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What do Jews do, Purim 2007 (5767) & National Women’s History Month


My post about Purim 2006 is here.

It’s interesting that Purim falls during National Women’s History Month since the Book of Esther celebrates the strength and persuasive abilities of Queen Esther yet King Ahasuerus only marries Esther after he dumps his first wife, Queen Vashti because she refuses to do as he asks (she declined to dance naked in front of drunken men - can you imagine?).

As you might suspect, when learning about Purim as a child, I didn’t hear much about Vashti - I heard mostly about Esther and her brother, Mordechai and the king’s second in command, Haman. For my kids, I would say it’s basically the same.

And yet, this is odd to me, since I came of age during the late 60s and early 70s in a rather hippie-ish Reform synagogue. I would have thought, looking back, that for sure my synagogue would have made a lot of attempts to draw out the subtext of what the King did. It’s great that Mordechai used Haman’s own evilness against him and no Jews were killed as a result of Haman’s hatred of Jews.

Of course, there was the little matter of the only two rabbis that synagogue has ever known getting divorced and re-married during their tenures (though I don’t remember the details of either one’s marriage, divorce and re-marrieage). Might have been some casting out for refusing husbands and wanting a better looking mate - I’ll have to ask my parents one day.

But, on the other hand, the whole Megillah was set in motion by Vashti’s personality. And refusal to do as asked by her husband. Frankly, that he even asked her to dance naked in front of drunk men - that would have had me out the door before “no.”

So, again, it’s ironic that National Women’s History Month and Purim coincide in time. I wonder if that was on purpose? Nah.

What do Jews do on Purim?

Tonight we’ll have a family dinner, then go to the synagogue. There will be two or three different formats for listening to the megillah and wearing costumes and shaking groggers and making a lot of noise with all the other families. It’s fun - but it’s loud! Afterwards, this year, my synagogue has a whole bunch of events planned including a coffeehouse for adults. My husband will be reading part of the Megillah tomorrow at the most formal service for it so we can’t party too much tonight. Then, we’ll go to the sacrosanct Purim Carnival with our kids and another family (non-Jews who’ve never been) where there’s all kinds of activites. Very kitchsy usually, but a rite of passage - as is eating Hamantaschen.

Chag Sameach.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:01 pm March 3rd, 2007 in Politics 

Comments

7 Responses to “What do Jews do, Purim 2007 (5767) & National Women’s History Month”

  1. 1 Paula Neal Mooney on March 5th, 2007 5:12 am

    Hi Jill -

    I’m glad you wrote this because just the other day I glanced at “Purim Begins at Sundown” on my calendar and wondered what that meant.

    Now I’m “in the know.”

    Yeah, didn’t the king have Vasthi killed, they theorize?

    I have read lots about Esther, but not Vashti. Woo, what an ending.

    Anyhoo — is it my imagination or did you stop posting lots of pics in your blog posts — not just linking to them?

    I remember you used to post a lot.

    I liked the ones you sent one year of the Menorah (sp?)

    Happy Purim,
    Paula

  2. 2 Anastasia on March 5th, 2007 10:22 pm

    I went to the Purim Party at the Grog Shop with Golem, Bling Kong and a performance-art group from CIA called Double Dutch Will Take You Higher who actually are very skillful double-dutch jumpropers. Both bands were excellent and very distnctive, lots of people wore costumes and the apricot hamantaschen was excellent as well!

  3. 3 Jill on March 5th, 2007 11:08 pm

    Hey Paula - I haven’t posted many pictures lately - just lazy or not getting to them! I’ll get some up in this week. thanks for liking them!

  4. 4 Jill on March 5th, 2007 11:09 pm

    Wow, Anastasia - that sounds like a lot of fun. This was by far the best Purim we’ve ever had - being on a Sat. evening works out very well for this holiday, unlike something like Yom Kippur when you’re coming off of a Shabbat fast. Not easy at all.

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