March 23, 2007

You don't have to be Jewish to celebrate Purim

The celebration of Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating a failed plot against the Jews of ancient Persia, typically involves public revelry, food and wine, a masquerade, giving to charity and noshing special cookies called hamentashen. On March 2, MGHers were led in a Purim service by Rabbi Benjamin Lanckton in the MGH Chapel.

Costumed MGHers took turns reading from a translation of Megillat Esther, the Old Testament scroll which recounts the story of Purim. Audience wielded noisemakers called groggers for use at every mention of the story's villain, Haman. Esther Israel, MD, associate unit chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, was outfitted as a British constable and chanted her section in biblical Hebrew. After the ceremony, Lanckton — festively sporting a Superman outfit, complete with cape — offered the blessing over the hamentashen, whose triangular shape is said to represent Haman's hat or, in some versions, his ears. Deborah Washington, RN, PhDc, director of Diversity for MGH Patient Care Services, remarked as she enjoyed her cookie, "It just goes to show you, every religion's got a good guy and a bad guy."



Left to right, Israel; Kathryn Beauchamp, RN, MSW, CCRN; Rev. Angelika Zollfrank, director of Clinical Pastoral Education; Shoshana Savits, MSW; Washington; Beth Nolan, Global Health Services liaison; and Lanckton