From the Rabbi

If it’s “Fat Tuesday,” it must be almost-Purim! When you stop to think, these two fests seem to be like the proverbial twin-separated-at-birth as featured in Mad Magazine.

Is Mardi Gras the Catholic Purim? Masks! Costumes! Inebriation! Wild Dancing! And this is a religious feast? Truly, both dates are all about Turning the World Upside Down when religious men are not only permitted, but encouraged, to dress as women.

Maybe that’s the deep truth underneath the rabbinic midrash that states that when the Messiah comes, there will only be one holiday: Purim. Then, we’ll truly be in paradise, a time and place when — as the Judy Chicago poem in our prayer book reads — “both men and women will be gentle … both women and men will be strong … and all will be rich and free and varied.”

“Oh when the Yids (oh when the Yids!) Go marching in (Go marching in!) …." You get the drill. Make Purim a little forshpays/foretaste of a globally-integrated, conflict-free, energetic-yet-peaceful planet! Whether you grew up eating King Cakes or Hamentashen — get your Purim ON!

Rabbi who-knows-who-I’ll-be-for-Purim Liz