Belated Purim thoughts

[chanaleh]

Walking home from shul Sunday morning -- with a light jacket on over my pirate costume, and carrying a grocery sack full of cookies and goodies that people had given me -- I realized, Hey! Purim really is the Jewish Halloween!

Note to self: Next year, you are to take on the mitzvah of mishloach manot. Every year you think it's really not important to you, and then every year you (a) feel sad that you're not giving anything to all the nice people who give you things (even though you know they're fulfilling their own mitzvah by giving it), and (b) go "Ooh! Cute little packages! I wish *I'd* made some up, I could have done this and this..."

But if I am not participating in the transaction by actually exchanging any food gifts, I make an effort to participate with kavanah (intention), as fully as possible, in the receiving of the gift -- by being mindful of the giver(s) of each packet and thinking gratefully of them as I eat the contents. [Word of advice: This is one reason it's helpful to include a "From:" note in your packages.] Right now it's laurens10 and tapuz (dried pears! yummy homemade hamantaschen!) and gilana (peanut butter cups! awesome polka-dotted cellophane bag! Tropical Tie-Dye Fruit Roll-Ups!). Yay!

Had some entertaining conversational moments with tapuz during and after tonight's synagogue board meeting, on such topics as (a) the future Rabbi Breindel and (b) my inception of the World's Only Falling August Tribute Page....

Comments

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was fun! Must find [mostly taped over :-(] Falling August tape to remember which parts I am missing :-( (Happy comprehensive fansite!!!! Wow!)

Oh, and I delivered a number of mishloah manot by greeting the person who opened the door with "Trick or Treat" :-)
Can't wait to see your "from" notes...

[goljerp]

Hey! Purim really is the Jewish Halloween!

I wonder how much of our current costume customs were influenced by halloween? (Aside: I've seen sukkah decorations in Israel which looked suspiciously like re-branded christmas ornaments.)

But going back to the Purim/Halloween thing, I think it's cool that on Purim:

• The people who come to your door give you food (two groups of friends did this to me on Sunday)
  
• There's no "tricking" involved (at least not to other people - Haman got fooled in the story, and everyone's supposed to be in the joke when you do purim torah)
  
• It's a mitzvah to get drunk and be roudy. Well, it's a mitzvah to at least drink a little bit, and it's encouraged to be noisy during parts of the megillah reading
  
• There are two times when it's appropriate to wear costumes in public
  
• Ghosts, goblins, and ghouls are not typical costumes

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I've seen sukkah decorations in Israel which looked suspiciously like re-branded christmas ornaments.

Oh, absolutely! Hence the following conversation which has recurred many an October:
tapuz [suspiciously]: "Hey, those are Christmas lights."
chanaleh [several boxes in hand]: "Sukkah lights! SUKKAH lights!"

[besamim.livejournal.com]

I recently saw online (sorry, can't recall the ref) that last December the students at Hebrew U. in Jerusalem voted to have a Xmas theme for their campus Hanukkah party. Oy Gottenu.

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

But the homemade cookies are so much better than those crappy candy bars laden with corn syrup that people hand out on Halloween. (I'm not really a fan of storebought candy...)

I remember going to a Hamantaschen-making party at gilana's place once, probably 10 or 11 years ago. I should do it again some time!

[goljerp]

But the homemade cookies are so much better than those crappy candy bars laden with corn syrup that people hand out on Halloween.

True. But I somehow managed to end up with 4 "fruit rollups" which are chock full o' corn syrup...

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

Hmph. Those aren't even hat-shaped.

[goljerp]

Neither were the apples, peanuts or raisins. That's not even mentioning the other candy, the 50 mL of Godiva Liqueur, or the can of tuna fish. Don't worry, I did get some hamentashen.

By the way, you know what they're called in Israel, don't you?

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Oznei Haman = Haman's Ears!
(Not that they're any more ear-shaped than they are hat-shaped. Shalosh pinot l'oznaim sheli...)

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

Yah, but the notion of eating someone's ears strikes me as, um, weird. Kind of like the Christians eating "the body of Christ" and drinking "the blood of Christ" -- sure, it's just symbolism (although there's a fiction about how they transform as they pass into your body), but ewww.

Anyway, it's more fun to make stuff than to buy it at a store. I've used a triangular mold to make "hat-shaped" chocolates before.

Not that I subscribe to either of the referenced religions.