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magidThe quest for scallion pancakes goes on: I stopped at Ruth's Kitchen on my way home, to get food for after the fast (deciding to be lazy, in other words), and found that they do not carry scallion pancakes, though they will make them up for a large enough special order in advance. No time to stop anywhere else, so I shall have to wait a bit longer. OTOH, I did get some yummy food I had to remember not to start eating immediately. (At least I wasn't working in a food store today; I commiserated with the guy behind the counter.)
(On the shorter fast days, I find it hard sometimes to remember not to eat. I sit at my desk and think "I'm hungry, what shall I eat?" and it's always interesting to see how long it takes my brain to kick in, reminding myself I'm choosing not to eat this day, choosing to observe this fast.)
Just time enough when I was home to start bread dough (half rye, and the end of the flaxseed meal), and grab the things I wanted to bring to shul: a pocket Ketuvim (Writings, which is where the Book of Esther is in the Torah), and the gragger (noisemaker) I'd made years ago at the Worcester JCC, and still going strong at almost 3 decades old.
I was running a bit later than I'd planned, so no time for machatzit hashekel [1] or matanot l'evyonim [2] before the evening service started. Tigerbright joined me at Hillel, which was cool. There apparently was a kid's reading earlier, so there were fewer extremely tiny people at this reading (which was one of many at Hillel this evening, with three at different times through the ortho minyan, one egal, and possibly another one or two around). There were plenty of costumes, however. I had been lame, just grabbed a straw cowboy hat I had lying around :-(. Ah, well (but perhaps tomorrow I shall post the Purim math quiz I wrote up some years ago as part of my costume).
The megillah reading was wonderful. BZ knows it cold, and did voices, too :-). The tux looked good, too.
This year I was struck by how incredibly wordy this book is. There's just so much repetition, not just in phrases, but in whole scenes that really aren't integral to the main plot. Had this been in one of the five books, it would've taken up perhaps a chapter or two, not ten. The political wranglings in the Middle East seemed very modern, unfortunately so...
Another realization: I particularly like this and the book of Ruth, two books with strong female characters. Yeah, in some ways trivial to note, but it hadn't struck me so forcefully before that there are two strong women in each of these books, with identities of their own. That doesn't happen so much in a lot of stories (Potiphar's wife, Lot's wife, a random woman who bore sons, etc). And all of them are strong women, too. When I was little, I remember thinking (being taught?) that Vashti, the queen who is sent away at the beginning of the story, was a bad person. But I've totally changed my mind about her. She stands up for herself, refusing to appear at a party at someone else's whim. The someone else who in the rest of the story shows himself to be, shall we say, not the shiniest scimitar in the armory.
I saw some people I hadn't seen in ages, including the director, who this evening was a wonderful clown with rubber chicken :-). Also ran into the still-LJ-resisting-one (*wave if you're reading this*), among others.
I received my first mishloach manot of Purim (thanks, Tigerbright!): a granola bar, an avocado (*not* destined to become a Whipped Dessert), and fresh peanuts. I'd not had fresh peanuts before, so I tried one; they taste very different than the roasted ones. I might boil them, to find out what that's like. Do I do that in the shells?
I've eaten, and feeling much better, the headache abating, the vision clearing some. I have rolls in the oven (rolls plus a jar of jam equals pretty darned decent mishloach manot, I think, for the one or two I'll be making), and another, smaller, experimental dough rising. I'm thinking of making hamantashen-like objects with it, using some jam that's around. The dough has no water, just orange juice and maple syrup, so I'm not sure what jam to put with it... Still, it's fun to play :-).
[1] lit. "half a shekel," used for the traditional census. There's an idea that one shouldn't count people, so one counted the half-shekels instead.
[2] lit. "gifts to the poor," another one of the four commandments of the holiday. [3]
[3] There are four positive commandments for Purim: (1) hear the megillah (Book of Esther) read both in the evening and the morning (this tells the story of the holiday), (2) gifts to the poor, (3) mishloach manot (lit. "sending portions"), which is two kinds of food (as defined by having a different blessing before it, so a fruit and a cookie, but not two fruits, for instance [4]) sent to at least one friend, and (4) a festive meal. [5]
[4] For those who truly love the details, the categories are: fruits, vegetables, wine/grape juice, bread, starches (made from any of wheat, barley, oats, spelt, or rye), and everything else (which covers a heck of a lot). [6]
[5] Where do the noisemakers come in? Every time the villain's name (Haman) is read, people make noise, booing, etc.
