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Everything posted by Trutharchivist
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Hello there!
No, I'm not General Kenobi. You, on the other hand, aren't Grievous; I think you're just a spambot.
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That's a good one. Obligatory upvote for the SW reference.
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All right, I'll say it here: guys, making a Star Wars reference doesn't mean that someone is a fan of Star Wars or even necessarily watched the movies. Those memes are essentially pop culture by now, and more people know of them than people who watched Star Wars.
I did watch SW - the prequels and the original trilogy, in that order - but I can honestly say that I remember this scene very vaguely and only know to make the reference because it was made so many times.
Maybe I'm just frustrated that out of my two status things from yesterday this one got more upvotes and comments (by exactly one in both cases, but still). This is slightly ridiculous.
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So, remember that series of essays on the History of Judaism I wrote? Well, guess what? I just recalled it too! not only that, I actually wrote the next installment and published it! Here it is, it's about Modern Orthodox Judaism - the group I'd consider myself to be a part of.
For the previous parts about Haskalah, Reform and Ultra Orthodox, just click on the links!
Hopefully you'll enjoy it.
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Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it. So, short reminder of what I do here: I write pieces about Jewish holidays, explaining their origins and traditions as much as I can remember at the moment, more or less. And now, we're getting close to exactly 12 Hebrew months since we started - which would be next Sunday! Yet, I still have one more holiday to talk about. It's special in various ways, but every holiday is so I guess there's no need to make a big deal out of it. So, anyway, the holiday of Purim!
Firstly, I'd like to answer the (unasked) question regarding how twelve months have pased and yet it wasn't a year. Lucky you, I talked about it a bit in the past here. But it appears I didn't elaborate on this specific point, so let's do that a bit: the Hebrew year is a lunar one, but there's a commandment on Pesach (Passover) that says it has to occur during the spring. So, for this reason, every two-to-three years there's an extra month in the Hebrew calendar. Incidentally, it's a double of the month we're currently at, called Adar. This year is a leap year, so we have this extra month - but the month's holidays are kept for the second of the two, which is why we're in this situation now. There's a reason for that, but this isn't our topic and frankly, has taken too much space as it is.
So, Purim! The last holiday in the Hebrew Bible, nicknamed the Last of Miracles (not commonly so, but still). The only holiday which story both starts and ends while the Jews are in exile. Technically the first of the Sages' holidays (its story predates Hannukah), but in the yearly cycle it comes after. Being a Sageic (is that a word?) holiday, you can bet it has a story - one we actually read during it, because the book documenting it did get canonized in the Hebrew Bible. So, say hello to the Book of Esther!
Our story begins with the Persian king Ahasuerus, commonly assumed to be Xerxes I. You see, he held a feast for over half a year-
groans
Oh, come on, it's not that's bad. That's how it's told in the Bible!
You can shorten it, though.
And I'm going to! I was about to do that when you interrupted. Rude.
Anyway, Ahasuerus had his feast for all his ministers and governmental workers for about half a year. Then he held a week long feast for all of the citizens in his capital. He became drunk, asked his wife to come so he can show her off, and when she refused he opted to get rid of her.
That's not shortened! And besides, what does all that have to do with Jews?
Fiiiine, I'll try actually making it short. You see, the Book of Esther is unique in multiple ways. Two defining features are: a. It's one of the only two books in the Hebrew Bible to not mention any of G-d's names. Literally, G-d is completely absent for the entirety of this book. b. It starts and ends with the deeds of a foreign king - Ahasuerus. And one of the most compelling explanations for that is that it wasn't written solely boy Jews for Jews; it was also written to sit in the bookcase of Persian history.
It's still mostly about the story of the Jews there - how incidentally a Jewish girl was picked to become queen; how Mordechai the Jew saved the king from an assassination attempt; how Haman the Agagite rose to power and decided to plan the first recorded genocide on the Jews (unless you count Pharaoh's, I guess) as a petty revenge over Mordechai not bowing to him; and finally, how Haman - and later his attempted genocide and ten children - were rid of by a collaboration of Mordechai and Esther. That would be the short summary, the longer variation includes death sentences over various crimes, rules that can't be changed, regal horses and clothing, and one can't forget the feasts! And fasts, too. If you want the entire story, go read the Book of Esther. It's not that long and can easily be found for free on the Internet, here and here, for example (former is a Jewish resource, latter is Christian).
So woohoo, the Jews were saved from genocide! (And killed 75800 people who were supposedly attempting said genocide. All across the Persian empire.) That's... a pretty good cause for celebration. No questions asked, right?
