Happy Purim!

Happy Purim Raven!

For those following at home who don't know. Today is Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating a time when we Jews were almost wiped out, but then we weren't. And there was much rejoicing. It is a very fun, festive holiday. We (that is Raven and I) went to Raven's childhood synagogue to celebrate. We dressed up as Flame Princess and Fiona from Adventure Time (it's customary to go to Purim celebrations in costume because... reasons?) It's like a second Halloween and I do love Halloween!

Purim happens every year in late winter or early spring (14th of Adar for the Jewish calendar) and focuses on Esther and Mordecai's efforts and eventual foiling of Haman's plot to wipe out Jews everywhere (specifically the Jews of Shushan). The short story is this: King Ahasueres (of Shushan) commanded his wife and queen Vashti to come before him and she disobeyed the king basically nullifies their marriage and sends Vashti away. Nice guy, right

Meanwhile there is some fighting between Ahasueres' leading advisor, Haman, and Mordecai, a well-known Jew and respected councilor to the king. Haman does not like that Mordecai will bow only before his God and not before Haman so he decides he wants to destroy not only Mordecai, but his people as well. Not an overreaction at all.

Ahasueres is pretty oblivious to this and mostly just misses having a wife. So he calls the women of his kingdom before him and chooses a new bride from among them. He chooses Esther, unbeknownst to him the niece of Mordecai and also a Jew.

Mordecai and Esther get wind of Haman's evil plot and Mordecai urges Esther to go before the king and reveal her identity and win the king over so she and her people will live. But even a queen must be called before the king. To do otherwise would risk death. But Esther does just that and the king, impressed with her bravery, pardons her barging in without his say so. She gathers the king and Haman and tells the king both of Haman's plot and her Jewish ancestry. Since Mordecai earlier saved the king's life and the king loves his new wife he's pretty annoyed to find out that his trusted advisor is trying to kill them both and also wipe out their people. So he hangs Haman, honors Mordecai, and keeps Esther as his queen. A very happy ending as far as most Jewish holidays are concerned.

So, pardon the late post as Raven and I are still in her first nest (that is, her childhood hometown) and will be for the rest of the week, ostensibly to watch her parents kittens, who are just such adorable troublemakers. They are half of the reason for my late and hasty post. The other half is a fascinating anthropological discovery that may change the way we see ourselves in the great chain of evolution. However, I will let Raven share that discovery with you tomorrow as she is much more an expert than I.

I hope you are as excited by it as we were!

Best wishes,
Owl