Purim notes
Mar. 10th, 2009 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI went to evening davening at the Div School. It was a very pretty wood-paneled room lined with bookshelves that was totally inadequate for davening, in that there wasn't enough space, and the one door was narrow enough to be a noticeable bottleneck. Maariv was straightforward, not at all played with, unfortunately. The best costumes: flapper in a red dress of fringes, plus artistic curls; a tree hung with edible apples with a sock puppet black snake; a family dressed as dinner; Frankenstein's monster (partly because of who it was; he was also my favorite evening reader because he does voices (I assume that's why he chose the chapter he did, with lots of dialogue)); and my personal favorite, a guy in a white T-shirt with a one-line slogan, his hair slightly waved, carrying a brown-paper-covered box labeled 'SOAP': Harvey Milk (though I asked where his megaphone was :-). He banged on the box every mention of Haman (*insert noise here*), which made emotional sense, somehow.
This year my mishloach manot had a theme: orange (Orange you glad it's Purim? :-). I put in honey tangerines, carrots, and candied orange peel. It's all organic (except the sugar in the peel), gluten-free, pareve, and vegan. And in a reusable container, too. As in previous years, my goal was to fulfill the mitzvah without much stress, and to put more money towards matanot l'evyonim than mishloach manot.
I was working during the day; no real Purim seudah for me. It's been years since I was at a seudah filled with Purim Torah; I miss that, but don't feel able to host it, either.
The one unanticipated frustration of the day: I decided that of the local-to-home options, the 8 A.M. minyan was too late for me to be able to make it to work, which left 6:30 or 7 A.M. I chose the latter, to give myself a bit more time to (over)sleep, deliver some mishloach manot beforehand, and park nearby so I could zip off afterward. Which would have worked, except that it started late, and ran slowly (weekday shacharit should not run 60 minutes without megillah reading), and it hadn't been mentioned that megillah reading was to be after minyan with another minyan, which was running even more behind. It was nice to make it to midweek shacharit, but annoying that the megillah reading was delayed such that I had to leave before it started (I later heard that they were in the 7th chapter (of 10) by 8:40; I'm very glad I didn't stay).
The annoyance was mitigated by running into Mr. Imperfect, who not only is an excellent reader who has his own scroll, but also offered to do a reading I could make after work (he, too, was leaving before megillah reading). Silver lining, indeed! It was a wonderful reading, with voices and inflection and just a couple of other friends (*waves*), so it was easy to hear the name we were to blot out, and I enjoyed the creative noisemaking. Extra goodness: seeing the beautiful megillah, the sofrut just gorgeous and clear. I saw light reflecting off the black of the ink, and the glow of it was dazzling, somehow.
Also, the usual small joy of using the wooden gragger I made at the JCC when I was 8 or 9 or 10, the difference in sound making it obvious I tend to grag clockwise. And an unexpected sadness during an online search for a copy of Al haNisim in Hebrew for a friend, running across a site with a medieval source about women saying Birkat haMazon... translated by Elka Klein. I miss her; it's eerie yet comforting to see her name a site that is (presumably) useful. (I suppose relatives of famous people get used to this, seeing their loved one even after their death. Though there is that short story by Pat Murphy about a similar situation that is far from healthy.)
Bonus track 1
Denominational salt: One guy got fed up with cooking shows and such using kosher salt, and has come up with Christian Salt, so devout people don't have to truck with that there kosher stuff. "If the salt takes off, Godlewski plans an entire line of Christian-branded foods, including rye bread, bagels and pickles." Er, yeah.
Bonus track 2
JOFA has a CD-ROM available for learning to lain Esther.
This year my mishloach manot had a theme: orange (Orange you glad it's Purim? :-). I put in honey tangerines, carrots, and candied orange peel. It's all organic (except the sugar in the peel), gluten-free, pareve, and vegan. And in a reusable container, too. As in previous years, my goal was to fulfill the mitzvah without much stress, and to put more money towards matanot l'evyonim than mishloach manot.
I was working during the day; no real Purim seudah for me. It's been years since I was at a seudah filled with Purim Torah; I miss that, but don't feel able to host it, either.
The one unanticipated frustration of the day: I decided that of the local-to-home options, the 8 A.M. minyan was too late for me to be able to make it to work, which left 6:30 or 7 A.M. I chose the latter, to give myself a bit more time to (over)sleep, deliver some mishloach manot beforehand, and park nearby so I could zip off afterward. Which would have worked, except that it started late, and ran slowly (weekday shacharit should not run 60 minutes without megillah reading), and it hadn't been mentioned that megillah reading was to be after minyan with another minyan, which was running even more behind. It was nice to make it to midweek shacharit, but annoying that the megillah reading was delayed such that I had to leave before it started (I later heard that they were in the 7th chapter (of 10) by 8:40; I'm very glad I didn't stay).
The annoyance was mitigated by running into Mr. Imperfect, who not only is an excellent reader who has his own scroll, but also offered to do a reading I could make after work (he, too, was leaving before megillah reading). Silver lining, indeed! It was a wonderful reading, with voices and inflection and just a couple of other friends (*waves*), so it was easy to hear the name we were to blot out, and I enjoyed the creative noisemaking. Extra goodness: seeing the beautiful megillah, the sofrut just gorgeous and clear. I saw light reflecting off the black of the ink, and the glow of it was dazzling, somehow.
Also, the usual small joy of using the wooden gragger I made at the JCC when I was 8 or 9 or 10, the difference in sound making it obvious I tend to grag clockwise. And an unexpected sadness during an online search for a copy of Al haNisim in Hebrew for a friend, running across a site with a medieval source about women saying Birkat haMazon... translated by Elka Klein. I miss her; it's eerie yet comforting to see her name a site that is (presumably) useful. (I suppose relatives of famous people get used to this, seeing their loved one even after their death. Though there is that short story by Pat Murphy about a similar situation that is far from healthy.)
Bonus track 1
Denominational salt: One guy got fed up with cooking shows and such using kosher salt, and has come up with Christian Salt, so devout people don't have to truck with that there kosher stuff. "If the salt takes off, Godlewski plans an entire line of Christian-branded foods, including rye bread, bagels and pickles." Er, yeah.
Bonus track 2
JOFA has a CD-ROM available for learning to lain Esther.
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Christian salt?
Date: 2009-03-11 05:11 am (UTC)Re: Christian salt?
Date: 2009-03-11 10:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 06:16 am (UTC)Is that like dressing to the left or right?
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 06:20 am (UTC)Christian salt? That's meaningless, as Christians don't have a kashrut equivalent. But if it makes someone happy, whatever. But I reserve the right to find the whole thing deeply goofy.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 10:29 pm (UTC)Yep, deeply goofy, which is why I had to put it in a Purim post.
*gives you hamentaschen*
One More Comment
Date: 2009-03-11 06:22 am (UTC)the stupid, it BURNS
Date: 2009-03-11 10:47 am (UTC)Re: the stupid, it BURNS
Date: 2009-03-11 10:30 pm (UTC)Oy.
Re: the stupid, it BURNS
Date: 2009-03-12 01:12 am (UTC)Re: the stupid, it BURNS
Date: 2009-03-12 01:24 am (UTC)Re: the stupid, it BURNS
Date: 2009-03-12 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-13 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-13 12:10 pm (UTC)