Purim

Purim is the Jewish holiday celebrating the book of Esther and her role in the victory of the Jewish people over Haman, the Biblical Heinrich Himmler. There are several customs and traditions associated with this holiday, but the two that you will find many Israeli Jews observing, whether they are religious or not, are dressing up in costume and adhering to the rabbinical commandment to drink until drunk. I'm not exactly sure how either of these evolved from the book of Esther, but it makes for one happy holiday!

The kids dress up for school and have parties. They make baskets full of goodies to trade and share and take extras to donate to the needy (charity is also a custom of Purim). Lydia dressed up like Little Bo Peep, with which unfortunately no one here was familiar. Everyone else was dressed up as Disney princesses, Minnie Mouse, brides, queens, etc., but apparently Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme characters are only familiar to Westerners. She looked super cute all the same. Will was SpiderMan along with about half of his male classmates. You win some, you lose some.

Our friends, the Dekters, really got into the spirit. Fabulous!

I had the opportunity to volunteer at Lydia's classroom for the day, which is always an experience. The Israeli norm of organized chaos was once again the theme of the day. I was one of 4 parent volunteers sent to lead a group of 5 children around the school to different activity stations. This translated into mobs of children all in costume, hopped up on sugar, running to and fro and cutting in line at the "activities." I just kept counting my kids and praying I didn't lose anyone in the shuffle. Good times.

Actually, they all had a lot of fun.

This is Lydia's teacher's aid. She can yell with the best of them, but she keeps those 35 kids in line!

Other Purim traditions:

• reading the scroll of Esther
• baking/ eating "oznei Haman" a.k.a. Haman's Ears' cookies
• using noisemakers, supposedly only to blot out the name of Haman when it is read in Scripture, but this evolved into noisemakers all day long, to include firecrackers.
• burning the effigy of Haman
• fasting during the day until the evening meal

So, if you're looking for something to do this fine Thursday, go throw on a costume, eat some tasty cookies, grab some noisemakers, and drink until you can't see straight.

Happy Purim Everyone!

Shalom Y'all!

E