Kiddush Levarah, Esther and Mordecai, etc.

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Chevra,

I am reviewing the booklets accompanying a newly released CD set of
Sephardic music, and some of it strikes me as over the top. On the other
hand, there's more that I don't know about Jewish Studies than I do know.
<G> Two points in particular jumped out at me. 

One was a description of at "Kiddush levarah" ceremony. I quote the booklet
verbatim below. Can anyone confirm or deny any or all of the particulars?

>From the booklet:

"Many jews still observe the "kiddush levarah" ("blessing of the moon")
ceremony in which God is praised at the beginning of the month for having
created the moond. Included among the ritesw are a ceremonial dance and
recitation.l The dancers spring three times towards the moon and say to it:
"Just as I dance towards you, but am unable to reach you, so may my enemies
be prevented from reaching me to do harm." (After Neil Armstrong and Edwin
Aldrin successfully landed Apollo II on the moon on July 20, 1969, the
phrase beginning "unable to" was changed to "but I am not reaching you.")
Continuing their dance, the dancers then recite, forwards and backwards
(possibly recalling an ancient magical incantation) "Terror and dread
descend upon them, through the might of your arm they stay still as stone." 

Second, a booklet asserts that Esther was "still married to her Jewish
cousin Mordecai" when she went to Ahasuerus. Is there any midrash or fable
at all to assert that they were cousins, that they were married, and that
Ahasuerus was her second husband?

And last, it also asserts that the city name Seville is derived from the
Hebrew "Shevil-Yah" ("line of God") and claims many other Spanish city
names were derived from the Hebrew. I thought the derivation of Toledo
(from "Toledoth") had been pretty well debunked; is this another example of
crypto-etymology? <G>

Looking forward to our discusstion,

Joel






Joel Bresler
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