The Shape of a Story

One of my favorite stories features a young woman whose strength came from humility. She was an outsider put into an untenable situation, but rather than complain, she learned how to live in her circumstances without being victimized by them. In doing so, she gained the trust of the most powerful man on earth and was able to leverage that trust to prevent the destruction of an entire community. Her closest advisor gave her difficult council, but she recognized wisdom and risked her own life to save her people. Thousands of years later, her triumph is celebrated in the Spring with festivities, charity, costumes, and a pastry shaped like the hat of the one who tried to enact genocide but was thwarted by a girl born “for such a time as this.”

The shape of this story is in two parts: the hamentaschen cookie, and the Star of David. Queen Esther is a woman whose story is worthy of the telling, over and over again.

Chag Purim Sameach