[6] I just wanted a perfect number of footnotes, lest they revolt and take over the post for themselves :-)
Happy Purim St. Evacuation day :-)!
(On the shorter fast days, I find it hard sometimes to remember not to eat. I sit at my desk and think "I'm hungry, what shall I eat?" and it's always interesting to see how long it takes my brain to kick in, reminding myself I'm choosing not to eat this day, choosing to observe this fast.)
Just time enough when I was home to start bread dough (half rye, and the end of the flaxseed meal), and grab the things I wanted to bring to shul: a pocket Ketuvim (Writings, which is where the Book of Esther is in the Torah), and the gragger (noisemaker) I'd made years ago at the Worcester JCC, and still going strong at almost 3 decades old.
I was running a bit later than I'd planned, so no time for machatzit hashekel [1] or matanot l'evyonim [2] before the evening service started. Tigerbright joined me at Hillel, which was cool. There apparently was a kid's reading earlier, so there were fewer extremely tiny people at this reading (which was one of many at Hillel this evening, with three at different times through the ortho minyan, one egal, and possibly another one or two around). There were plenty of costumes, however. I had been lame, just grabbed a straw cowboy hat I had lying around :-(. Ah, well (but perhaps tomorrow I shall post the Purim math quiz I wrote up some years ago as part of my costume).
The megillah reading was wonderful. BZ knows it cold, and did voices, too :-). The tux looked good, too.
This year I was struck by how incredibly wordy this book is. There's just so much repetition, not just in phrases, but in whole scenes that really aren't integral to the main plot. Had this been in one of the five books, it would've taken up perhaps a chapter or two, not ten. The political wranglings in the Middle East seemed very modern, unfortunately so...
Another realization: I particularly like this and the book of Ruth, two books with strong female characters. Yeah, in some ways trivial to note, but it hadn't struck me so forcefully before that there are two strong women in each of these books, with identities of their own. That doesn't happen so much in a lot of stories (Potiphar's wife, Lot's wife, a random woman who bore sons, etc). And all of them are strong women, too. When I was little, I remember thinking (being taught?) that Vashti, the queen who is sent away at the beginning of the story, was a bad person. But I've totally changed my mind about her. She stands up for herself, refusing to appear at a party at someone else's whim. The someone else who in the rest of the story shows himself to be, shall we say, not the shiniest scimitar in the armory.
I saw some people I hadn't seen in ages, including the director, who this evening was a wonderful clown with rubber chicken :-). Also ran into the still-LJ-resisting-one (*wave if you're reading this*), among others.
I received my first mishloach manot of Purim (thanks, Tigerbright!): a granola bar, an avocado (*not* destined to become a Whipped Dessert), and fresh peanuts. I'd not had fresh peanuts before, so I tried one; they taste very different than the roasted ones. I might boil them, to find out what that's like. Do I do that in the shells?
I've eaten, and feeling much better, the headache abating, the vision clearing some. I have rolls in the oven (rolls plus a jar of jam equals pretty darned decent mishloach manot, I think, for the one or two I'll be making), and another, smaller, experimental dough rising. I'm thinking of making hamantashen-like objects with it, using some jam that's around. The dough has no water, just orange juice and maple syrup, so I'm not sure what jam to put with it... Still, it's fun to play :-).
[1] lit. "half a shekel," used for the traditional census. There's an idea that one shouldn't count people, so one counted the half-shekels instead.
[2] lit. "gifts to the poor," another one of the four commandments of the holiday. [3]
[3] There are four positive commandments for Purim: (1) hear the megillah (Book of Esther) read both in the evening and the morning (this tells the story of the holiday), (2) gifts to the poor, (3) mishloach manot (lit. "sending portions"), which is two kinds of food (as defined by having a different blessing before it, so a fruit and a cookie, but not two fruits, for instance [4]) sent to at least one friend, and (4) a festive meal. [5]
[4] For those who truly love the details, the categories are: fruits, vegetables, wine/grape juice, bread, starches (made from any of wheat, barley, oats, spelt, or rye), and everything else (which covers a heck of a lot). [6]
[5] Where do the noisemakers come in? Every time the villain's name (Haman) is read, people make noise, booing, etc.
[6] I just wanted a perfect number of footnotes, lest they revolt and take over the post for themselves :-)
Happy Purim St. Evacuation day :-)!
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Re: ps
Date: 2003-03-19 05:10 am (UTC)r