March 2022
Dear Ones,
Here we are in a world at war with so many perils on all fronts. And yet it is the Jewish month of Adar, the month of Purim! This Jewish holiday is designed to teach us, even in the midst of hardship, to have fun, to play, to laugh, to enjoy.
I am thinking of the Ukrainian-born poet Ilya Kamensky, who wrote the poem "We Lived Happily During the War." It includes the sentence "I took a chair outside and watched the sun." Kamensky is writing self-critically about avoiding horror and avoiding responsibility. But Judaism actually teaches a "both/and" understanding of the nexus between horror and humanity. What keeps us human is sitting in the sun, loving each other, showing up for Shabbat. When Purim rolls around every year, no matter what else is going on, we get to have fun.
So I will share with you an activity that I do every day that gives me a few moments of delightful pleasure. I bet some of you do this same activity: Wordle. Wordle is the same as the old paper and pencil word game Jotto but re-invented in digital form. When the New York Times purchased Wordle for its game suite, participation on the digital platform went up by 11%! A lot of people enjoy Wordle.
When our community gathers for Purim on the evening of March 16, on Zoom, we are going to hear the megillah and we are going to see our annual hilarious Purim schpiel (thank you Karen Zeitz and Leyv Ha-Ir~Heart of the City Purim schpielers) and we are going to do a silly activity based on Wordle. Come one, come all, we are going to have fun!
Love and blessing,
Rabbi Julie
