Purim thoughts and anticipations

[debka_notion]

1. shirei_shibolim, you might enjoy knowing that I got a few compliments on my megillah trope (aka, your megillah trope)this morning- because the etnakhta and sofei-pasuk are actually easy to distinguish from each other. People seemed to find this unusual.

2. Why the heck isn't Vashti held up as a model of good tzniusdike behavior (aren't they always looking for good biblical role models for religious girls?), rather than being cast as a villainess? What would people have wanted Esther to do in the same situation? I keep thinking that someone should dress up for Purim as Vashti by wearing a chador... (Even if I still get a kick out of the idea of her turning green and growing a tail...)

3. Steve brought really exciting hamentashen to minyan this morning for Rosh Hodesh. It was a pleasant surprise, and rather inspiring on my part.

Comments

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Why the heck isn't Vashti held up as a model of good tzniusdike behavior (aren't they always looking for good biblical role models for religious girls?), rather than being cast as a villainess?

Because she wasn't Jewish, and her misfortune benefitted the Jews? (I'm not saying that's a good reason, but it seems to be the usual reason for attributing no good motive ever to a Biblical character, in spite of all support in the text. I suppose the more charitable interpretation would be that people assume that since bad things happened to her, she must have had major faults for which she was being punished.)

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

What about Bil`am?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

What about him?

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

He wasn't Jewish, he suffered a misfortune that benefited the Jews, and we don't think all that poorly of him, relatively speaking. We quote him right when we walk into a synagogue!

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

You've never seen the midrashim about how he never had a good motive in his life, everything he does that looks like it might be honorable was actually a sneaky, underhanded tactic with evil intentions, and he slept with his donkey?

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Hence the qualification of my statement. I believe a rabbi associated with your home synagogue cited some alternate midrashim about him in a sermon a few years ago, the gist being that he was a great prophet who wasn't so good at perceiving worldly things as they were.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Did I tell you that?

My point, though, is more about popular interpretations rather than possible ones. I seem to recall the Artscroll commentary is pretty clear on his never having had any good motive ever.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Beware the assumption that Artscroll has chosen a representative or popular opinion, as opposed to one that fits their worldview.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Let's just say that between owning an Artscroll chumash, reading the Midrash Says, and going to a Jewish day school, I had no inkling of how sympathetically Bilam is actually portrayed until I went and objectively read the biblical text.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

(And I hadn't even heard the donkey thing.)

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Funny- I got a sense from my childhood bible stories that Esav and Ishmael were supposed to be lousy characters, even though the actual text doesn't suggest so much of this (something I found out a bit in high school), but never got a bad sense of Bilaam.

I also don't know why I feel compelled to write his name with two a's, or why whatever text I learned the name from felt that need. Just to make it look even odder than most transliterated/"translated" names in the Bible?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

On the latter count -- me, too. I repressed it because I couldn't think of a good reason, but it was my instinct.