Leah at Beit Sefer

Dear Beit Sefer Families,
After so many years of attending and working in Jewish schools (I think there are only six years of my life when I haven’t been a student or teacher in a Jewish school) I am very tuned into the Jewish calendar, the holidays, the Torah portions, how they relate to the seasons and to each other.   This week I am keenly aware of a certain irony. Just as I am in the midst of preparing for Purim, the most irreverent of Jewish holidays, the day when we are supposed to make fun for the sake of it, get drunk (adults only!) and literally be confused, we are also beginning to read the book of Leviticus, the most serious, and lofty of the books of the Torah.    
I have been reflecting upon this juxtaposition.  Is it to teach us that being silly and irreverent is holy as well?  Is it to remind us of the serious stuff when we are having lots of fun?  Is it to remind us as we read about the details and rituals of how the priests handled the sacrifices to make them holy that it wasn’t all lofty and distant, but that it also had elements of joy and celebration? 
I wonder what would change in our lives if we approached it remembering that there is joy in the serious stuff and something earnest in the silly stuff?  
B’shalom, 
Leah