Purim!

The greatest part about Judaism is the fabulous and many holidays. Jews living around the world never get to celebrate quite like those in Israel. This week was Purim and oh did the Israelis celebrate. 

The story of Purim comes from the Book of Ester in the Torah. Here is the abbreviated story as I would tell it. King Ahasuerus has a party where he gets drunk and dethrones his wife. He then wanted a new queen so he ordered all the young women to present themselves in an ancient style beauty contest. Ester won the contest and becomes queen not revealing that she was Jewish. Ester's Uncle is Mordecai who saves the King from being murdered. The King's sidekick Haman does not like Mordecai and finds out he is Jewish, then he decides he wants to kill all the Jews. Ester ends up saving the Jews by convincing the King to let them live and to kill Haman. Only would Jews have a huge celebration for not being killed. Jews summarize this holiday and most of the other holidays with the simple saying, "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat."

Part of the Purim tradition is to complete the 4 Mitsvahs during the holiday. They are: 

1. Listen to the Megillah Reading (the reading of the book of Ester)

2. Giving Mishloach Manot (Giving gifts of food to your friends)

3. Giving Matanot la'evyonim (giving charity to the poor)

4. Partying 

And thus set the stage for our crazy adventurers Purim adventures. On Wednesday night we all dressed up and headed for Tel Aviv. The normal Purim was Wednesday night and Thursday day but since Jerusalem is a city with a wall around it Purim is a day later. I asked people why this was and no one had a clue. The streets of Tel Aviv were filled with people dressed up and dancing everywhere. We spent the night wondering the streets dancing! In the morning we put back on our costumes and continued the party at the beach. We spent the day at the beach meeting Israelis, soaking up the sun and celebrating that the Jews were still alive! Then we headed back to Jerusalem for  the 2nd night of Purim. 

We added more glitter to our costumes and headed into town! Hebrew University sponsored a party in a parking deck. It sounds so weird but it was a blast! They turned the parking deck into a club and it was packed! We danced the night away and continued the party as we wondered the streets. It is sort of like a Jewish Mardi Gras!  

The next day we woke up and headed for the Old City. We found a drum circle which of course we danced in the middle of! We wondered the cobblestone streets as all of Jerusalem was out celebrating with us. As we were walking past a home the family invited us in where we continued to celebrate. Only in Israeli would you just go into random homes for dinner and celebrations. 

We finally arrived back home and I have never been happier for Shabbat. We all made dinner together before crashing for the next 12 hours. Purim is a cross between Halloween and Mardi Gras with the Israeli spirit. It was a crazy 72 hours that you can not experience anywhere else but Israel. 

Although Purim was the major event of the week I still did so much more stuff! Earlier in the week my class went on a field trip to Heordion's Castle that Herod built. It is also the cite of his tomb. It is located in the West Bank but under Israeli control so our school required we take an armored bus. The views from the top were wonderful and you could see the Dead Sea and Jordan. It was really cool to learn about something in class and then the next day go visit. 

Monday night I baked Hamantaschen at an Orthodox woman's house. The Orthodox woman's name is Stacy and we had a blast baking and seeing all her kid's Purim costumes. Plus we got to eat the delicious cookies. The cookies have a  shortbread base that are filled with fruit and chocolate filling. They turned out great and she gave me her recipe. After baking Marissa and I met our other Orthodox "Mama" for a karaoke night. We were a little skeptical about what it was going to be like but we figured we had nothing to lose. The bar was ladies only and filled with Orthodox women. It was a blast and we were both surprised how much fun we had dancing and singing with all the Orthodox women. It was definitely different but still a lot of fun. 

This week was filled with glitter, excitement and lots of adventures. Purim is making its way to my favorite holiday and I will be celebrating next year! 

Shabbat Shalom!

xoxo, 

Katy Ann 

ps. I posted more pictures on shutter fly!