Oznei Haman
Mishloach manot
It's Purim, the Jewish Carnival!!!
Where ever you go, you see costumes, ever since last Friday, Feb.26.
All the kids and a lot of adults took out clothes from their closets and made for themselves costumes. Some of them go to the stores and buy costumes: angels, devils, animal costumes, princess, boys/girls movies characters, religious, ninjas, etc.
It is really nice to see not only in the malls, but also the bus drivers, doctors attending patients or teachers in their work place celebrating Purim with their costumes.
Other customs during this season include giving the Purim Basket (Mishloach Manot), at least two different ready-to-eat foods to one person, as we read in the book of Esther (Megilat Esther), which calls for “the sending of portions (Mishloach Manot) one man to another”. The basket includes food or drinks that do not need any further preparation. Some people just buy the basket ready in the supermarket of stores,[as you can see in one of the pictures above], others prepare them at home.
Ozney haman (in Hebrew) or Hamantashen (in Yidish) [Haman’s ears], are delicious triangular-shaped, filled pastry which is traditionally served on Purim. When I was a little kid, I used to eat them filled with marmalade, today I saw them filled with halva, chocolate, dates and others fillings. They are REALLY DELICIOUS!!!!
The kids also plays with a ra’ashan (grogger) Some of them are made from wood, other are plastics. The ra’ashan is the traditional toy used for making a noise to stamp out Haman’s name during the reading of Megilat Esther.
During Purim, as any other Carnival in the world, the clowns are very popular. Kids and adults love them; some get dressed up like them and some just enjoyed seeing them. Here in Israel I heard about a very special group of clowns. Clowns who not only amuse the people who see them, especially children, but who also bring happiness to the ill in hospital. And I am talking about the “Medical Clowns” that are in Tel Hashomer hospital, in Tel Aviv.
Last Shabat, we had the opportunity to spend it with our dear friends in the Moshav Tirat Yehuda. We heard that a young girl came to the moshav and spoke about the wonderful program she attends, and invited other young people to follow her step and others in order to put a smile in the hearts of the children who are going into surgery or staying in the hospital due to their sickness.
There is an “Academic Program for Medial Clowns”, also known as “Dreams Doctors”, at Haifa University. I think is a great idea to follow. I am quite sure that a kid who is going into a surgery while accompanied by a clown will “forget” his/her pain or fear and will smile or laugh with the clown's jokes. “Laugher is the best medicine for your health”.
Until the next entry!
Happy Purim
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