Purim -- Megillah Reading

Women! Come one, come all!!

I am hosting a women's Megillah reading at my home on Tuesday night. (We live in Jerusalem, so we celebrate Purim on Shushan Purim, one day later.)

This is the third year that I am organizing a women's reading in my neighborhood, Homat Shmuel, but the FIRST year that I am hosting it in my home.

My home is not neat and orderly (to put it mildly), so I was embarrassed to host. But the woman, who hosted in the past, can't host this year. And, since this is really my baby, I decided that it really made the most sense to host it in my home.

So, with the help of a friend, we placed an announcement in Al Homotaich, a local weekly magazine.

In shul (synagogue), this past Shabbat, I invited everyone I thought might be interested! Many had already seen the invitation in Al Homotaich. I hope I created enough of a buzz....

We have the privilege, for the third year in a row, to have my friend, TS, read for us. She is an amazing reader, exacting in both nikud (pronunciation) and ta'amei hamikra (cantillations), and she also does voices! How fun is that?!


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Originally, as some of the long-term blog readers know, I wanted to organize an additional morning reading. I would have broken up the reading by chapters and I would have read a chapter as well.

Just as I was starting to plan the morning reading, my eldest daughter announced that she was reading half of tet (the 9th chapter) in her school on Purim morning!

"But you don't know how to read Megillah!" I responded, confused as to how she could volunteer for something she does not know how to do.

My daughter smiled sweetly at me and asked "Can you teach me?"

In two weeks?!?

How could I say 'no'?

She already knows how to read Torah, and she is quite musical, so it was just a matter of helping her learn a new melody.

With more than a little help from TS, my daughter is ready to read on Purim morning.

I am so proud.

At first, I deliberated about what to do on Purim morning. It did not help that my daughter kept telling me that I did not have to come to her reading.

"I know I do not have to come," I reassured her, "but don't you want me to come?"

To my chagrin, my daughter was perfectly fine with me doing my own thing at home.

But I really could not imagine missing the first time she reads Megillah.

So, despite her cavalier attitude, I decided that this year I am going to hear her read Megillah at her school.

Hopefully, next year, I will organize a morning reading in my home.

Though, who knows what surprises might wait around the corner....

PURIM SAMEACH!!



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA