Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Taanit Esther Thoughts

There's something about fast days, so challenging. And yet, I can't deny that I go to another place. A writing teacher of mine said that she did not advocate for taking mind altering drugs to help your writing, but she did believe that you should take advantage of natural alterations, like an ear-ache, that can do surprisingly good jobs of putting you in a different place and assisting your writing. So, yeah- fasting is one of those things. And it's not just writing, it'spraying and other areas of creativity and sensitivity that we get heightened in.

I've been thinking about how Purim and Yom Kippur are mirror images of each other. One has a day of fasting that precedes its day of feasting. And the other has a day of feasting that precedes its day of fasting. Purim is a physically oriented day, so it's preceded by a more sober day for the purpose of balance. And Yom Kippur is a day that pulls away from physical pleasure, so for the sake of balance we are told that it's a mitvah to eat a lot on the day that comes before it. In a way, one could argue that Yom Kippur is a cop out. We stand before G-d in holiness, but we get there by separating ourselves from all physical temptations: No eating, drinking, mingling, dancing. We barely talk to one another, we scarcely move about, we sit in Shul and daven all day. On the other hand Purim is a day of partying: we sing and dance, and joke around, and drink alcohol, and socialize. If we can be holy on this day, that shows how holy we can be in evey day in the tangible, physical world.

I had some off beat insights: Esther and Ruth are similar. They each are connected to the Jewish people and yet on the fringe. And then that moment comes when they say to the person they're closest to, "You're people are mine." Even though Esther was Jewish, as opposed to Ruth, she was in her own bubble. At first there was a fast going on, but she was seperate from it. And then she took it on, inside the palace. She dared to be a Jewey Jew no matter what the consequences. She connected. And for the first time, this year, it downed on me that she's like Ruth, rising to the occasion, leading to a Jewish future, having a Megilah named after her.

Here's one from way out of the box: Like everyone, I always thought of a hamentashen as the triangular hat or ears of Haman. Then I thought about how they are made. They're not triangles. They are circles wearing a mask! Did you ever take a glass to shape a hamentashen? A glass! IT'S A CIRCLE! There's something deep going on here. A triangle can be a circle that's been folded in on three sides! Things are not as they seem. This is another way that we celebrate the Purim, another meaning of hamentashen.

Hope your fast continues to be meaningful. Happy Erev Purim!!!

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