Yesterday afternoon was the beginning of spring, and at sundown we saw the beginning of Purim.

This Jewish festival is a celebration of the courage of one woman to do everything in her power to save her community from evil attacks of anti-Semites, with her own life under threat. For once, there was a happy ending – Queen Esther, the woman in question, was able to convince her husband, King Ahasveros, to save the Jews in the Persian empire from attacks by the King’s vizier, Haman. Not so happy an ending for the latter – he and his descendants were hanged.

It is a boisterous holiday, with the story, contained in the Megillah, being read out loud, with people making lots of appropriate noises and appearing in costume (think of it as the Jewish version of movie night for Rocky Horror Picture fans.)

The costume part is actually an interesting possibility of cultural appropriation: some academics argue that the first Purim masquerading appeared around the medieval times when Jews and Christians first lived in proximity together. Mardi Gras or the Venice Carnival were tied to the vernal equinox and all involved costumed celebrations.

Here is a link that details history and customs, including the hotly debated question if we can trust the historicity of the story.

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-the-odd-history-of-purim-1.5332554

My favorite Purim food – cookies, what else – is served and also added to gift baskets that are generously shared among friends and family. The cookies’ name is derived from two German words: mohn (poppy seed) and taschen(pockets). Mohntaschen, or “poppy seed pockets,” were a popular German pastry dating from medieval times.

Around the late 1500s, German Jews dubbed them Hamantaschen, or “Haman’s pockets, although earlier versions of the pastry had been known as Haman’s ears – see the etymology of the pun here: http://time.com/4695901/purim-history-hamantaschen/

Beyond feasting, making merry, and remembering a time when the actions of a single model individual saved a whole population, there is the proscription to give to the needy, matanot l’evyonim.

And here is a wonderful example of that in 2019: two orthodox rabbis in NZ are asking their congregations to contribute to the victims of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, where 50 people were murdered last Friday.

Rabbi Ariel Tal, head of the Wellington Jewish Community Center, and Rabbi Natti Friedler, head of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, issued a request to their respective communities, asking them to donate the traditional charity money given on the upcoming Purim holiday to support the families of the victims of the attack in addition to the Jewish poor.

https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Give-Purim-charity-to-victims-of-mosque-massacres-583933

Interfaith connection that we can all celebrate, whether we observe Purim or not!

Images today capture spring’s arrival. All photographed yesterday.

Music has an interesting genesis: https://www.classical-scene.com/2019/02/16/miryam-esther/