It's February, and I take issue with T.S. Eliot. It is not April but February which is the cruelest month. Cold, dark, and brutish, with none of the celebratory feel of December and January, spring feels months away during February. Thankfully, February has our greatest secular holiday - the Super Bowl - and our most gleeful Jewish holiday, Purim.
Purim is almost here! It’s loud, it’s raucous, it’s festive, it’s colorful, and the food is great. It’s no wonder the rabbis of the Talmud saw Purim as such a high point in the calendar that they declared, “When Adar [the Hebrew month housing the holiday of Purim] enters, joy increases (Babylonian Talmud Ta’anit 29a). On the 14th of Adar, Jews around the world celebrate Purim, which commemorates the salvation of the Jews of Shushan and the defeat of the evil schemer Haman (boo!).
I didn't even know what a palmier was. My friend Barrett mentioned that she had made them for Purim, using Tina Wasserman's recipe. I looked it up...and, oh my, they sounded delicious.
As a student living in Israel, my holiday celebrations followed the same protocol: dress up in my nicest clothes, go to shul and eat a festive meal with family and friends (as long as it was not a fast holiday). This schedule had been ingrained in me over the course of the year. As Purim neared, I began to wonder if it would be celebrated like the other holidays or if it would be more like the celebrations I had come to expect from my childhood in Los Angeles—the shpiel, the carnival, the costumes.
In my household, Purim has been the holiday in which I have taken something “traditional” and turned in on its head!
Every story has its music. The story of Esther, told on Purim, has music – the cantillation of the Megillah (scroll of Esther). But every piece of music also has its story.
Purim is just around the corner. Your congregation is making plans for the celebration, whether those plans include a carnival or a spiel, there is a sense of excitement in the air. These festivities are rooted in the Bible, more specifically in M’gillat
Last year I did a "Hamantaschen Test Kitchen" with six different varieties:
Cream Cheese Dough
Gingerbread?
Gluten Free Hamantaschen
Chocolate!
Aunt Dora's Recipe
Yeast Dough
This year, I thought I would give some of my favorite tips and tricks for
Together, we will champion the lessons of Passover by bringing greater wholeness, justice, and belonging to our world.