Tuesday, October 6, 2015 Tishri 23, 5776  Purim Spiel II: A
Smile in the Midst of Downer Days  February 21, 2013 By: Rabbi
Joshua Gruenberg Posted In  Enlarge Image »  The Jewish calendar
is filled with a plethora of holidays commemorating events from
Jewish history that are at worst calamities and at best near
misses, where our ancestors narrowly escaped calamity and
catastrophe.  Destruction of temples, emergence from bondage,
famine, strife — our holiday liturgy often feels like a TV drama
where our downtrodden hero just can't get a break, yet
everything somehow works out before the evening news starts at
11:00 pm. With all of this doom and gloom it's no wonder our
people have excelled in the fields of psychology, both as
patients and practitioners, over these last 5,000 or so years. 
In the midst of all of these downer days, here comes the holiday
of Purim to give us a smile and buck the trend. Now, I know what
you're thinking: "Isn't Purim also about the Jews escaping a
dastardly plot aimed at their an