Sunday Mail: February 17, 2008

Posting a cartoon every weekday leaves no room for me to simply share news, ideas, and other stuff with you, so here's a Dry Bones feature called: 'Sunday Mail: Letters from Dry Bones'.

Both of today's items are about the happy fun-filled Jewish Holiday of Purim ...upon us in just about a month (March 21st this year). It's a time of sending messages, to ourselves, to our friends, and to those who would destroy us.

Item One:Purim Shalach Manot
When I was a kid, we pronounced it with Yiddish-accented Hebrew as Shalach Manos. Purim celebrates our having survived an earlier Persian (Iranian) attempt to "wipe us off the map"(as described in the Biblical Book of Esther). Shalach Manot is the mitzvah that every adult Jew is required to perform on the holiday. It means the sending of baskets of holiday goodies, treats, and munchies to others. In Israel, especially in Jerusalem it is a popular and lovely tradition.

So if you want to join in and send Shalach Manot (or Shalach Manos) goodies to folks in Israel, you can do it from anyplace in the world. Just click on Shalach Manos.

Item Two: the Annual Purim Shmendrik Awards.
I need your help! These annual awards “honor” those who have most distinguished themselves by their seemingly unwitting support of anti-Semitism. It's now time to select the biggest Shmendrik of the past year. You can check out last year's award here. But what we need to do now is to select this year's winner(s). So PLEASE send me your suggestion(s) either by leaving a comment ...or send in your nominee in an email.

The email address for Shmendrik suggestions is Purim(at)mrdrybones.com. Just replace the (at) in the address with a @.