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What's So Funny About Purim?Purim and AntisemitismMarch 2004From the Desk of Rabbi CohonThere is a classic nine-word explanation of most of the Jewish festivals from Chanukah through Pesach: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” It applies most specifically to the spectacular springtime bacchanal of Purim that comes to town early this month on March 6th and 7th. We will celebrate with our Traditional Purim Megillah reading and irreverant party on Saturday night and our brilliant Purim Extravaganza Parody Show on Sunday morning at 10 AM, with choirs and a carnival and hamantashchen and a wee dram or two of schnapps. But beyond the humor and the mild decadence, what can we learn from Purim? In an era which is seeing a frightening revival of anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe, Purim offers a fascinating lesson in coping and overcoming anti-Jewish attitudes. The story of the Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther itself, offers a tale of genocide prevented with the perpetrators overthrown. It is a wishful reinterpretation of the historical model that plagued our people for so many centuries, from Egypt to Babylonia to Rome to Spain to Germany. In a literary tour de force Esther and Mordechai overcome the Hitlerian plots of Haman, and restore the Jews to “light and celebration and great rejoicing.” The story itself, woven through with the risky but necessary manipulations of well-placed Jews, teaches important lessons about the need to stay close enough to power to protect our people while at the same time preserving our identities even in time of great peril. But the rites and silly rituals of celebrating Purim offer another clue in how to deal cleverly with a world that consistently fails to accept that we have a right to exist. At heart, Purim is a subversive holiday in which everything we expect is reversed. The dignity of the synagogue becomes the ribaldry of the fair. The seriousness of the study of Torah is transformed into the parody of the spiel. Gambling and drinking are condoned (albeit for a shorter period of time than the average American post-Super Bowl riot). For 24 hours or so we have the opportunity—indeed, the obligation—to ridicule ourselves and our own institutions and authorities. And there is something more going on here. It too is encapsulated in a cliché about Purim: “On Purim, Jews dress up and act like gentiles—while on Yom Kippur they dress up and act like Jews.” In other words, on Purim we demonstrate to ourselves that the values of secular society, which cele There is a classic nine-word explanation of most of the Jewish festivals from Chanukah through Pesach: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” It applies most specifically to the spectacular springtime bacchanal of Purim that comes to town early this month on March 6th and 7th. We will celebrate with our Traditional Purim Megillah reading and irreverant party on Saturday night and our brilliant Purim Extravaganza Parody Show on Sunday morning at 10 AM, with choirs and a carnival and hamantashchen and a wee dram or two of schnapps. But beyond the humor and the mild decadence, what can we learn from Purim? In an era which is seeing a frightening revival of anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe, Purim offers a fascinating lesson in coping and overcoming anti-Jewish attitudes. The story of the Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther itself, offers a tale of genocide prevented with the perpetrators overthrown. It is a wishful reinterpretation of the historical model that plagued our people for so many centuries, from Egypt to Babylonia to Rome to Spain to Germany. In a literary tour de force Esther and Mordechai overcome the Hitlerian plots of Haman, and restore the Jews to “light and celebration and great rejoicing.” The story itself, woven through with the risky but necessary manipulations of well-placed Jews, teaches important lessons about the need to stay close enough to power to protect our people while at the same time preserving our identities even in time of great peril. But the rites and silly rituals of celebrating Purim offer another clue in how to deal cleverly with a world that consistently fails to accept that we have a right to exist. At heart, Purim is a subversive holiday in which everything we expect is reversed. The dignity of the synagogue becomes the ribaldry of the fair. The seriousness of the study of Torah is transformed into the parody of the spiel. Gambling and drinking are condoned (albeit for a shorter period of time than the average American post-Super Bowl riot). For 24 hours or so we have the opportunity—indeed, the obligation—to ridicule ourselves and our own institutions and authorities. And there is something more going on here. It too is encapsulated in a cliché about Purim: “On Purim, Jews dress up and act like gentiles—while on Yom Kippur they dress up and act like Jews.” In other words, on Purim we demonstrate to ourselves that the values of secular society, which celebrates and condones excessive drinking, gambling, gamboling, and morally licentious behavior, is inferior to the moral centeredness of our own Judaism. The parody of Purim thus teaches us the probity of our commitment to our own faith and its ethical requirements, the mitzvot. May your Purim be a great celebration with us here on March 6th and 7th—and may it serve to remind us all that goodness and success come from dedication to our Jewish ideals, not from an excess of the surrounding moral morass. L'shalom v'rei'ut, in peace and friendship, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon |
