Chilly Purim Weather

Our quick moving “Sharav” will pass by this evening and our weather should turn sharply colder for Purim and Shushan Purim (in Jerusalem). A stray shower can’t be ruled out, but otherwise the weather will be just chilly.

It looks like next week should bring a chance for a soaking rain. It would be the first significant rain in more than a month’s time. One might almost feel that this winter — with a short exception — has been dressed up like summer. The weather got a head start on dressing up for Purim.

You’re probably also wondering if those little creatures in the picture are little cows, or if you’re really astute, little Shih-Tzu dressed up for Purim as little cows. While it is true that one of the little fellas name is “Holstein” they are not cows.

Thinking about cows made me think about Pharaoh. He dreamed about a number of cows and those cows were up to no good. In fact,  if it wasn’t for the astuteness of Joseph, there would have been a terrible famine in the land of Egypt.

Following this train of thought, I realized that our Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, could ultimately be equated with Pharaoh. First, he spent a whole year trying and ultimately succeeding to bring down the previous government — even voting against bills his party has supported in the past, so he could be Prime Minister again. Since then, he seems to be up to no good as well. First his government will complete the passage of laws eviscerating the power of the court, then it will restrict voting rights (there would be no court to overturn these restrictions), and then the government can conveniently schedule or cancel elections when desired.

True for now, in a turn of irony, he’s really Mr. Netanyahu dressed up as the Prime Minister. He’s beholden to Mr. Smotrich and Mr. Ben D’vir to stay in power, and, hence, he seems like anything but a Prime Minister in charge of his government. In fact, I am pretty sure that Mr. D’vir and Mr. Smotrich hope that they will be the Prime Minister soon — once the “Left” (really half the voters) are disqualified from voting.

Yet, Mr. Netanyahu may have the last laugh. I am pretty sure that he thinks his Likud will win a majority of the remaining voters. He will then return to be Prime Minister both in title and deed — and for life, like Pharaoh.

That’s not a weather prediction. It might be a foretelling or in the end just a Purim “Spiel.” I’m not optimistic.

Happy Purim!