How do you do Purim?
I like to be creative. We do a theme coordinating the food and the costumes. We have done so many themes over the years.
This year we were at a loss. So many have told me they wanted to skip Purim this year. Who feels like celebrating? It is just not the same.
I responded that it is all the more reason to celebrate! We need this so badly. We need to cherish all of the happy moments we have, especially in a year that has been so fraught with sadness and unknown dangers.
We had a family meeting and tried to come up with some ideas. Our youngest son wanted to be a minion. I thought hmm.. We could make a play on words and not being able to go to minyan … but I wasn’t so into the whole minion costume part….
One of our daughter’s requested sweatshirts (of course) that stated We Are All In This Together. WAITT and that we are waitting for Mashiach to come. She wanted them to be team sweatshirts with our family name on them and we were each assigned a number based on order of birth 01-07.
My first thought was, sweatshirts, really? She has so many…. But then I thought, wow. This has been such a tough year for all of us and for her particularly. Keeping a social butterfly at bay is no easy task during COVID. We have had many arguments about what we allow and don’t allow.
All these months we have stated our family rules over and over again about masking, social distancing, and no sleepovers…. The list goes on and on. And she, along with all of our children, have been real troopers, although often grumbly about it.
It is not easy to follow these rules, and even more so when not everyone around you follows them too. It is not easy for us or them. But she has followed the rules, like we have. With our tefillos and precautions we are not only doing the best we can to keep ourselves self, we exhibit and practice our belief that we care about others’ safety too.
And now for Purim, she is showing us that through all the ups and downs of this crazy year and all of the arguments, she gets it. She understands. Her mask of indifference has been removed. She does care. And not only does she care, but at the end of the day, she casts her lot with our family. Because we are all in this together.
And so I am in awe of her and our family. We are remaining strong and keeping faith during a most challenging time. Because we have each other, we are all in this together, and it is making all the difference.
Wishing you all a Happy Purim, however you may celebrate it.
