Purim 5784
2024-Mar-24, Sunday 12:59![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
Subject line auto-completed as Purim 5783. Time marches on.
Last year I didn't post any photos because they used the same spiel as 5782 for some reason, but this year it was different. They set it up as a group of "small groups" that were each commenting on one chapter, and the first part was the Stoners' Group:
This specific point--that G-d is never mentioned in the book of Esther--is big for for progressive drashot about it, to the point that it's kind of cliche. It's like a drash about Parashat Chayei Sarah pointing out that the first verse refers to Sarah's death and the Parasha named after her doesn't even include her. This year the major commentary was on the ending, where after the decree is superseded the Jews take revenge and kill everyone who was planning to kill them plus 75,000 other people as well as Haman's entire family, which has obvious parallels to current events that I shouldn't need to point out. But as they pointed out in the spiel, regardless of your stance, so much death is not a good thing. There's a story about the Exodus, about how the angels began to dance and sing as the waters washed over the Egyptian army, and G-d rebuked them, saying, "My children are dying and yet you dance."
I did get latched onto by someone who was new--he turned out to be in the process of converting to Judaism and had never been to a Mishkan event before, so he asked me about Mishkan, we talked about Purim, and then we sat and watched the spiel together. And then he left afterwards immediately without a word. It takes all kinds, I suppose.
One thing I really appreciated is that due to Purim's timing, coming right after Shabbat, I actually go to eat dinner! Usually Purim comes after Ta'anit Esther, the Fast of Esther, performed in commemoration of the fast that Esther undertook before she went to go talk to Aḥashverosh, so there's a big spread of food that I don't get to eat (which also tells me how few people at Mishkan keep the minor fasts, apparently). But a minor fast cannot occur on Shabbat, and if it would it's shunted so that no part of it overlaps with Shabbat, so I fasted on Thursday and got to eat the food as soon as it was placed out, which was not when I arrived--there was a miscommunication and there was no food when we arrived. It was quickly rectified and I got my fried cauliflower, roasted vegetables, pita, and hummus. Delicious.
There weren't a lot of people there I knew, though, so once the spiel was done, I went home. One of these years I'll have a Purim party like I used to--I used to host four a year, at Purim, Shavuot, Rosh Hashannah, and Ḥanukah--but not this year.
Last year I didn't post any photos because they used the same spiel as 5782 for some reason, but this year it was different. They set it up as a group of "small groups" that were each commenting on one chapter, and the first part was the Stoners' Group:
This specific point--that G-d is never mentioned in the book of Esther--is big for for progressive drashot about it, to the point that it's kind of cliche. It's like a drash about Parashat Chayei Sarah pointing out that the first verse refers to Sarah's death and the Parasha named after her doesn't even include her. This year the major commentary was on the ending, where after the decree is superseded the Jews take revenge and kill everyone who was planning to kill them plus 75,000 other people as well as Haman's entire family, which has obvious parallels to current events that I shouldn't need to point out. But as they pointed out in the spiel, regardless of your stance, so much death is not a good thing. There's a story about the Exodus, about how the angels began to dance and sing as the waters washed over the Egyptian army, and G-d rebuked them, saying, "My children are dying and yet you dance."
I did get latched onto by someone who was new--he turned out to be in the process of converting to Judaism and had never been to a Mishkan event before, so he asked me about Mishkan, we talked about Purim, and then we sat and watched the spiel together. And then he left afterwards immediately without a word. It takes all kinds, I suppose.
One thing I really appreciated is that due to Purim's timing, coming right after Shabbat, I actually go to eat dinner! Usually Purim comes after Ta'anit Esther, the Fast of Esther, performed in commemoration of the fast that Esther undertook before she went to go talk to Aḥashverosh, so there's a big spread of food that I don't get to eat (which also tells me how few people at Mishkan keep the minor fasts, apparently). But a minor fast cannot occur on Shabbat, and if it would it's shunted so that no part of it overlaps with Shabbat, so I fasted on Thursday and got to eat the food as soon as it was placed out, which was not when I arrived--there was a miscommunication and there was no food when we arrived. It was quickly rectified and I got my fried cauliflower, roasted vegetables, pita, and hummus. Delicious.
There weren't a lot of people there I knew, though, so once the spiel was done, I went home. One of these years I'll have a Purim party like I used to--I used to host four a year, at Purim, Shavuot, Rosh Hashannah, and Ḥanukah--but not this year.
