Not this.
But this.
I know what you're thinking..."But Rachel" you say, "you're not Jewish." And you're right. Sort of. I'm a Christian but I choose to celebrate some Jewish holidays because of my own Jewish ancestry and an affinity for the Jewish people. And Judaism and Christianity aren't diametrically opposed...they're in agreement at least 50% of the time. Besides - Yom Kippur is about repentance, taking a day to fast and reflect, and hopefully do better in the future. I say everyone is invited! It's not like come December I'm jumping ship to Hanukkah to party for 8 days. I can barely SPELL Hanukkah. I mainly observe Yom Kippur and Purim in the same way that I celebrate Dia de los Muertos with my Mexican students. Joining another culture I have connections to for a day and learning about experiences different than my own.
Normally fasting just causes me to commit more sins like envy and anger and just generally being obnoxiously irritated but today I didn't even think about food much until lunch. The cafeteria was serving my favorite...cheese dippers. How Michelle Obama managed to stuff nutritional content into so many carbohydrates I will never know. But I sincerely approve of her school lunches on every level except price. Guys. The rolls got BIGGER. Count me in.
Sorry. 20 hours in to a 25 hour fast and I am easily distracted by food. I also like to use days like today to educate people about Judaism. In college I studied Islam & the Middle East because I love learning about the intersection of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. I have loved learning about the religions and cultures of the Middle East for as long as I can remember. When I was little my favorite story was Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves from One Thousand and One Nights. Scheherazade further enchanted me with Aladdin and I took a 2 year detour in college studying surrealism in Iranian literature. Trust me, it comes in handy all the time.
Recently I was explaining to my roommate that a long, long time ago, on the Iberian Peninsula, Muslims and Jews and Christians were like...chill. They all lived in Spain together and didn't fight they just shared and stuff. Emily had a genius theory as to why this worked...her exact words..."that just shows the importance in a society of..." and I am on the edge of my seat, waiting for her to say, oh I don't know - tolerance, acceptance, separation of church and state. Nope. She said naps. She thinks that Spain's siesta policy resulted in centuries of peace between 3 historically warring religions. I suppose we can't disprove that.
My favorite Jewish holiday is Purim, a day to commemorate the Jewish people being saved in the story of Esther. Let me tell you, The Prince of Egypt and Joseph: King of Dreams are both amazing cinematic experiences but women of the Bible...incomparable. My favorite, favorite, favorite book of all time is The Red Tent and 2 years ago I was Moses's wife, Zipporah, for Halloween. No one recognized me. When did Midianites go out of style?
But probably my favorite Bible character of all time (besides Rachel, duh) is Esther (or Hadassah). Here's the CliffsNotes.
Esther is a Jewish girl (or leek, if you follow those vegetables and their tales) raised by her cousin or uncle (they did not have ancestry.com back then) Mordecai (Mordecai is a grape for those of you keeping score at home). The King of Persia at the time, Ahasuerus (aka Xerxes I aka Jerkxes I), gets rid of his queen for not wanting to be a nudist. Ahasuerus (a zucchini) picks Esther to be his new wife and appoints some guy named Haman (a gourd with a mustache) to be his like advisor slash BFF. Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman on account of Haman not being the God of Israel and also I am not even sure if grapes are capable of bowing...it doesn't really get much lower. Haman is big mad and decides to seek revenge on all the Jews. Haman is a snake and gets Ahasuerus to make a royal decree to slay all the Jews. This is major overkill. Literally. Mordecai begs Esther to talk to the king and stop Haman. Esther is afraid because she could be put to death just for going to speak to Ahasuerus...her husband...without him sending for her (toxic masculinity). Esther and all the Jews fast for 3 days and on the 3rd day she talks to Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus has a total Bad Blood moment and realizes that Haman is the worst. He orders Haman to be hanged on the gallows that Haman built to hang Mordecai on. Ahasuerus can't revoke the decree but makes an addendum that the Jews can defend themselves. And defend themselves they do. The Jews end up killing most of their would-be assassins.
So as you can clearly see, the theme of Esther is that men are weak. Homeboy was all set on destroying the Jews until his wife was like "plot twist - I'm a Jew" so then he was all "oh real talk? nvm then." Just like that.
The secondary theme is that it sucks to be Haman.
No comments:
Post a Comment