“The king and Haman sat down to feast, but the city of Shushan was dumfounded.”
“On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.”
(Mordecai to Esther, in Megillat Esther)
It’s almost as if the ancient events recorded in the book of Esther were passed down for just such a crisis as this, where the king and Haman are so obviously trump and musk. (May their names be blotted out.) And the message clearly resonates right now. We can be victims, or we can refuse to bow down, even at the risk of our lives. One way or another, tyrants will get what’s coming to them, and justice will win out.
But let me back up. Yesterday for erev Purim, E baked the most perfect hamantaschen, poppy seed and apricot, and prepared a fun feast for us, as we sat and listened to Avdi humorously recite the Megillah of Esther, complete with appropriate noisemaking and drinking. (It was funny watching the kids try to figure out how to work a gragger!) I’m not sure they got the full import of the message of Purim and its relevance to us, but they had fun, to varying degrees. A few of us even made it to the end!
Rewinding even further, I did some garden tasks, house-straightening, and decorating for Purim. Later, Jess drove me to an eye doctor to get a much-delayed exam and hopefully new glasses. But it turns out my cataracts will require surgery at some point first. It’s not urgent yet, but it’s a concern.
Sorry about the mixed-up time machine. Gotta keep priorities in order.
The full moon was to become totally eclipsed and bright red early this morning, but unfortunately I couldn’t view it from my apt. I did hear some unfestive noisemaking out in the parking lot, which woke me up. Must be that full moon eclipse.
Edit–I don’t know why this post published without the paragraph separations, all smushed together like this. I blame the moon.