Chapter Two

When Anna arrived at Elaine’s Beverly Hills home, the smells of traditional Jewish food reached her nose a mere seconds before the sounds of music and laughter reached her ears. Even when they were in high school, Elaine was notorious for throwing the best parties, and Anna was very happy that her friend hadn’t lost her touch. Elaine was busy handing out greggers and other assorted noise makers, and was just able to raise her hand in a hello, which Anna returned momentarily before Elaine went back to her party guests.

            As Anna predicted, the women were adorned in the festive garb of Queen Esther, and then men wore robes and tunics. There was plenty of wine and plates piled high with the three corned Hamantashen cookies, filled with every fruit imaginable. There were prune, peach, cherry, and even chocolate. More plates with corned beef and pastrami on rye, sour pickles and a huge bowl of pickled herring in sour cream and, of course a huge mountain of bagels, platters of lox, cucumber slices, cream cheese and onions. 

            Having not eaten in 24 hours, Anna was staved, but no sooner did she take a bite of the Hamantashen when Elaine’s cousin Dennis came over and handed her a glass of wine, along with a huge smile.

            “I should have known you weren’t going to break tradition.” he said. “The lone and apparently all alone Vashti, I presume?”

            “Right on both counts,” Anna replied after she had swallowed the cookie, followed by a large sip of wine. “Although I would have to disagree with you on the alone part, I had no idea that Elaine had so many Jewish friends.”

            “They’re all from her Havurah group, which you would have known if you bothered to join our Temple and come to services more than once a year.”

            “Dennis, enough with the Jewish guilt already. You sound like my mother!” Anna slapped him playfully. “I don’t see you here with anyone, where’s your latest shiksa?” she teased him about his reputation of dating non-Jewish women.

            “Believe it or not, my date is over there getting me some wine and not only is she Jewish, the Rabbi is her aunt, so there!”

            Anna looked to where Dennis had pointed to see an attractive blond wearing a pastel blue dress.

            “Congratulations,” Anna said looking around the room at the other guests, she noticed a fairly tall dark haired woman standing in the far corner also watching the crowd. She looked strangely familiar to her. “Is that the Rabbi?” she asked Dennis.

            “Who?” he replied.

            “That woman standing in the corner over there.”

            Anna was about to motion to the corner, but when she turned around to show Dennis who he was referring, the spot where the woman had been standing was vacant. Just then Elaine introduced another woman as the Rabbi.

            “Oh, I guess not.” Anna said. She wondered who the other woman was, and where she had disappeared to, but before she could ask, Elaine began gathering the guests into the living room to begin the reading of the Story of Esther - the Megillah. All the furniture had been replaced by huge pillows, although there were a few chairs for those who might not be comfortable lying on the floor. Anna didn’t have any trouble sprawling out on a fluffy pillow, although she was wondering, after all the drinking, if she would be able to get up again. Elaine refilled everyone’s wine, explained the tradition to those who might have forgotten, offered her guests overnight accommodations if they made it to the goal of getting totally wasted, and turned the festivities over to the Rabbi.

            “Isn’t this a blast?” Elaine said.

            “Absolutely! I’m so glad you talked me into coming.”

            The Rabbi took the scroll from the case she had brought, started to unravel the parchment and began reciting the story. 

            “Let’s not forget,” she started, “and I’m sure most of you won’t, every time Haman’s name is mentioned you need to make enough noise to drown out his name and when I saw Mordechai’s name you can, if you want, no pressure from me,” laughter erupted. “You should take a drink. The goal is to keep drinking until you don’t know the difference between the evil Haman and the righteous Mordechai, unless you’re the designated driver. There will be NO DUI tonight!” she warned. “Ok, if everyone’s ready, let’s get started.”

            “Long ago, in a land far, far away, in a place called Shushan, of the famed empire of Persia, there lived a king, whose name was Ahashuerus, and his queen, Vashti. King Ahashuerus was a haughty man who liked to show off his riches with fancy parties and celebrations, and on one such occasion, he even wanted to show off his own wife. He summoned Vashti and asked her to dance before all of his party guests, but his queen refused and told the king, “No!” This made King Ahashuerus furious, so he sent Queen Vashti away.

            With Queen Vashti gone, King Ahashuerus had to find another queen. He held a beauty contest, and all the women of the land came before him to see who would be chosen. The King saw many fair maidens, but he only had eyes for one, a young woman by the name of Esther. Esther was a brave and beautiful girl, and she was also, most importantly, Jewish. But Esther’s cousin Mordecai warned Esther never to tell a soul about her heritage. Her Jewish identity would be her secret.

