Trutharchivist

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!

So, perhaps I'll go a bit early this time. I even have a reason for that, on which I'll elaborate inside. 

So, welcome to another installment in my Jewish holidays status update series! Ad we're back with the fasts - actually, with the last (or first) of the four fast days for the destruction of the Temple. There is still one more fast day I might mention, but it's another story entirely. So, we're talking about 'Asarah B'Tevet, or the 10th of Tevet - which occurs this Friday. Unlike the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av, this fast isn't known to have multiple events in it - but unlike the fast of Gedaliah, there actually are events that are said to have occured in close times, which gave us two additional, optional fasts - at the 8th and 9th of Tevet. This is why I decided to post this now - though I should mention that I don't think I know anyone who actually fasts during those days.

But let's start with the 10th of Tevet itself. What historical event happened at this day that we fast at it? Well, that's where our chronology gets flipped, because the event is actually the start of the Babylonian siege on Jerusalem, which (naturally) occured before breaching the walls in he 17th of Tamuz, the first fast we've mentioned. It's not very hard to digest, really - this is more or less the first time we've breached the chronology, and unless you're trying to compare multiple cycles inside the year (the three Pilgrimage holidays, the High Holy Days, the Fast Days and the Rabananic [from the Sages] holidays) it's... well, it's going to happen one more time, but c'mon. It's just twice, and it would've taken me three years if I would've tried to stay completely loyal to the chronology - at the very least, possibly more. Anyway, going back to the topic, not everything happened in one year. It's normal, especially in warfare, especially during that era. So yes, the siege started at the 10th of Tevet, lasted for about three years, and ended between 9th-17th of Tamuz, with around three weeks-a month of pillaging the city.

This is all well and good, but... hmm, not sure if anyone wonders about the "why" that much. I mean, maybe you do, but... it's an important event in the downfall of the Kingdom of Judea. It's the beginning of the end for Jerusalem - the start of a downward spiral that led to the 1st Temple's destruction and to the exile. 

But what actually happened? Well, prepare yourselves, folks, because this is going to be a lesson in Biblical history (istory based on the Bible). 

It's hard to point out a specific starting point, so here's a brief summary of some stuff: there was the United Kingdom of Israel, headed by David and his son Solomon after him. Then most of the Israelite tribes - basicalley, everyone except for Judah, Benjamine, and some of Levi - decided they didn't like the next king in line (Reḥab'am), so they crowned someone else called Yerov'am (transliterations done by me and are, as per usual, imperfect). That split the kingdom between Yisrael and Yehudah. fast forward a couple of hundreds of years and the Kingdom of Yisrael is on it's back leg, suffering from a big decline. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, felt like expanding his empire, so he came over, destroyed Yisrael and exiled its people, leaving mostly foreigners in their place. At the same time, he also went south to Yehudah, fighting against king Ḥezekiah. He destoryed most of his cities, putting a siege around Jerusalem and trapping Ḥezekiah as a bird in a cage.... and then leaving, according to the Bible - due to a miraculous plague hitting his troops and killing a bunch of them in one night. Ḥezekiah still has a lot to rebuild.

Now, I could talk more about Ḥezekiah, but it's less related. What is related to our matter is that he was one of the righteous kings, and that after the Assyrian withdrawal from his kingdom he accepted messengers from the King of Babylon and showed them all he had, including treasures from the Temple, which Isaiah, the prophet of his time, informed him G-d didn't approve of. So much so, in fact, that he promised him his descendants will be eunuchs in the King of Babylon's palace - though this and the complete destruction of Yehudah won't be during his days.

Well, Ḥezekiah's son is one of the evil kings, as is his son after him. the latter one, though, gets assassinated after two years on the throne. The people - or perhaps the nobels, it's not completely clear - prefer leaving David's line on the throne, so they kill the assassins and appoint 8-years-old Yoshiah to be king.  

Now, it wasn't unheard of; just a couple of generations ago Yoash was appointed king at a similar age. Solomon did say "woe to you, the land whose king is a boy!" )Ecclesiastes 10, 16), but apparently no one listened. But what's interesting is what happened when Yoshiah grew older, at the ripe age of 26. it was the 18th year of his reign, and he sent his scribe Shafan to check out that everything was fine with the maintenance of the Temple funds and stuff. Incidentally, the current high priest - Ḥilkiah - just found a fascinating discovery - the Torah scroll. But Arch I do not hear you say but kind of hipe you're wondering, what's so interesting about a Torah scroll? It being their scripture means they know its content, isn't that so? Well, no, I'm afraid. The thing is, the evil kings Mennasheh and Amon reigned for 57 years combined. It's kind of a long time, during which the Torah may have fallen out of use a little. 

So, Ḥilkiah reads to Shafan from the Torah scroll, and the latter decides to go show it to the king. The king hears what the Torah says and tears his clothes in... anguish? I guess? don't know the proper descriptive. Anyway, it appears he realized they didn't keep the Torah very well and that the Torah states they're going to be punished for it. So he sends a few of his people to Ḥuldah, the prophet. Ḥuldah literally means "rat" in Hebrew, and she's one of the rare female prophets in Judaism. Anyway, Ḥuldah doesn't have many nice things to say to the king's messengers. Essentailly, she says: "you're right, your kingdom is due to fall in the near future, but due to you repenting you get a thumbs up and not to see your kingdom's fall". So... yeah.

