My Purim Rock

My Purim Rock

Every Shabbat I attend a wonderful parsha class given by my neighbor Shira Lichtig. Last Friday she took her students to one of her favorite places, the Jerusalem Forest. It was such an amazing trip, I was wishing you JewishMOMs could be with me! So I decided, through photos, to bring you along…

Shira suggested that we walk in silence, so we could really connect–with this beautiful place, as well as with the still, small voice within ourselves which we hear so rarely within the hustle and bustle of regular life….

“Jerusalem, mountains surround her.” The breathtaking view 10 minutes from my home, but which I take the time out to see, I realized on this walk, shamefully rarely…

After a b”H wet winter, the Jerusalem Forest is filled with thousands of cyclamens and anemones (thank you Google Translate!) Shira told me something I never knew, that cyclamens have a smell, which she described with a smile as “the smell of “the color pink.” I tried to smell them, but all I could smell was the wet, fertile earth underneath them–which actually, I discovered, was wondrously delicious!

I adore anemones! Each flower, Shira told us,
is a mishloach manot from Hashem. Mishloachei manot, she said, are the spirituality fixing for Haman’s complaint against the Jewish people “There is one people, spread out and divided.” Our Mishloachei manot to one another unite the Jewish people.

These cyclamens reminded me of the verse “Like a rose among thorns,” used to describe Queen Esther—shining with dedication to Hashem and the Jewish people while surrounded by the gross hedonism and immorality of Achashverosh’s palace.

This was my favorite part of the walk– Shira showed us how it is possible to balance rocks on one another–something that would appear impossible! But all of us did it, and it is possible…
Which reminded me of Purim. With everything going on, and everything I have to do, and everyone who needs me to fix a Purim costume or check a megila-reading time or walk them over to a friend’s house to deliver mishloach manot…It would seem categorically impossible to maintain my balance.
But that, Shira said, is the spiritual service of Purim, which is even higher and holier than the service of Yom Kippur…
To feel Hashem with me, guiding me, within all of the Purim chaos. As he does, through all of the chaos of my JewishMOM life, all year round.
To feel balance, with Hashem’s help, like that impossible rock.

7 comments

  1. This is gorgeous- thanks a million!

  2. Thank you! I can’t be there in person so I always am hungry to see pictures!!

  3. What an uplifting experience! How fun to frolick in nature :). Thanks for taking us with you on the journey…

  4. tiferes carroll

    Beautiful!!!

    Thank you so much for sharing your experience and these gorgeous pictures!!!

    I wish I could have been there…

    Longing for Jerusalem…

    May we see the final geula in our days!!!

    We definitely need Mashiach!!!! Maybe he will come today!!!

  5. Glad you could take the time to enjoy Hashem’s bounty. Being in the forest and seeing views of the Holy Land revives the spirit. Now you can be charged up for the week ahead. Purim Sameach!

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