King Ahashuerus loved Esther above all other women, and she found only favor and affection in his eyes. Esther’s cousin Mordecai was also looked upon with much favor, because he had saved the king from a murderous plot, hatched by two of his palace guards.

Now, King Ahashuerus’s most senior official was a very mean man named Haman. When Haman walked down the street, he told every person who passed before him to bow down. Most people were afraid of him, so they complied. But when Mordecai passed Haman, he did not bow down! Mordecai made it known that he was a Jew, and as a Jew, he only bowed before God. Mordecai’s refusal to bow made Haman very angry.

Haman decided that he wanted all of the Jewish people to go away. When Haman told King Ahashuerus of his idea to remove the Jews, the king consented. He told Haman to do as he saw fit. The Jews of Shushan were in great danger!

When Mordecai found out about this evil plan, he was devastated, as was the entire Jewish community. Mordecai knew that Queen Esther was their only hope. He told her: “Now is the time to reveal your secret! You must tell King Ahashuerus that you are Jewish. You must speak out on behalf of your people! You must ask him to reverse Haman’s decree!”

Queen Esther was scared. No one could approach the king without first being summoned! But Esther gathered all of her courage, and she made her way into the king’s chamber. With all of the strength she could muster, Esther invited Ahashuerus and Haman to a large feast.

When the time for the feast came, Esther knew what she had to do. She took a deep breath, stood up before the king and Haman, and told them she was Jewish She begged the king to spare her and her people from Haman’s evil scheme. It was a moment of true bravery. Esther risked everything she had to save the Jewish people of Shushan. But because King Ahashuerus loved her so much, he did all that she asked. The Jews would be saved! Haman, meanwhile was executed.

News spread fast. The Jewish community rejoiced and declared the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar a day of celebration. To this day, we celebrate Purim on the 14th of Adar with parties and music and great celebration.

By this time everyone at the party was shouting and celebrating as if it were New Year’s Eve. Anna could hardly hear the Rabbi over the jubilation as she tried to complete the Magillah, but finally decided no one was listening, so she rolled up the scroll, replace it in the case and joined the celebration.

            Deciding if she couldn’t beat them, she should join them, Anna joined the circle and danced the Hora with everyone else, but then she suddenly felt dizzy. The faces of the other guests in the circle dance began to blur so she went back to her pillow and sat down. Anna didn’t think she had drank nearly enough wine, but she definitely was having a difficult time focusing on anyone in the room, except for the dark woman who was still smiling at her from across the room. The rest of the guests were all so absorbed in the dancing and celebration, no one seemed to notice her or the sudden drop in temperature. Noticing her friend has left the dance circle, Elaine went to her.

            “Are you feeling all right?”

            “I’m just a bit dizzy, I’ll be fine. By the way, who is that women over there?”

            “She’s the Rabbi,” Elaine whispered “I know we were used to men at our Temple, which is why I joined the Reformed. Wasn’t she terrific?”

            “No, not the Rabbi. The woman sitting over there, to her right. Is she another attorney with your firm?”

            “You mean Barbara? She’s Dennis’s date, and the Rabbi’s niece.”

            “No, not Dennis’s date,” Anna was beginning to lose her patience. “The woman next to her, the one who looks like she’s not exactly enjoying the party. Actually, she looks pretty disgusted with the whole thing.”

            “What woman, Anna? What are you talking about? Dennis is sitting next to Barbara and she’s sitting next to Jackie from my office.”

            Just then people began shouting “L’Chaim” and everyone drained their glasses. “That’s my cue,” Elaine rose to refill everyone’s glasses, standing in front of Anna and blocking her view. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

            “Ok, but I’d really like to meet...” she never got to finish the sentence. As soon as Elaine left to get the wine, Anna looked over to where the mysterious woman had been sitting. She was no longer there. Anna looked at every face in the room, but the woman she was searching for was nowhere to be seen.

            Elaine returned. Taking hold of Anna’s arm she led her to a corner table where a young woman was sitting holding a deck of strange looking cared. “Anna, I’d like you to meet the Rabbi’s sister Shifra, the Tarot card reader I told you about. She’s been studying Kabballah in Israel and is really good.”

            “I don’t really believe in…” Anna started.

