Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Chocolate Holiday

Well, Purim is coming, and the question is: Can I change?

Purim is a holiday when we distribute charity, and send portions of food to friends and neighbors. Surely this was originally the sending of FOOD. Most people today send candies, cake, and other delicacies. As you can imagine, the retailers advertise in such a way as to lead you to believe that if you do not send something “creative”, “original” or satisfactorily expensive, you are a bit remiss. Some of us fall for this, some don’t.
I personally like to send homemade coleslaw or another salad for Purim. The cakes and cookies just get shuffled from one house to another. I try and send what I would want to receive. Something healthy and which can actually be used later that day in the festive meal which commemorates the miracles of Ester and Mordichai.
Purim is also a day when it is easy to send a nice gift to someone whose work and efforts you appreciate. To this end, I have decided to send to the girls of Ricki’s school class a candy “tree” of chocolates and candy. (For them, I feel I do have to be “creative”.) The question is, can I keep my lips off the ingredients? And on Purim, can I also abstain?

I think that the first step to this end is to convince myself that I CAN accomplish this.

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