TO LIFE! TO LIFE!! L'CHAYIM!!!

בס"ד
15 Adar - Purim!


This year my fast went pretty well, thank G@d, & I headed to synagogue dressed in my uniform from the private school I went to for 7 years in Victoria. Not bad that it fits, considering my 20th high school reunion is coming up in May...pictures to follow!

Originally I was going to go as The Witch of Endor (her real Hebrew name is "Ba'alat Ov" - a medium - from "Eyn Dor" - which means "fountain of generation"...how Freudian!) - I got this idea from IMing with Alisha - but then I caved & put on my kilt, tie & knee-socks. The shortest skirt I've worn in years, but it still conforms to the minimum length standards from modest religious dress.

We had another simultaneous women's & men's reading, & this year the rabbi automatically handed the scroll that I wrote over to us. We drew the accordion wall & chanted our mitzvah away...

Then we got into the food, but mostly we drank ourselves silly, finishing off all the Frangelico, Baileys (both hekashered), Finlandia, Etrog liqueur & most of the Crown Royal. We sat in a circle 'til the wee hours, handed out out mishlo'ah manot & laughed our heads off.

Thank G@d for this holiday!


Purim 2005...
On Ta'anit Esther I davened at shul, did tachanun (which I love - the long one) then sat to starve, correcting letters in the last Megilah I wrote (smudgey black male fingerprints from last year) distracted from hunger by my anal-retentiveness. On the way home from shul I picked up some extra break-fast goodies from Pini's, the kosher Pizzeria down the block. I bought special groggers full of candy for Kya & Joel as a prezzie. I also did some Shabat prep as I listened to NPR, as she's staying for the weekend.

For the Megilah reading & party, Joel & I donned each others' wedding clothes. He got laughs - he looks pretty in a dress & veil, but just can't fill one like I can :)
I got laughs too, but dirty looks as well, due to the pants & the tzitzit. One of my good friends, Morey, said, "I didn't recognise you because you were wearing pants!"

Mincha was at shul followed by the Megilah reading, which was cool because the men & women fought over who got to use the Megilat Esther that I wrote. I leyned pereq Yud (chapter 10) as usual, & the blessing. After that came Ma'ariv & FOOD!
Oh, yeah, & we got shikkered ;)

The next day there were just as many costumes, children & noisemakers - & we found out just how good a bartender our new rabbi is! Holy moly those drinks were strong - but very very good :D


Memories of Purim 2004
The Shabbes before Purim I gave a lecture at Shaarey Tefilah, speaking about the Megilah & the laws allowing women to write them; sofrut in general; Shulchan Arukh on diney/laws of writing Megilah in specific. Alissa had all my tools mounted on a board hanging on the wall behind where I stood. This was prepared before Shabbes so I could gesture to them & answer questions without having to handle any muktzeh.

I showed up at shul the night of the Megilah reading dressed as a modest version of Janice from the Muppet Show. All it took was a floppy hat, hugely long fake eyelashes & a little lipstick :D
Joel went as The Gay Agenda. Basically a grim reaper with a rainbow scythe. It was tongue in cheek...
You could totally tell what age group people were from, depending on whether they recognised who I was supposed to be.

This Purim was quite magical, as I sat completing the last pasuq in front of everybody in the synagogue as R' Ross spoke about the long journey involved in my becoming a certified soferet & the satisfaction he felt from having done so much work to help me there. & not just me, but eventually other women.

I sewed the last yer'iah to the rest of the scroll, then stood up & made a short (because we were all starving & even tho' this was my first Megilat Esther, the evening wasn't about me!) speech of gratitude to R' Ross, Singer, our president, Dr. Cliff Ungar, & our board. I also profusely thanked Naomi Voss & Alissa Altman for all the work they did promoting & researching & writing for this Project - they had even staffed a table at the the JOFA conference to spread the word about the groundbreaking work we were doing with women's roles & Halakhah at Shaarey Tefilah.

Then, well, the men took turns reading it & we all stuffed ourselves & got drunk.
The next day the men read from the old Megilah while the women read from mine simultaneously. I chanted chapter 10 & the blessing aftr the reading. Then we went to R' Ross & Emily's for the seudah...R' Ross made us all "machines", his specialty shooter from college, which involves 2 different kinds of liquor & a t-shirt. Delicious! Don't ask.

R' Ross' original article about women writing Megilah is posted in the Edah Journal.




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