`           “Maybe she’ll help you find that mysterious woman you’ve been looking for all night!” Elaine whispered. “Either way, we’re here to have fun, so have it!”

            Elaine walked off and Anna sat opposite Shifra who starting shuffling the cards before placing the first one in the center of the table.

            “Ah, the Empress,” she said. “Is there a child in your life, or someone you know who might be pregnant?”

            “Hell, no!” Anna shrieked. “Oh, I’m sorry, had a bit too much Purim celebration. But to answer your question there is no pregnancy, there’s no chance of that and no man, but that’s a really pretty card.” Anna tried not to smirk.

            “I’m just telling you what I see. Of course you can’t get the entire story from one card, let’s see the card that covers yours.”

            The next card was the Knight of Swords.

            “I do see a man, dark eyes, dark hair that will be coming into your life very soon.”

            “Well, I hope he’s not on horseback, unless he’s a NYC cop!”

            “Could be. Before I deal out the rest of the cards, can you tell please tell me what day and year you were born?”

            “July 18, 1987,” Anna replied. “Why, is that important?”

            Shifra wrote the date on a piece of parchment, then made a few calculations before continuing with the reading. As she began laying out the cards, Shifra started to shiver and small beads of sweat began appearing on her forehead. When she put down the last card, she could barely form the words. Anna didn’t know if this was part of the act, or if what Shifra was doing was what she was seeing.

            “Is it that bad?” Anna asked, almost afraid of the answer.

            “No, just very strange. The first two cards in the spread tell me there is definitely a child, a daughter maybe yours, maybe some you know, I’m not sure and a young man in your future, but I’ve never before seen such a personal, powerful spread in all the years I’ve been reading Tarot.”

            “Is that a good thing?”

            “I believe so. Your birthday in the European format is 18, July, 1987 – 18 for Chi, the 7th month of a number 7 year. Seven is one of the greatest power numbers in Judaism, representing Creation, good fortune, and blessing. A Hebrew word for luck, gad, equals seven and another Hebrew word for luck, mazel, equals 77. There are seven cards surrounding your center. You have all the number seven cards in the Minor Arcana, and one Major Arcana.”

            Shifra pointed out each card and told Anna the meaning in order and further explained their meaning.

            “First we have the Pentacles, showing your hard work as your foundation. Next is the Swords, a nasty dishonest card when it’s straight-up, but reversed it shows that you always try to do the right thing, even when it’s the hardest thing to do.”

            Like not reading an unsolicited manuscript, thought Anna.

            “In the future, the Wands means there will be a time you’ll need stand up for what you believe in, fight the good fight, even though it might seem that winning is impossible.”

            “Sounds like fun,” Anna didn’t think this was all fun.

            “You also have the Moon, number seven in the Major Arcana, again its reversed which tells me you listen to your dreams, there is a very strong message there. You should write your dreams in a journal as soon as you wake up, so you remember them. Do you do a lot of fantasying, daydreaming perhaps?” Shifra asked.

            “Not that much. I’m more of a practical sort of gal,” Anna was becoming more than a bit skeptical, if not more than a bit annoyed.

            “Well, the reason I asked was the next card, the seven of Cups is the daydream card, filled with illusions, visions and fantasy.”

            “Sounds like one of my young adult fiction novels.”

            Shifra continued. “The Chariot, again a number seven card tells me there’s something in your past that’s going to become very important as to the direction your future holds. I wouldn’t worry, at the end of it all, the last card, is the World. You will successfully complete your mission, whatever it is and achieve a feeling of elation and completion. You are going to find great joy and happiness, but in a way you never imagine. With all these number seven cards, I have no doubt!”

“This all sounds really, but can you tell me who that woman is I keep seeing tonight that no one else seems to see?”

            “Here, choose one more card and see what the cards say.”

            In spite of all the wine she had consumed, Anna’s hand was trembling as she reached out and pulled the last card from the deck. She turned it over and let out a gasp. The photo on the card was the woman she’d been seeing all night.

            “Ah, this is Justice,” Shifra said. “The meaning is pretty clear. Justice is being done and you need to trust that you are now seeing the results of past actions. Things are being made “right”. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what those things are, you’ll have to wait and figure that out for yourself.”

            “Well, I’m not being sued, the divorce is final. There’s no injustice at work, that I know of, so I really have no idea what that means, but thank…”

            Anna stopped in mid-sentence. Standing behind Shifra, in full regal garb was the woman depicted on the Justice card, and she was smiling.