Ta'anit Esther

[chanaleh]

Tonight is Purim! which means that today is the Fast of Esther.

The fast is called Taanis Esther in order for us to remember that G-d watches and hears each person at their time of trouble and pain when the person fasts and turns to G-d with all their hearts as Hashem did during the time of Esther.

When I was in college, even before I was officially Jewish, I remember entering days like this with great awe and fervor. Even one year when I had a cold, and my friends had fits that I was fasting, I wanted to keep the fast. Purim was coming, and I was Queen Esther, purifying her soul, I was all the Jews of Shushan fasting in solidarity. The fate of the world was in the balance. By the time the megillah reading came -- and I could still hardly follow along in the Hebrew except by eagerly tracking the few words I could recognize, ha-melech Achashverosh and Esther ha-malkah -- I was overwhelmed with the joy and the mystery of it all.

Nowadays, I am as usual so consumed with the administrative trappings of my synagogue life -- laying out the newsletter, sending out announcements, arranging logistics for the services -- that I forget to care. The past few years, I haven't observed the minor fast days at all. Today, I am observing this one -- halfway, in the sense of liquids only -- and even then it feels a little perfunctory. I miss being swept up in the meaningfulness of what we're doing, the cosmic scope of the events we commemorate tonight. But tonight I will leave work on time (!), and put on my fancy dress and cloak and the Venetian mask that kalessin gave me, and try to find it.

On that note, of course, here are the obligatory plugs:
Megillah reading at TBS, 6:30 pm!
Support Tremont Street for $20 -- buy a ticket for the Purim Raffle!

Comments

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. It might help me get around to observing the fast one of these years...

I should dissect your brain sometime about shul bulletins, since I've been drafted into doing ours.

Purim Sameach!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Do you know if TBS is collecting money for matanot l'evyonim (gifts for the poor)? I didn't see any mention of it on the web site.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I'm certain so, I believe we always do. I don't know offhand where it's designated to go, though.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Cool; I just wanted to know so I could either (a) bring money, or (b) get money to another collection place.

Oh, and If the designation isn't to Yad Chessed, well, I can give them money another time.

[melopoeia.livejournal.com]

Its funny -- without even knowing, I fasted until 2:30 or so.
I can't do Purim today because I have class *sigh*

I hope to observe, even just by reading the story, tomorrow.

Esther kicks ass. She and Miriam and Judith are very reassuring figures to a woman in today's world.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Similar to my "I'm too busy working on cons to read s.f." problem. :-) I did fast, but was too busy with work to spend much time reflecting, unfortunately.