Happy Purim!

I knew this country knew how to party, but I wasn't truly prepared for the biggest party of the Spring: Purim. What an absolute fucking blowout! In an effort to maintain a strong distinction between Purim and Israeli Halloween, I went to the Haifa Masorti synagogue to hear the megillah being read (Masorti means "traditional" in Hebrew, and is roughly equivalent to the Conservative movement back stateside.) Because it was a Masorti crowd, it was very kid oriented: There were performances by kids in between the chapters of the reading, and a costume competition seemed to be rapping up as we arrived. My boss at Ofakim apparently goes to this synagogue. She handed me a gragger and I made solid use of it. The best costume I saw all night was at the synagogue, where a guy had dressed up as the plummeting value of the U.S. Dollar. I can't really describe it, you simply had to see it.

Hearing the Megillah reading.

Once we returned to the campus, the drinking began. It is traditional on Purim to drink until you can't tell the difference between the phrase "Blessed is Mordechai" and "Cursed is Haman." I'm proud to say that I reached that goal! The student union was throwing a big party at the "Gan HaCongressim" convention center in Haifa. The headline act was Ivri Lider, who would be performing in concert. Eli decided to come back to Haifa to see the show. We met up at my place and busted out with copious quantities of scotch, vodka and beer. Nate showed up with two bottles of wine (something I don't recommend trying.) Once we were all good and shickered, we grabbed the 11 PM bus to the party.

Nate playing around with some costume ideas.

The convention center is a lot bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. There were at least four different dance floors with DJs spinning all night. I danced for the first 2 hours or so, before moving upstairs to get ready for the concert. Ivri Lider went on at 2 A.M. As usual, Eli and I made sure to get spots at the front. He put on the best show I've seen in Israel to date. He was energetic, exciting, and played for a solid 100 minutes.

Nimrod and Ayelet at the Ivri Lider performance.

Ivri Lider also provided me with one of my favorite stories from Israel. During his last song, he came down off the stage and was walking up and down the barrier separating the crowd from the band. He stopped in front of us and held out the mic for Eli, who was singing at the top of his lungs, and sang about 4 bars directly into the microphone. After strolling down to the end, he came back, reached into a bag he was holding and fed me a piece of chocolate candy. The whole thing was so strange but it's hysterical. Apparently the episode was broadcast on the closed circuit television feed, as both Nimrod and Ayelet saw it on the 25 foot screen. What a way to end the night! We went home at 4 A.M., more or less sober and utterly exhausted. The best part of the whole thing is that I woke up the next morning feeling like a million bucks. No ill effects whatsoever, and I partied as hard as I have in years. Israelis sure know how to do Purim.

All smiles at the concert.