Highlight of the party is when Rabbi Yehuda Ferris, himself in costume, announces the masquerade winner with great fanfare. Some costumes are elaborate and ingenious, while others are fairly typical, though nothing is really typical in Berkeley, California.

I'll never forget the Purim party when "Steve the Gypsy" won the costume contest. The laugh was on all of us when we realized that Steve's Gypsy get-up was not a costume, but just the way this nice, slightly misguided Jewish guy dressed.

How did Steve the Gypsy get to the Purim party?

It began with Lea, who like many young people, enjoyed hanging out with the characters on "Telegraph Avenue" ­ home to wannabe hippies. She met Steve the Gypsy on Telegraph Avenue and brought him over to the Purim party.

Steve wasn't miffed at all that he won the costume contest. In fact, that Purim party was a turning point in Steve's life.

He kept coming back again and again after that initial encounter. Inspired by what he saw, Steve started to learn Tanya (primer of Chabad philosophy) with Rabbi Ferris and absorbed its mystical yet practical teachings like a sponge.

Steve is now Jewishly involved (as is Lea), and calls the Ferris' every Purim from wherever he is to update us on his life.

Whenever I dress up for Purim, I remember Steve the Gypsy, and how Purim can remove that external costume that hides the spark in a Jewish soul.