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“So tell me about this whole Judaism thing,” Sugar says one afternoon as she walks into the choir room after school.
Rachel and Puck meet each other’s eyes before both responding with a flat “what.”
“Right, so I was out last night with some friends, and we ran into these crazy people who were all dressed up funny. And we’re all like ‘umm, what are you doing, it’s not Halloween,’ and they’re all like ‘it’s Purim, duh’ and we all had no clue what it was and they mentioned being Jewish, but then I stopped paying attention. I have Asperger’s, remember?”
Puck leaned back in his chair as he looked Sugar over, “so what do you want to know?”
“Puck,” Rachel gasped, looking at him in horror, “you have to start from the beginning!” She turned back to Sugar as she sat up straight in her chair. “The story of Purim starts a long, long time ago, when the Jewish people—”
“Rachel,” Puck interrupted, “this really doesn’t have to be a huge production. It’s a simple story.”
“And I don’t really care that much,” Sugar added with a smile as Rachel pouted, “I just wanted to know why they were in costume.”
“Just think of it as Jewish Halloween,” Puck reassured her, “just with more food and less pranking. The summary of pretty much every Jewish holiday ever is ‘they tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat!’ this one just has costumes and more drinking. No, seriously, it’s like, a law or something that you’re supposed to get drunk.”
“But… why not just celebrate Halloween with everyone else?”
“I’ll answer this one, Puckerman, you simplify things too much,” Rachel cut in, “it’s a seasonal thing. The Jews were saved during a certain month on their calendar, Adar, so we celebrate the holiday when that month comes around again during the Jewish year. There’s even this one song—my dads taught me—about welcoming in the month—”
“I stopped listening after Puck mentioned drinking because you talk too much. Can we go back to that now?”
“I hope you all get laryngitis,” Rachel said with a sniff, "I ignore you."
