Just for the record - Purim isn't really Israel's equivalent of April Fool's Day. Making jokes is really only just one small element of the holiday, which centers much more around an historical event in which the Jews were luckily triumphant.
It has turned into a national day of celebration and joy and thus we often poke fun of many aspects of life. If you want to learn more about Purim, I suggest you visit: http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm http://www.aish.com/purimbasics/purimbasicsdefault/The_ABCs_of_Purim.asp Here's a bit of it: Purim is Judaism's most dramatic, fun-filled holiday. When else can you dress up like a bunny rabbit and eat doughy triangles filled with prunes and poppy seeds? Purim occurs on the 14th of Adar. (In certain walled cities like Jerusalem, "Shushan Purim" is celebrated on the 15th of Adar.) The main event is reading the Book of Esther. Set in Persia 2,300 years ago, the "Megillah" (as it is commonly called) recounts how a seemingly unrelated series of events spun together to save the Jewish people from annihilation. The quickie version is as follows: When King Achashverosh throws a huge six-month party and the queen refuses to follow orders, she is replaced by a new queen - Esther the Jewess. Esther's uncle Mordechai, the leader of the Jews, uncovers a plot to assassinate the king -- putting him also in a favorable position with the king. All this comes in handy when Haman, the king's top advisor, obtains a decree to have all the Jews destroyed. In the end, through a complex twist of events, Esther gets the decree reversed, Haman is hanged on the gallows, and Mordechai becomes prime minister. Regards, Paula Paula R. Stern WritePoint Ltd. www.writepoint.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Svi Ben-Elya Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 11:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TCP] Are Technical Writers Losing Their Grip on Reality? Paula is right, it was a bit cryptic and Purim is the Israeli and Jewish equivalent of April Fools Day. Anyone interested in seeing that and other bogus articles mixed in with real ones are welcome to visit elephant.org.il . The bogus articles will remain live until midnight Israeli time. During the rest of the year the Elephant site is a serious site for technical writers. By the way, you are all welcome to prepare articles for April Fools and send them to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (svi at ieee dot org). - Svi Ben-Elya - www.elephant.org.il (www dot elephant dot org il) -----Original Message----- Re: [TCP] Are Technical Writers Losing Their Grip on Reality? Paula Stern \(WritePoint\) Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:02:03 -0800 To add a little perspective to this rather cryptic note... Jews are celebrating the holiday of Purim yesterday and today (in Jerusalem and walled cities such as Hebron, Safed, Tiberias, etc.). The holiday is one of the few truly fun and happy holidays we have, with little seriousness at all. In some ways (if those in the know will forgive me), it is a combination of April Fool's Day, Halloween, and more. It includes the retelling of a story that could easily have been one of great tragedy - a rather idiotic king controlled by his demonic advisor who convinces the king to sign an edict to kill all the Jews in the land. Meanwhile, the idiot king kills his first wife because she refused to dance naked before his advisors and then realizes he wants another wife. He picks a young, beautiful, Jewish woman who reveals the danger to her people. The king turns the edict around at the last minute, and the Jewish people are saved and the wicked Haman is killed. Each year, we read the story and boo and make noise when the evil Haman's name is spoken; we celebrate by giving gifts of food to friends and money to the poor and sharing in a festive meal (we had a BBQ). Kids dress up in costumes and we celebrate and get rather silly. In terms of history, I believe this story, which took place in Shushan, Persia hundreds of years ago, really happened. About 3 decades ago, Jews from Ethiopia, largely a forgotten and lost community, started arriving in Israel after some traveling Israelis stumbled across them and explained that Israel had been re-established after 2,000 years. When the Israeli government sent planes into Ethiopia (actually Sudan), to get them out, the rabbis here began comparing "their" religion and practices with mainstream Judaism and found matches in all the major holidays. They (and we), keep Yom Kippur, Passover, etc. etc. Well, when they got to the "holiday" of Purim, which we just celebrated, the Ethiopians said it as a fast day, a day of mourning. The Israeli rabbis asked - mourning? We celebrate - why do you mourn? And the Ethiopian rabbis explained that all the Jews of Shushan had been killed - same day as we celebrate - according to the edict of the king. It seems that the second edict, the one ordering people NOT to kill the Jews, never got to Ethiopia and so, for hundreds of years, this isolated community would mourn for the Jews of Shushan and fast in sorrow for their deaths! Now, they celebrate with us and part of that celebration is just being silly...which brings us back to Svi's post. As someone who is very active in the Israeli technical writing community, I can tell you we are just as normal as all the rest of you nuts...I mean technical writers! Cheers - and happy Purim! Paula Paula R. Stern WritePoint Ltd. www.writepoint.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wade Courtney Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 8:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TCP] Are Technical Writers Losing Their Grip on Reality? I lost my grip loooooong ago. On 3/4/07, Svi Ben-Elya <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Elephant.org.il just reported on a recent study that found that many > Israeli technical writers have begun losing their grip on reality. > Although most technical writers don't take the study seriously many of > you may enjoy reading it. > > - Svi Ben-Elya - > [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. 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