A wise person once remarked that Megillat-Esther is read right after a fast, at that time we're still hungry and tired. A few months later we read Megillat Eichah (Lamentations) and at that time we're usually full, as we're getting ready for the long night-day fast of Tisha b'Av. There is a lesson here: we come to the Megillah of

Honey is sweet, yet the Torah forbids it from being offered on the altar. Because honey was a popular pagan offering, suggests Maimonides, the Torah prohibited it. On this point the Ramban agrees, seeing it as an instance of Judaism wishing to demarcate Jewish difference. In other words, sometimes we won't do something only because

To the many people who have trouble completing the last step of a project, Seth Godin has some advice: Ship often. Ship lousy stuff, but ship. Ship constantly. At the end of our parasha, the Malbimmakes a similar point. The Torah tells us: And Moshe completed the task. The hard part of the Mishkan was