presidential election 2016), seeking biblical or talmudic sources only
• Seeking texts of all prayers associated with the clock change (also links to other questions about time-shifting)
• What is the bracha when one eats the torah? -- "I keep seeing all these questions which discuss "Purim Torah, Ingest" but they don't seem to address the rules of actually ingesting the Torah." (What's a little homophone among friends?)
• And from the same person who, last year, asked Why don't Jews accept Our Lord and Savior? (I'm pretty happy with my answer there), we have another provocative-seeming question: What's the source/reason for allowing gay marriage for synagogue leaders?

There are a lot more, over 250 from this and past years.

The month of Adar began a few days ago, which means that silliest of holidays, Purim, is coming up soon. And that means that Purim Torah -- discourse of a, shall we say, not entirely serious nature -- is in season on Mi Yodeya. Here are some of my favorites from this season so far -- recommended, and most of the ones I've selected should be broadly accessible. (Feel free to leave comments here if you need help interpreting anything.)

Why don't Jews accept Our Lord and Savior? The question (which skirts the "can Purim Torah be too heretical?" line really closely) lays out some textual "proofs". I had fun answering this.

What does Judaism think of math? Quite a variety of answers here.

What is the text of kiddush for Purim night? I've heard a couple really silly and (within my limits of comprehension) hilarious texts for Purim kiddush, the prayer of sanctifying a special day. The one (so far) posted here looks like it's pretty funny, but I can only comprehend part of it. (If anybody reading this is inclined to provide a translation, please consider adding it there. If you're not comfortable with that, though, please feel free to post here...)

Why didn't Esther follow Mordechai's instructions? This answer is fun, and check out the link in the answerer's first comment.

Is the torah in the public domain? Wikipedia says that only works published before 1923 are automatically public domain. The torah was written in 2448, so that's safe...

The mishna teaches: on Shabbat one must not move straw that is lying on a bed with his hand, but he may move it with his body. If a pillow or sheet was already on it, he may move it with his hand. The g'mara learns from this that indirect handling is permitted. The g'mara goes on: according to Rav Yehudah, one may crush peppercorns one by one with a knife-handle and Raba says even in groups because this is not the usual way of crushing them. In a similar vein, one may scrape off clay (mud?) from one's shoes with the back of a knife, and he may scrape off clay on his garment from the inside, or perhaps even the outside if he does not rub. (141a)

And one more bit of purim torah, based on hodu meaning both "praise" and "turkey": giving turkey to God. Purim is Sunday (starts Saturday night); purim sameach to those who are celebrating.

Today is Purim, so in place of the daf bit I offer a seasonal midrash:

"On that night King Achashverosh could not sleep": On that night nobody could sleep -- Esther was busy preparing the banquet for Haman, Mordechai was busy with his sack-cloth, and Haman was busy with building his gallows. So the Holy One blessed be He summoned an angel and said: "Look! my children are in danger and that evil king sleeps! Go disturb his sleep!" So the king was unable to sleep and he read of the righteous from the books of account, which led to Mordechai being exalted at the expense of Haman.

I learned this from Sefer Ha-Aggadah, which cites Esther Rabbah 7:13 and 9:4.

Purim was this past weekend. We continued the tradition started last year of having "Esther's banquet" after the evening megillah reading and Purimspiel -- adults-only, food, alcohol, study/discussion. This year we had about 50 people, I think, up from last year, which is good to see. Last year I had brought some homebrew along. I hadn't planned to repeat that this year because there hadn't been a lot of takers -- but then one of the rabbis, in announcing the event to the morning minyan, said "and Monica's going to bring her homebrew, right?", so I shrugged and did. I brought 12-year-old horilka (made with spiced brandy) and some mead, and both were very popular. (They polished off most of a liter of horilka! Last year they drank maybe a cup.) I haven't actually been making stuff for the last decade or so; I guess I should queue up some more horilka in the fall when cider is in season again. (The ingredients in horilka are unprocessed cider, honey, brandy or vodka, spices, and time. Thanks, hlinspjalda!)

I talked with the vet today. The test of Baldur's liver function came back normal. As we were discussing next steps (the ones that could produce answers are dangerous), she asked me just what he eats. There's dry food out all the time and its rate of consumption hasn't markedly changed in recent months, but of course I don't know who eats how much. Baldur has ready access, though. He gets tiny amounts of tuna and canned food; basically he gets to lick the spoon when I feed such to Erik. Baldur wolfed down half a can of food in about 15 minutes at the vet's on Thursday, so my vet suggested giving him real amounts of canned food. I've generally avoided that because it's unhealthy, but y'know, he's 17 years old now -- am I really worried about him picking up bad dietary habits at this point? So I'll give that a try; he enthusiastically ate most of a can of food today (between morning and evening), so we're off and running.

