Happy Purim!

Last night, Micah celebrated his first Purim! For those of you who are not familiar with this holiday, Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates our triumph over Haman, who attempted to massacre all of the Jews in Shushan, an ancient city in Persia. Each year, we read the Book of Esther (also known as the Megillah), which tells the story of Esther, and how she went to her husband, King Achashverosh (who did not know she was Jewish) to tell him of Haman’s plot and ask him to save her people. The King supported Esther, and ended up sentencing Haman to death for his murderous plot. Purim is a fun holiday – it is celebrated by dressing in costumes (often costumes of the characters from the Megillah) and eating hamentaschen (triangular shaped cookies filled with fruit jelly that represent the hat Haman wore). When the Megillah is recited, participants make noise, boo, and shake groggers (noisemakers) every time the name Haman is mentioned to prevent that terrible name from being heard.

Our synagogue put on quite a show – they took Billy Joel songs and rewrote them to tell the story of Purim. It was a wild event, and Micah was in awe of all the noise, people and costumes. We went over at 6:30 to go to the children’s service . . . unfortunately, the woman in charge did a horrible job. At 7:30, we headed over to the main service. Micah lasted about 1/2 hour before the stimulation became a bit much for him. I took him home, fed him, and off to sleep he went!

Here are a few pictures of us at Purim:

Don’t you just love that he has enough hair to wear a kippah? Oh . . . and I am definitely a bad mother . . . it never occurred to me to get a costume for Micah.