LEGAL SERVICES
O PINION
Weiss-Greenberg Continued from Page 18
SENIORS TO SENIORS
and in costume, albeit virtu-
ally and/or socially distant. We
should still enjoy a festive meal
with our families. We can still be
joyous and exhibit the tradition of
“v’nahafochu,” literally “turning
things upside down” by being so
joyous that we cannot keep the
Purim story straight, in perhaps
new ways. Traditionally, this is
accomplished through alcohol
consumption. Th is year, we can
appreciate how wearing masks
is no longer an occasional thing
but a staple of our wardrobes.

On Purim, let’s make them not
only protective, but also joyful
and silly.

My biggest hope, however, is
that we more equally distribute
the focus of these four mitzvot
to highlight giving to the
poor. Th e rates of poverty have
skyrocketed in the past year.

Families who had jobs and
enough to care for their families
and give tzedakah to support
others are now standing in lines
at food pantries.

Th is year, we can take time
this week of Purim to consider
the fi nancial inequities and
misfortune that have befallen
our communities, including
our dear friends and family.

We may not be able to sing and
dance together, but we can give
and care for the poor, many of
whom are not strangers and
whose contingencies have risen.

Let’s allow our experience
of a pandemic Purim to have
a lasting impact on the values
and meaning of the holiday.

Yes, we should still thoughtfully
cultivate much-needed joy, but
we can also pay equal attention
— perhaps this year even more
attention — to those who are
not as fortunate.

Th is year my family will
still dress up. We will prepare
mishloach manot — Purim gift
baskets — with cards indicating
that we have made donations
in lieu of lavish gift s. We will
read the Megillah as a family
zooming with our community.

And as a family, we will
choose where to make donations,
and make it clear that we are
blessed and grateful to be able
to have a home and food and to
help others have the same.

We will take the moment to
laugh, eat, enjoy and be grateful
for what we have and not what
could have been. ●
Sharon Weiss-Greenberg is director
of education partnerships for My
Jewish Learning. She studied at The
Drisha Institute for Jewish Education
and Yeshiva University and got a
doctorate from New York University.

She was the fi rst Orthodox woman
chaplain at Harvard University. This
piece was fi rst published by JTA.

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