Well, there are a couple before we get to the holiday practices and traditions. Those are: is this the only time Jews were saved from genocide? If not, why then don't we have other holidays celebrating similar things? What does "Purim" mean, and why is this holiday called that?
The answer to the first and second questions is basically that there were other averted genocides - and that they were celebrated. Honest! There was a time were every other Jewish community has its own Purim. Literally so, because it was often called this community's Purim. But in modern times, with so many Jews emigrating to specific centres, this practice all but disappeared. That is likely because most weren't as wide as the attempt at Purim to wipe the Jewish people off the Persian map. But what of the Holocaust? I hear you ask? Well, we... umm... weren't exactly saved from it. Also, it ostly hit Ashkenazi Jews - which isn't all that relevant, but still.
The third question is tricky, and not just because it's a double question. The first half is easy enough: Purim is the plural form of Pur, which the Book of Esther itself explains to be lot. So Purim means, essentially, lots. Now, I once read a book that asked this question and took a few chapters to answer it; I can't really do that here, so I'll give a short answer that is also related to G-d's absence: the story is full of coincidences. There is a huge miracle here - but it's hidden with the natural works of the Persian Empire. Purim, then, is the holiday when seemingly random chance - a lot - saved us. So it's called appropriately, while somewhat hiding that G-d's hand was in it.
So, it's time for practices and tradtions! First, there are two days during which Purim might be celebrated - the 14th of Adar for most places, every city that isn't walled since the time of Joshua/Shushan (in which the miracle occured, since it was the capital of the Persian Empire at the time), while the walled cities celebrate at the 15th. The original reason for that was... Well, remember the genocide I've mentioned? It had a date attached. It was supposed to occur (or at least start) during the 13th of Adar. Mordechai and Esther saved the Jews by sending a second decree that called the Jews to fight against the genocide-committers at this same day. When this day came around and the Jews killed 500 people in Shushan, Esther and the king talked for a bit, and Esther convinced him to give the Shushanki Jews an extra day for vengence. Or something like that. So, the Jews around the Persian empire rested at the 14th of Adar and made it a celebration, while in Shushan the Jews didn't get to rest until the 15th of Adar. The reason for the "walled cities" rule is slightly more vague and has a couple of explanations I don't want to elaborate on right now. This year, the days of the holiday are next Sunday and Monday. I live in Jerusalem, so I usually practic the later of the two, but since my Yeshivah isn't in a walled city, I'm celebrating both.
During whichever day you celebrate, there are four major practices: reading the Scroll (=the Book of Esther), handing money to the poor, giving each other food (kind of a reverse trick-or-treat) and last but not least: feasting!
To try not to derail much, I'd say that according to the Talmud tractate for the holiday (it has one, unlike Hannukah) - those practices are paired with each other. The food sent should be served as part of the feast, and the poor wair for the Reading of the Scroll to receive their money. The reading occurs twice - once in the night before (since Hebrew calendar days begin with sunset) and once in the morning. The feast has to be during the day - not that it stops people from feasting during the night as well. There are certain definition for how much food/money to give your friends/the poor, but I don't have the willpower to elaborate on that.
The holiday has a couple of traditions, and honestly - I'm bound to forget something. For example, I didn't find a place yet to talk about the fast the day before Purim - at the 13th - which is practiced early this year since it occured during Saturday and we don't fast during Shabbat. And by "early" I mean "right now" for me, so excuse me if my hunger gets the better of me. This day is called "the Fast of Esther" - likely after the time Esther fasted three days before coming to see Ahasuerus. The reason for the fast might be to commemorate that - but this fast actually occured during Nissan (the next month), so this connection is a bit dubious. Some claim that during the fighting the Jews fasted - presumably the ones who didn't fight, becuase it's not a great idea otherwise. It has all the regular fast practices like the 17th of Tamuz, the Gedaliah Fast and the 10th of Tevet, though it's the least important of the six yearly fasts - supposedly you're allowed to eat if your eyes hurt. It's in some ways the flimsiest of the fasts - outside of the Fast of Firstborns, which I only mention here as a random tease and will likely never bring up again.
Also, going with the traditions that are more well based, we read from the Torah at Purim from Exodus 16 (I think) - the War with Amalek, due to the tradition that Haman was an Amalekite - a descendant of Agag, the king of Amalek at the time of King Shaul (Saul). We don't say Tachanun during Purim, but we don't read the Hallel either - the reading of the scroll sort of replaces that. There are also some other traditions going with the Shabbats around Purim, but I don't think I can push it here.
