Friday, March 05, 2004

Rashamontashen Redux

It’s Friday - and not just any friday, but pre-Purim Friday, a day of unrivaled party potential.  And what says “unrivaled party potential” better than a ponderously long cycle of essays on the Book of Esther?  Most anything!  But is that going to stop me?  Hell no!  Instead of scraping together a fistful of new drivel for you today, I’m going to regurgitate a Chucklehut classik - that is to say, something I posted last year at about this time when I didn’t have anything original to say.  And since I still don’t, you are warmly invited to ignore Rashomontashen - the story of Purim told from four specific personal perspectives. 

I can’t help but note, as I draft this and set up the link, that for some reason this document is full of punctuation typos - most of the apostrophies, quotation marks and hyphens have been replaced somehow with question marks.  If I had the time this morning I’d scroll through and fix them all, but looking at it now there is a sort of poetic propriety to these errors - the constant self-interrogation, the incessant inquiring into every sentence.  Any other typo would have infuriated me, kept me from posting this at all till it was fixed.  These ones, I can live with for the short term.  It’s a time to celebrate, but not without some measure of introspection and consideration - at least, at first.  And that means y’all are stuck with the typos.  It should be the worst thing that happens to you. I fixed the typos, and as always, tweaked the text.  Have at it, party animals. 

My dad calls this story a “midrash.” For most of us, this word is a euphemism for jock itch, but for the talmudicists among us (and they are legion (if “legion” means a few dozen worldwide)) midrash is an interpretation of, or a reading into, a biblical verse.  I was hoping, rather, that it would be mishnah, but that was implausible.  Mishna Implausible.  Sick of me yet?  Don’t worry, I’ll keep trying.  In the meantime, have a very merry Purim, and be happy - it’s Adar!