One of the most beautiful books of the Bible, Esther is the only one that doesn't specifically refer to God. Esther's story defies moralizing, but perhaps one of its lessons is that God's hiddenness is not God's absence. Even in the face of death.

We end public readings of the Scroll of Esther with a blessing. "Blessed are you, God, who takes up our grievance, judges our claim and avenges the wrongs against us. You bring retribution on our enemies and vengeance on our foes." It's a tragedy when those we have in mind are other Jews.

Purim is the consummate Jewish carnival, and puppetry -- very much at home in the carnival -- is often considered a lowly art, if an art at all. So what can we make of lowly behavior, lowly art and inverted souls?

When humans take the risk to act with virtue and courage, invisible forces conspire on the side of good. Those who use power to do evil will fall, tripped up by their own tortuous machinations.

Purim is a radical embrace of the uncontrollable nature of life, celebrating the concealment of God through wearing masks, and the confusion of life through intoxication. With faith in the Divine, we go through chaos and transcend into something higher, into a place of Oneness.

We ought to never become oblivious to all that which life has to offer. And we ought to remember that the blessings of life emerge precisely when we learn to synchronize what we want from life with what life wants from us. Herein lies the secret to a life of purpose and meaningful achievements.

In the weeks before I was ordained as a rabbi, my husband Peter asked: "What will you say when people ask you what kind of a rabbi you are?" What did he mean what kind? What was I supposed to say?

I make sure my students end just about every week of term by celebrating a Jewish holiday. We're mostly Protestants, so we're not so good at it; but we have fun, and we learn about Jewish history -- our shared history -- by laughing, eating, dancing and praying, sometimes in botched Hebrew.

In a month where the predictable has vied with the unprecedented, may we be truly surprised by the reversal of policies of intolerance, and the respect for each others' own practices, beliefs and doubts.

Think that Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar? Guess again....

Hearing the horror of the planned genocide, the light went on: Esther connected with her inner self and understood why she had been made queen. Esther had been made queen to save her people.

WASHINGTON (RNS) Debby Levitt's four children are dressing up big time for Purim, one of the more raucous of Jewish holidays, which begins on Saturday...

Most often in our culture God is the address for requests, for the expectation that something that I cannot control will be taken care of by a Higher or Greater Power. What if, in the spirit of Purim and our Torah reading, we adapt JFK's famous statement and ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God?

I can think of no greater way to celebrate the joyous and happy holiday of Purim than to read the megillah, knowing that previous generations have held the same piece that is in my hands, smiling.

This week, after we talk about the difference between the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant Bibles, we'll settle down for our first party of the year: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I know my calendar is out of whack, but we have 10 weeks to learn the whole Bible, so we can't be picky (or even correct).