I don't know why, but telling this story always sounds better in my head. So I guess I'll make it short, maybe. Yoshiah starts a religious reform - and a very thourough one, at that. He removes all altars and temples except for the one in Jerusalem; he kind of takes over the lands that once belonged to the Kingdom of Yisrael and basically destroys their false idols too, fulfilling by that a prophecy as old as the Kingdom of Yisrael itself; he makes a huge Pesach celebration, one of the only... five, I think? directly mentioned in the Bible. But then, Pharaoh Necho decided he wanted to go north to Mesopotamia, to kind of help one of the sides in a dispute between the falling empire of Assyria and the rising empire of Babylon. Now, while it's true that one can't go from Egypt to Mesopotamia (an area around modern-day Iraq) without passig through the modern day area of Israel, technically Yoshiah's land was only the southern Kingdom of Yehudah, which didn't really stand in the way all that much. But as I said, Yoshiah took over the lands of the northern kingdom as well, and he didn't want an army headed to war passing through any part of his land - according to the Sages, due to an interpretation of the blessing verses in the Torah.

So, Pharaoh basically told Yoshiah: "what dispute do you have with me? I'm just passing through, your little kingdom doesn't really interests me." Yoshiah didn't listen to him, though, and made his stand in Meggido. Does this name ring any bell for you? Oh, it sounds a tiny bit similar to Armageddon? Well, surprise surprise, it's actually related! Armageddon is just a bad transliteration of the phrase "Har Meggido", lit. The Mountain of Meggido. Apparently the origin of the idea that this will be the site of the end-of-days battle is in the New Testament, so I have no obligation to talk about it. It might be related to a verse in Zachariah, though - in the last chapter there, he talks about the battle of the end of days, and says that the lamentations in Judah and Jerusalem in that day will be as plentiful as some lamentations on Hadadrimon in the valley of Meggidon. The Aramaic translation of the phrase separates it to two different deaths - one of King Ahab of Yisrael, who (is said to have) died by the hand of Hadad - hence Hadadrimon, and the other of King Yoshiah (usually translitrated Josiah) in Meggido. So, umm, there you have the connection.

Anyway, yeah. Yoshiah died battling someone he didn't even have to fight. He was mourned by many people - among them Jeremiah, the last prophet og the 1st Temple. It is said that Lamentations was written by Jeremiah, and that the fourth chapter there was written about Yoshiah - who is nicknamed at one point "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD." (Lamentaions 4, 20 NIV), or alternatively - the Messiah. But hey, that's completely normal - his whole line is made of Messiahs, technically. Still, he's one of at least three people that may be considered Messiahs in Judaism (not going over them right now), and one of three (different) people who are the only ones called "the LORD's anointed one" in the Hebrew Bible - those being King Shaul, Kind David, and him. He's also the last king who's the common father of all the kings after him. Because three of his sons (and one grandson) were kings.

Well, I did not cut it short, so I'll try better with the next few kings: Yehoaḥaz, who was mostly forgotten due to ruling only for three months before Pharaoh decided he needed replacing; Yehoyakim, the puppet king of Pharaoh, who was conquered by Babylon but rebelled against them; his son, Yechoniah, who ruled for three months before surrendering to Nebuchadnzzar and being exiled, along with the elite of the kingdom; and finally, Zedekiah. Well, his original name was Mataniah, but if Nebuchadnezzar decided someone's name is no longer their name - it's no longer their name. Zedekiah is rather stupid, since he decides to rebel against Babylon again.

One more thing you need to know is that ever since Yoshiah died Jeremiah only had one thing to say, which is basically "surrender to Babylon or G-d will send you to exile", aand... there we go. All the pieces are in their proper places. So after Zedekiah makes his mov, Nebuchadnezzar makes his - moving his forces to put Jerusalem under siege. 

Once the Babylonian armies, headed by Nebuzaradan (Nebuchanezzar's Master of Butchery), arrive at Jerusalem, among the people exiled with King Yechoniah there's a Cohen, a priest, named Ezekiel. And he is told to write down this day, as it'll go down in history as the first day of the siege. And that's it, that's why we fast during the 10th of Tevet. The siege itself was pretty bad all around, but I'm honestly too tired to elaborate on that right now. 

But Arch, you promised explaining about two more fast days, didn't you?

I did, didn't I. Oh dear. Well, the likelihood of anyone reading this far is low, so I can just say whatever, I guess. But yeah, the two other days: 8th and 9th of Tevet. What's their story? Both could benefit from more limelight, but I'm currently really tired, so I'll sum it up as the day the Torah was translated to Greek (ever heard of the Septuagint?) and the day Ezra the Scribe died, respectively. Ezra has, in many ways, reshaped the way Judaism looked like for the next two hundred years - and thus, he is worthy of elaboration, as is the reason the Torah being translated is a cause for mourning. Sadly, this isn't going to happen right now - comment if you actually want this to happen.

Anyway, that's it for the - well, for the ancient part of the history. Just going over the fast practices - no eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset, a couple of additions to the daily prayers... and that's more or less it, I think. Oh, except for the day of General Kaddish thing.

You know what, I'm too tired to use the ask-and-reply method right now too. so [insert baffled noises here], which should be you, and answer - oh, yes. that thing. Basically: there's a prayer in Aramaic called a Kaddish, which JEws say many times during a daily prayer. One type of Kaddish is the Mourner Kaddish, which is said by mourners during the first year after their loved one passed away, and at the dte of their death every year afterwards. But what if you don't know when your loved one died? This is an issue that arose mostly after the Holocaust. And as an answer, this day was made: the day for saying Kaddish for those whose date of death isn't known. In that way, it serves as the religious Shoah (Holocaust) Rememberance Day, due to issues with the official Israeli one and the international one. So, there you have it, I guess.

So, in this post I've talked about the events leading to the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the fast of the 10th of Tevet, the other two fasts around it and the day of General Kaddish. Yeah, it's more of a summary than a TL;DR, I honestly don't have the willpower to write one right now.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day! 

Yours truly,
                    Trutharchivist the Hebrew