I see that the post office wants to cut a day of mail delivery to save costs. I don't mind the cut, but I think it would be much better for us customers/taxpayers if they chose a day in the middle of the week, say, Thursday, instead of choosing a schedule that sometimes means four days between mail deliveries. I assume that giving up all their Monday holidays isn't on the table. (There actually is a segue from the previous item to this one: this morning I refilled a mail-order prescription for Baldur.)

Dani recently ordered some Israeli CDs, and the MP3 tagging has been strange. Two or three different two-disc sets tagged one disc in English (transliteration) and one in Hebrew, for instance. Sometimes song titles will be one way and performers the other. In one case we got gibberish, presumably a unicode failure or something, and Dani typed stuff in by hand. Any one of those cases wouldn't have surprised me, but mixing it up on the same recording is bizarre.

Purim sameach (happy Purim)!

I went to my congregation's megillah reading tonight. I haven't been there in several years; the last time it was a real zoo (not in the good way), but that was also one change of rabbis ago, so I went. It was fun, though the kids were a little too wild (no surprise there).

There were a lot more people than I expected -- probably 300, maybe more. They had made a special booklet (siddur and songs; I don't think megillah text), but they ran out before I got there. I'm fluent with a siddur, so I didn't have problems with the service part (just using the regular weekday book), and anyway they made that as brief as they could.

There were a lot more people -- including a lot more adults -- in costume, or at least silly hats, than I expected. Last time most of the costumes were on kids, to the point where I would have felt self-conscious. Tonight that would have been fine, though. Before next year I would like to acquire a large silly hat, though I don't know what (or where one shops for large silly hats).

The associate rabbi was a hoot. He showed up in black suit, long white beard, full talit, black hat... and you have to understand that he can't be much more than about 35, so this was funny.

There were four readers for the megillah, trading off. They read mostly in English but started by chanting the opening paragraphs in the special megillah trope (well, I assume that's what it was, since I'd never heard that before), and they read some key passages in Hebrew along with the English. Most of the readers were doing over-the-top dramatic readings, which worked well. There were some bits of adult humor that I appreciated and that would have sailed right over the kids, so this was not geared just toward them.

During the megillah reading one is supposed to make noise when Haman's name is mentioned (to blot it out). Kids are really great at noise; they're not so great at stopping, and don't seem to grok that they'll get better impact if it's not one continuous din. The last time I went that was really horrid (and was the reason I didn't go back for a while); this time the rabbis were making large "cut" gestures to try to cut it off, a trick I saw work well at another congregation and had shared. Our leaders were not as successful with it, but it was way better than it had been. They'll have to work on the parents (some of whom were doing nothing to guide their kids in this).

Nobody local who I know (or, at least, who would invite me) does a big day-of-Purim feast like osewalrus and his friends do, but I'll try to have a nice lunch tomorrow. :-) In two years Purim will again be on a Sunday, and I'd like to see if I can find critical mass in my congregation for a party. (Last year it was on a Sunday and I cooked an SCA event for it. That was fun too.)

I do have meatier stuff I want to write about, but things are a little hectic. Sorry I'm not being that interesting right now.

Plans continue for the Purim feast in two and a half weeks. I expect we'll get a bunch more reservations at tomorrow night's meeting. I did a test run of one of the looks-good-but-haven't-eaten-it recipes tonight, and it passed. I'm pretty happy with the way the menu is shaping up. I'm also grateful for the offers of help I've received.

Apropos of Purim (but not this event), I recommend megillah2a to anyone who's either following the Daf Yomi cycle or just interested in some of the talmud's coverage of Purim.

Our associate rabbi is starting a beginners' talmud class. Good! It's during the work day -- not so good for me, but if it works for others, I'm glad. I hope someday to take an evening class from him.

The person signed up to read torah this Shabbat fell ill, and I've been tapped to pull together something. I'll probably read rather than chant because that's faster to prepare, and everyone's ok with a partial reading given the circumstances. A couple years ago I wouldn't have been capable of pulling something together at almost the last minute, so that's progress! (Last time I got one not-too-long aliya up to speed (with chanting) in about six hours of work, and then it was just maintenance from there. I remember when it took six weeks.)

I received a call from my vet's office today. I had the last two appointments of the day, and gee the snow and sleet are looking bad, and if I wanted to reschedule they just wanted to let me know that that would be ok... yeah, I can read between those lines. :-) It's just routine checkups, so I suggested we let the vet and technicians go home a little early.

I recently attended a study session about which I want to record some "meta" (structural) notes before I forget. In a lot of ways it reminded me of what our group attempted, but didn't do nearly as well, in the Sh'liach K'hilah program last summer.

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