Purim, like many other Jewish holidays, celebrates a historical moment when a group of Jews escaped annihilation at the hands of a dastardly villain. The main ritual of Purim involves reading through a specific book - the Book of Esther, or Megillah in Hebrew - which recounts the tale of the beautiful Esther, who became queen to King Ahasuerus and prevented his minister, Haman, from killing all the Jews living in Persia. (The word "hamantashen" derives in part from the minister's name, and the cookies' shape is supposed to resemble his three-cornered hat.) During the reading of the tale, listeners are encouraged to drown out Haman's name through booing and other noisemaking. Since Purim is a joyous holiday (following the adage, "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat!"), rowdy behavior, heavy drinking, and social transgression is encouraged.
At Kehilat Gesher, we were greeted at the door by the rabbi, Tom Cohen, who was unrecognizable in a full leprechaun costume. Tom is one half of France's only husband-wife rabbi team; his French wife leads services at the synagogue in the 11th arrondissement where Adam, Rachel, and I went for Simchat Torah services in October. Despite the leprechaun costume and Tom's insistence that his ancestors were Irish (apparently Ireland was just a half-way point between Lithuania and the US) we were immediately struck by the uncanny similarities between Tom and Seth Rogen, in terms of both physique and personality. This immediately put us at ease, preparing us for the raucous service that followed.
Rabbi Tom encouraged the 30-or-so attendees to take turns reading from the Megillah in whatever language they liked - French, English, or Hebrew. Actually, what he wanted was not reading; he wanted people to sing. So a few brave souls tried making up their own tunes, but that turned out to be really hard. So others tried to fit the text to popular tunes, notably the March of the Toreadors from Carmen, the Marseillaise, and (weirdly) Jingle Bells (which probably worked the best). Add to this the fact that Tom started a drinking game where everyone took a shot of schnaps every time the words "festival," "feast," "drink," "eat," or "party" appeared, and the service got real enjoyable, real quick.
We had initially planned to meet Talya and Ari at the synagogue, but they showed up late enough that they only got to enjoy the last 10 minutes of the service. After it ended, we traveled back and forth between the reception, with its excellent food and drink, and the room where the service was conducted, since Ari was doing a quick read-through on his own. When he finished, he and Rabbi Tom had a long conversation about all the professors they had in common from rabbinical school (the reason why Ari is spending the year in Israel), and we got to hear about Rabbi Tom's wedding at a French château with 8 other rabbis officiating. Crazy!
We got the sense that Kehilat Gesher is a warm, inclusive community, and that Rabbi Tom does a great job of fostering a truly bilingual atmosphere. If you're in town and looking for a synagogue, check the Kehilat Gesher website to see whether services will be at their 17th arrondissement location, or at their other synagogue in St.-Germain-en-Laye, since they alternate between the two. And let us know if you're going, so we can join you!
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