Megillah Thoughts

Irina tagged me with this, and although Purim was a week ago I will give it a shot. Of course I remember being annoyed at the mothers who bring small children to the megillah reading, especially when they don't take them out when they start to make noise. As a matter of fact, after reading a bunch of blog posts on Purim, I wonder if there is a shul in the world where this doesn't occur!

What I remember thinking about also was the transformation that Esther made in the course of her time in the palace of Achashverosh. She entered it as a naive young woman, who didn't really get into the whole beauty contest thing - but ended up being chosen queen. Later, when Mordechai tells her that it is up to her to try to save her people, she shows a lot of "street smarts" in playing off Achashverosh's jealousy of Haman, to the point where she succeeds in getting him bumped off. Pretty sophisticated stuff. Esther must have learned a lot in the palace - but she kept true to herself as a Jewess by calling first and foremost for a fast and prayer, before she took personal action.

I think most of us can learn a lesson from this. I tag Jameel and JerusalemCop for this one.