But now, let's get to the meat of it. Because if you ask the average Jew, when they hear Purim they don't think of reading the Scroll. Most of them will think of two things: getting drunk and wearing costumes. The getting drunk part derives from the feast, but it's kind of an expansion on that. The Talmud is what actually brought it up - one Amora (a sage of the Talmud) said that every Jew has to get so drunk in Purim that he couldn't tell the difference between cursing the villain and blessing the hero of the Book of Esther. This is paraphrasing, but this is the gist of it - or, well, being unable to tell the difference between the hero and villain themselves is more the gist of it. So... yeah, people get very drunk. Some people (such as myself) lean more on softer interpretations, like drinking until you sleep (maybe drinking and then sleeping is enough?) or drinking just a little more than you're used to (which isn't much, in my case).
The costume tradition has much, much less basis. I honestly don't know of evidence it even existed over 500 years ago. It's still surprisingly old, though - it's mentioned in a halachic book from 500 years ago. You could say it's copying Hallowe'en, but it's not very close to it in the yearly cycle. There are a couple of explanations for that - including the idea it's part of the flipping theme of the holiday. Which exist, because "on the day during which the enemies of the Jews hoped to rule over them it was reversed." (Esther 9, 1). So everything is flipped. Kind of. An additional point I forgot to mention that is tangentially related is the fact the Talmud stated: "once the month of Adar [during which Purim occurs] starts - happiness shall be added" (rough translation, it's kind of hard to translate). In modern day, it means that the somewhat topsy-turvey atmosphere of Purim is expanded to the two weeks before it - though TBH, I think it's most apparent in schools, where a Purim Rabbi is appointed to say a humurous sermon (so to speak, I honestly am having a hard time finding good terms). Or, well, sort of - I'm not sure I've ever seen a prooper Purim Rabbi, but I've heard quite a few Purim Torahs, which is the term for such a humurous sermon. There's also the "turning the entire school into something else" day, having special rules temporarily added to the school charter, having an equivalent of Secret Santa only with mostly food, parodying teachers, and the obligatory "come to school in a costume" day. And we've circled right back!
In addition to wine and other alcoholic drinks, Purim has its own trademark food. The Hamantash(TM) is a triangular pastry, usually filled with poppy seeds or - if you're slightly saner - chocolate. It's known as 'Ozen Haman (lit. Haman's ear) in Hebrew, since there's a rumor that the holiday's villain had triangular ears. Maybe they were even full of poppy seeds! Anyway, some claim that Hamantash(TM) are actually named that because they're poppyseed pouches, and the Yiddish word for such a thing would be montash - with the Ha- added as the Hebrew equivalent of the defining article (the o and a sounds tend to be swapped for each other among Ashkenazi Jews sometimes. Long story, this isn't precise but I don't have the willpower to elaborate right now). This is, obviously, heresy, and we will bear no such thing said regarding the Hamatashen(TM). There is also an annual debate in the Univesity of Chicago whether the Hamantash(TM) or the latke is the superior food. The actual answer is obvious (it's the Hamantash(TM), as long as it's filled with chocolate), and yet they keep debating. At least they enjoy it.
There's also a tradition to make noise every time Haman's name is read in the Scroll, which led to the marvelous line of toys that have no purpose other than making noise appropriately called noisemakers. I may have forgotten some other things that are still relevant - if you note such things, feel free to inform me.
Sadly, this year I didn't find the time to make myself the costume I wanted, so I'm going to wear an old Johnnie Walker costume of my father's - ironic, since I myself don't drink Whisky.
Short version of all of the above: during the time of the Persians they tried to kill us. They didn't succeed due to some political maneuvers and heavenly help (which isn't really mentioned). It was, in fact, reversed back on them. Let's celebrate!
Anyway, have a happy Purim! I may or may not continue this series in order to round off all the bits I skipped. I also may or may not try to record those things and upload them to YouTube - it's something I've considered, but I know nothing about video editing. So I'll guess we'll have to see if and where you're going to see me next!
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Well, I think you've noticed that a third of the Jewish population worldwide died in the holocaust.
A celebration of a miracle saving the Jewish people kind of requires a little less losses, I should think. Sure, the goal was to kill us all and that didn't happen; but it was more of a disaster than a miracle.
That's a personal view, and maybe I'm making excuses of why we don't celebrate the day Auschwitz was liberated.
Obviously, I'm descended from people who did survive; but if you look at the entirety of the Jewish people... It's hard to say that we were saved from it.
And also, I guess if we're being more exact, we weren't miraculously saved.
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That makes sense. Thank you
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This is very interesting thank you.