Purim
The minor holiday of Purim occurs on the 14th of the Hebrew month
of Adar.
Purim is celebrated by poking fun at ourselves and our Jewish
institutions, throwing synagogue decorum out the window, dressing in
costume, reading the Book of Esther, exchanging gifts of food, giving charity
to the poor, and general silliness. The
entire month of Adar, and not just Purim itself, is a time for
silliness and humor. Purim is the holiday that proves Judaism has a
sense of humor.
The story of the events Purim celebrates can be found in the Book
of Esther in the Bible. This story relates the downfall of the
vicious anti-semite Haman, prime minister of ancient Persia,
who sought to murder all the Jews of that land.
Most non-Orthodox Judaica scholars are of the
opinion that Esther is fictional. Purim perhaps started as a Babylonean
holiday that eventually became integrated into Judaism. When and how
this occurred is not exactly known. There is decent evidence
suggesting that the Maccabees of the (true) Hannukah story (circa 265
B.C.E.) didn't celebrate Purim.
Purim evolved into an important holiday. Jews surrounded by
anti-semitism took great joy in a holiday that reminded them that the
anti-semites didn't always win.
Does it make sense to celebrate the anniversary of events we
believe are fictional? Even though the "Haman" of the story is likely
fictional, there have been too many real-life "Hamans" during the course
of Jewish history. History has made the story relevant and
compelling, even if it is not true.
The service for Purim is most unusual. Dressing in silly costumes
is encouraged. Interrupting the service with noise-making devices is
encouraged. Decorum is out, inanity is in. During the service, an
abridged version of the Book of Esther is read. (At Conservative or
Orthodox shuls, the entire book is read. The Book of Esther read at
these shuls is in the form of a handwritten scroll called a
"megillah." This practice gives rise to the expression "the whole
megillah.") The Reform Purim service is very child friendly, with its
lack of decorum and condensed reading of Esther.
The tradition of exchanging gifts of food on Purim is called
mishloach manot. The food should be ready-to-eat; baked goods are a
popular choice. This practice is prescribed in the Book of Esther
9:22.
If Purim did indeed originate as a Babylonean holiday, the
tradition of giving charity to the poor is indubitably a Jewish
twist added to the Babylonean original. One nice way people coming to
Beth El's Purim service can implement this tradition is to bring a
donation of canned goods for the shul's Food Pantry Box. Giving
charity on Purim is prescribed in the Book of Esther 9:22. (Of
course, Judaism demands doing tzedakkah [charity] year-round, but we
make a particular point of doing some on Purim.)
Purim is a wild and crazy holiday. The rabbis of the Talmud,
usually a quite sober group, say to drink so much on Purim that one
can't tell the difference between blessing Mordechai (the Jewish hero
of the story) and cursing Haman. We Reform Jews believe the rabbis
didn't intend anyone to take them seriously about this, but were trying to
suggest a high level of inane behavior on Purim.
Cross-dressing, prohibited in the Torah, is
widely practiced on Purim. Many rabbis will be borrowing their spouse's
clothes this Purim.
No discourse on Purim could be considered complete without
mentioning THE Purim delicacy, the hamantashen. The hamantashen is a
triangular cookie, with a poppy seed or fruit filling. At some point,
someone got the idea of altering the German name of these cookies,
"mohn taschen" ["poppy-seed pockets"], to "haman taschen," and
invented the story that it represents Haman's hat. (Of course,
three-pointed hats were all the rage in ancient Persia.)
There are two other days of note before and after Purim. The "Fast
of Esther" precedes Purim. This is the anniversary of the day the
fighting against the anti-semitic forces occurred; Purim is the day
the victorious Jews rested and celebrated. There is no explicit
record in the Book of Esther that Esther actually fasted on this day.
But the rabbis felt that any self-respecting Jewish leader would have
fasted on the day when the Jews were struggling to defend themselves
against those attempting to carry out the edict to exterminate them.
Therefore, Esther MUST have fasted, and the Jewish community should
fast in commemoration of her fast. This fast is not exactly widely
observed by Reform (or Conservative) Jews. The day after Purim is
"Shushan Purim." According to the Book of Esther, the fight against
the anti-semites in the capital city of Shushan took a day longer than
in the rural areas. The Jews in Shushan didn't get to rest and
celebrate until the day after those in rural areas. In commemoration
of this, the Book of Esther says that Purim is celebrated a day later
in cities, on the day now known as "Shushan Purim." The rabbis
decided that a "city" in this case means a city that had walls (if
they are still standing or not) at the time of Joshua (Moses's
successor). Jerusalem celebrates on Shushan Purim.
Don't miss Beth El's Purim service! It's a
wild and crazy time! Check our current event
listing for the time.
This summary was written by Edward Walker,
.
For other Purim info, check out:
This is http://shamash.org/reform/uahc/congs/ma/ma002/purim.html.
To Beth El's Judaica Collection.
