Purim, a few days late

[thedarkages]

Against the better counsel of a wise friend, I got myself the Artscroll Megillah, "a new translation with a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic sources." Boy, did I ever catch the wrong end of the stick! The commentary basically tries to force the rather incongruous elements of the story into a conventional moralizing piety. Purim is a religious holiday, so a little piety is OK, but not the Jewish equivalent of Victorian Black Crepe (or, "Crape.")

I'm sure this is not a novel observation, but Purim is about the most staggeringly successful intermarriage that ever was -- a match which could only happen by chance (as in lot, pur) between a doe-eyed Israelite and a biblous sheygetz straight out of the pages of a Babylonian John Cheever. (Persian martinis, anyone?) The sky doesn't come crashing down, plague and pestilence do not beset the Jews, and nobody asks how the children will be brought up. God smiles upon the entire affair.

Rabbi Arthur Scroll (the collective religious authority of Mesorah Publications, Inc.) has nothing to say about this. The same genius who trotted out an absurd theory that Asenath, Joseph's wife, was miraculously Jewish, even though she was a cow-worshipping Egyptian, has nary a justificatory footnote for King Achashverosh.

I think the CJLS has some re-interpretation to do in light of this timely Orthodox omission. We need more sons who are unable to ask the question.

Comments

[willendorf5761.livejournal.com]

What'd I tell you? Rabbi Scroll is to be avoided. Shunned, even. Purim is funny, sexy, clever, and raucous. R. Scroll is none of the above.

Christ (l'havdil), that CJLS responsum about intermarriage is really harshing on my mellow. Actually, the Reconstructionists have a similarly stupid policy in that they will not admit intermarried people to the rabbinnical college. An issue involving intermarriage is what led to my leaving my shul, years ago. Ironically, our current rabbi, now that she's safely ordained and employed, has a non-Jewish partner, although she did not when she was in school.

I would note that rather than smiling, God wisely keeps his/her mouth shut about the marriage of Esther and Ahashverosh. That's probably what my grandmother would have done, had she known about my marriage.

Smiles

[thedarkages]

The post-Purim flourishing of the Jewish population of the Persian Empire counts as a smile. Don't forget, this is the same God who readily shows His displeasure by lightning and leprosy.

(Rabbi Scroll says that Vashti refused to reveal herself not out of modesty but because she had leprosy. Schmuck.)

We have at least three gay people in my extended family. My grandmother (from the story) indeed pretended she didn't understand. This is where the Victorian fictions of schoolboy chums and cohabiting maiden aunts would have come in handy, had she ever read any Victorian literature.

Re: Smiles

[willendorf5761.livejournal.com]

Actually I meant my grandmother would have kept her mouth shut about my being intermarried, but whatever.