Purim/Shabbat at Sea!

First of all, Shabbat shalom and happy Purim everyone!!

            Here on the ship, myself, and my friends Eshley and Shelley host a Shabbat dinner every Friday night that we are on the ship. The kitchen staff makes us two challahs every week and prepares grape juice! We usually lead the group and sing a couple of songs like "Shalom aliechem" and "adon olam" and then do the prayers over the candles, wine, and challah and then sit around and eat. Lots of people show up each week, we have the regular Jews that come each week and also people that have never been exposed to Judaism and just want to learn. We've even started a new tradition where each Shabbat, those who have never experienced or celebrated a Shabbat before come up and hold the Challas as we say the blessings, they then break the challah and pass it out. It's our way of making them feel welcome…maybe it scares them a little too, but hey! We're Jews…no reservations!

            This Shabbat was very special because the holiday of Purim was this week. Purim was Wednesday to Thursday night, but we couldn't celebrate on the ship Thursday night so we decided to just combine the two and have a big event last night. The turnout at this Shabbat was more people than we've ever had. We told everyone to show up in costume. We got some really funny costumes. For example, my friend, Grant, who is not Jewish but is very interested in different religions dressed up as T'fillin (a thing religious Jewish men used to pray with). If you're familiar with it, he put a huge cardboard box on his head, printed out a shin, and pasted it on the box. Then, he wrapped stuff around his arm and voila! He was t'fillin! My friend and I each printed us big pictures of quarters, pasted them to our shirts and together we were 50 cent (the rapper). Everyone was really excited to look at each other's costumes.

            We all sat down and started off with a short explanation of what Purim is. Then, I taught everyone the tradition of making noise when Haman's name is said during the story of Purim. I told everyone this, because I then told a condensed, modern version of the story of Purim. All of my Jewish friends that were there called me "such a camp counselor"…of course, I embraced this compliment. All of my non-Jewish friends that were there thanked me for telling the story (yayJ). Then, we said the prayers, and had Shabbat dinner!

            We had ordered lots of cookies before the dinner. After everyone ate, we handed out cookies and jelly and had our very own "make-shift" hamentashens. All in all, it was a GREAT night and probably the best purim/Shabbat celebration that was going on in the middle of the Indian ocean at the time…you know, because there are so many purim/Shabbat celebrations going on the middle of the Indian!         

We may have not committed the typical Purim mitzvah because we still knew the different between good and evil (you know what I'm talking about…if you don't, talk to a Jew that's once celebrated Purim "the right way"). But, we did our best, and had a great time!

Shavua Tov everyone! 

Steph