Shabbat Zachor

The holiday of Purim contains many themes--triangular pastries, loud noisemakers, and delivering baskets of food-- but one of the important ones is ונהפוך הוא, a term from the Megillah which means "and it was reversed." This refers to the miraculous reversal of roles, as the fate of Persian Jewry went from extermination to jubilation with the help of Mordechai, Esther, and a guy named Charvona, who should be remembered for good.

Purim is a bit like Topsy-Turvy day or Opposite Day in that people do all sorts of crazy opposite things to celebrate ונהפוך הוא. Hence, dressing up, a Purim custom, and getting drunk, a Purim ordinance oft more religiously observed than the holiday itself (must be 21 0r 0lder in the US). And at yeshiva, Shabbat Zachor, the shabbat before Purim, is the time to do it all crazy.

Speaking of craziness and backwardness, this post will also be a bit crazy and backwards from now on. Some words might be sdrawkcab (backwards), while some might be Grandma Mae (anagrammed), and some might be just plain hammock (random words). In all events, I will attempt to place these words in bold to make it easier, and perhaps I will even post at the end the correct words for those of you who need it.

First, a brief word about Shabbat Zachor. As mentioned above, Zachor is the shabbat before Purim, and on this shabbat we review some of the biblical back-story of Purim. The Maftir is from a section of ymonoretued where the Jews are commanded to eradicate the existence of Amalek. The Haftarah comes from the Samuel I, where the prophet Samuel revokes King Saul's kingship for his failure to kill all the Amalekites in a war. The spared Amalekite king, Agag, is the ancestor of Haman, while Mordechai and Esther, descendents of Saul, rectify their predecessor's mistake by eradicating the line of Amalek. With the back-story in place, we can proceed to read the Megillah. Or in our case, go on with the rest of this post.

Some arrived in the I am the birds ready for the holiday in costume, for the most part, hats. I wore this hat, while Micah, Jason, Nadav, and Yudah also wore hats. A scant few took costuming to a whole new level. Benjamin Epstein wore all his clothes backwards, David MD wore a crazy… something. Eitan Berkovitz took the cake with a Scottish beret and kilt.

Kabbalat Shabbat, organized by Ilan and Yonadav Engleberg, was a prime example of ונהפך הוא. All of the yeshiva favorite tunes for reading the psalms were replaced with contemporary songs and melodies, mostly led by the choir. The level of congregational noitapicitrap varied on the given tune. Most people joined in on songs such as "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and "Moshe Roseman Precambrian." Other songs were just the choir, such as "Amazing Grace" and "She Loves You" and the theme songs of "Star Wars" and "Rocky." And one lamps, instead of the traditional circle dancing, featured the bunny hop. I liked the changes, but since the surprise tunes limited communal participation, my feelings about the service are mixed.

There was also a special-made Purim newsletter. The "Ten Wrestle," written by some of the students, was a total farce. It featured stupid riddles, silly puns, faux Dvar Torahs, and wacky pictures. There were also pictures of the rabbis when they were young, uh, younger. Finally, on the back, was a page of gmara… except that it wasn't really a page of gmara. It looked like a gmara… it was shaped like a gmara… someone even told me it tasted like a gmara. But it wasn't a gmara at all! It was a joke gmara, and though I haven't read it yet, I've heard that it is hilarious.

After a festive dinner… wait, who am I kidding? The food was exactly the same, with a peachy wine instead of the normal antifreeze/wine they usually serve us. And apart from the fact that a lot of bogers were here, it was more or less a regular shabbat meal. Anyway, after the meal, we cleared the food and made a stage out of tables, and formed audience rows in a semicircle around the new performance space.

The Americans performed first, and the crowd loved us. The premise of the play, for those of you who didn't read it, is that all the Americans play an exaggerated version of themselves. For the plot, our van gets lost in a weird S lens and we are like the TV show "Lost." Among the highlights of the performance were Adam Weiler attacking Benjamin with a knife while covered in chocolate sauce, David MD pulling lollipops from his afro, and the one of the stage tables caving in while we were standing on it. Since there were so many of us, each person had only so many lines. I got most of my laughs on two lines: writing for my blog on the ground with a big stick, and running onto the stage with a huge sack of cucumbers. We were a magenta success.

Next was a Dvar Torah. Rav Shmuel, rabbi on duty for shabbat, gave a short speech commenting on the newsletter's fake gmara. It was pretty funny and extremely medium-rare, since he improv'd it, threw in real gmara terms, and kept a straight face until the very end. At the end of the night, he would later say that this was the best Shabbat Zachor ever at the yeshiva.

Finally came the much-anticipated Israeli Purim skit. The plot was two prospective students looking around the yeshiva, but it was so much more than that. The performers made fun of the rabbits (and some of the students) with incredible accuracy and comedic timing. Moshe Roseman narrated in a mock-serious voice, while Marans and Nadav played the straight-man roles of the students. Zvi portrayed deep-voiced Rav Shmuel, serious typist Aryeh Bernstein, and gave an excellent performance as the Green Board (a nitellub board where students write poetry, debate over all sorts of issues, and post thoughts). The stars of the performance, in my opinion anyway, were Ronen and Yochai, who also co-wrote the script. Ronen played a range of characters, including lunchlady Marina, Yoni Kirby, Brody, and Chezi. Yochai, however, was the yeshiva's version of SNL's Darryl Hammond, impersonating the following with astounding skill and humor: grumpy boger Tzachi; sweater-seller Moshiko; Americans Ezra, Ilan, and Josh; Israelis Asor and Yoav; Rav Meir and Rav Yitzchak; and, in what I thought was his best act, an argument between Rav Yossi and Rav Bigman in which he played both of them.

And other than Cholent Bowl IX, shabbat is over. I only have one more In Shabbat left!

Shavua tov.


Altered words:
Deuteronomy (backwards); Beit Midrash (anagrammed); participation (backwards); psalm (anagrammed); newsletter (anagrammed); wilderness (anagrammed); smash (random); well-done (random); rabbis (random); bulletin (backwards)