Storahtelling

The night of No Revenge – Purim 5770

A note from Rebetzzin Hadassah Gross

Kinderlach!

Tonight, tonight, it’s Purim again! 5770 years since the Garden of Eden and oh so many Purims since I strolled, with Papa, in the parks of Budapest, dressed as a Hungarian peasant girl. I looked like a perfect shiksa… which came in handy just a few weeks later... Nevermind. Where was I?

Purim! Why is tonight different from all other nights? Because tonight we wear masks and find our true faces behind them. Who we are in private is public. If we dare. And tonight is special. Tonight we will have blood on our hands – or at least a Bloody Esther, the house drink, in our hands. If you dare. I dare you. And adore you.

So, nu, tonight is a homecoming: for the Queen inside every one of us, our own worst enemy within, our inner child and outer loved; the royalty, the courage, the good sense and the non-sense. The holy fool full moon night of Purim, Queen Esther’s night, is upon us. What a Mitzvah, what a glamorous complicated celebration of life in all its messiness. I adore it.

So, tonight, kinderlach, go back inside the Garden of Eden, before the first bite of evil and good, right or wrong, Jewish or Goyish, man and woman, both and neither, left or East. I dare you.

Welcome to the garden, kinderlach, to the palace, to the wine cellar of time here at the City Winery. L’chayim! (Drink sensibly. A little.) If not now – when? Later?? Mazel tov!

R. Hadassah Gross