Random Thoughts

The purpose of this blog is to add something unexpected to your Shabbat meals. Please print and share. 

This picture is what you get when just before Purim, one daughter turns 7 and her sister turns 11.

The third actor in this drama is, of course, Queen Esther.

Yesterday our little Queen Esther asked, "Is Mordechai bad?"

"No," we reassured her.

"Good, because I love him."

Really getting into her rôle.

Later in the day, someone in California reading the Purim story asked, "What does Queen Vashti have to do with it? It seems pretty random."

"Ahh," answered the rabbi, "That's the key to the entire story."

Randomness....a big topic in math, physics, statistics, philosophy and theology.

Bottom line, the Purim story is about how disparate events over a long period of time can be interconnected.

But you don't get it until you read the "whole megilla".

And then you can laugh when you realize that everything, in the end, makes sense.

In the Old Days (remember those days?) the Seattle Science Center had a giant glass Galton Box.

It's very simple. Balls drop through a slot at the top and then bounce randomly among pegs until they pile up at the bottom.

On the outside of the glass there is a painted bell curve.

Now, even though each balls bounces randomly, the sum total of balls always fall according to the bell curve.

You could watch that thing for hours, for days, for years - the balls always fall according to that curve.

In other words, while an individual event may appear random, the big picture is not.

That's my interpretation. What's yours?


Shabbat Shalom

and

Happy Purim

PS - Having trouble laughing at life? Try this "kabbalah" parody, this moral comedy or this Charlie Chaplan classic.

PPS - Want to make your Table Talk rabbi happy? Like it, tweet it, or just send it to someone who might enjoy it.