Secret of the Scrolls (special Purim guest)

Hello darlings and Happy Purim!

I am Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross - very briefly back in New York for the holiday and for some secret diplomatic negotiations at the UN - my friend Rabbi Amichai asked me to say a few words about this Bible Belt that he likes to go below and I like also..

If you don’t go low you don’t go high and below the belt is where the most sacred secrets hide for us to seek -

So today is the day of the megilla - the scroll of Esther! It is my namesake of course - Hadassah first appears in this scroll, the name of the beautiful Jewish girl who will become Queen Esther. It is a crazy complicated story that is about her courage and the danger to the Jewish people at all times and it is a fantasy of power and revenge and about the obligation to be happy and be kind and celebrate resilience and survival most of all. You know the rabbis in the Talmud didn’t want to put Esther in the Bible. Imagine that we did not have this holiday at all? What name would I have? When would we flip life upside down to remember where we come from? Anyway - the rabbis changes their mind, they often do - i married six of them -- and now we have not just the scroll of Esther but four other scrolls too.

Today I want to tell you about all the other four megillas too - the five scrolls in the bible are each connected to a holiday and together they tell one long story and have an important message that comes in all year long.

After Purim comes Pesach - Passover - and the scroll of that spring holiday of liberation is Song of Songs- Shir HaShirim all about the flower blooming and the love love love - like you to me - all about the power of love between people and between us and god and it is beautiful and mystical and complicated, nu, like love. Then comes the holiday of Shavuot which once was in the barley harvest so we read the scroll of Ruth - that happens in the field and is about the kindness to strangers - love all people, especially the weak among you, and the widow - that is me! And we deserve it! And especially the stranger and the foreigner among you - and the one who needs you help -- like immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees - and what was once me too! So this megilla teaches us to love even more and Ruth becomes the mother of the mosiach - the future messiah from the kindness of her deeds.

Nu NEXT comes Eycha - Tisha B’av - our lamentations over trauma - we fast and read the scroll of sorrow to remind us that our grief is holy and that by mourning together we commit to hope. The rabbis teach that hatred and division among us is what caused Jeruaslem to burn before and we must love each other more, even all the people that its difficult - i know a few -- dont’ get me started - to avoid destruction and to bring more love and hope into the world - we need it now - like peace, and bring them home - and end all fighting and oseh shalom --

and then comes the megilla that you are in the middle of right now - Kohelet- however you say it in English - it’s like Greek to me -- Ecc something -- this is about the search for meaning, for everything there is a season, and it is read on Succos - the holiday of harvest and of joy - why?

Because when you are celebrating your harvest you also contemplate how temporary it all is - the roof over your head, your body and your joy -- and what matters most - love. Love lingers. Love inside, outside, left, right, above and most importantly - BELOW - the bible belt and deeper deeper yet -- that is why I am spending all this time below the dead sea - lowest place on earth to help redeem the sparks of the shechina and bring hope to this world - we need her back!

But anyway -- you see how all five scrolls are intertwined like us and all connected - love and kindness, sorrow and courage, coming full circle again and again, we gather to unscroll our scrolls and tell ourselves the tales and holy stories to remind us how to live holy helpful lives, never despair always repair!

And now I have to go - I go back to the Dead Sea for my secret underground below the everything redemption mission. For everything there is a time they say and it is time to say goodbye, shalom, hello and see you next time.

Happy Purim! Ramadan and Easter and Holi and Full moon eclipse and everything upside down and downside up — together just like us - with less fear and more love and good shabbos!

See you again? Who knows? Be happy kindelranc. Be Kind. Shalom Aleichem. Zain Gezunt.