Dressing Up on Purim

It is almost time for one of the year most joyous Jewish holidays. Purim, which falls on the fourteenth of Adar (March 19-20 this year), is a holiday that celebrates how the Jews were relieved of persecution in ancient Persia. The story of Purim, the Megilla, revolves around four main characters, Esther is a beautiful Jewish women who lives with her cousin Mordechai. King Ahashverous is the arrogant king who seeks a new queen. After a beauty pageant, King A decides to marry Esther. He did not realize she was Jewish. Finally, Haman is a wicked man who would like all the Jews in the streets of Purim to bow down to him as he walks by. Unfortunately, all the Jews do. Only Mordechai stands up to Haman. Once Mordechai does this, Haman decides that he will hang all the Jews. As he catches word of this, Moderchai pleads Esther to save their people by talking to the king. Of course, in these days a woman never spoke up to her husband. She thought she would beheaded. Eventually, Esther has Haman and Ahashverous sit down for dinner. During the meal, Esther cries out to King Ahashverous, and he finds out everything. From that day forward, Esther would be known as the saviour of the Jewish people.

There are many traditions associated to this time of year. By law, there are four mitzvot we must do on Purim. The first of these is that we must celebrate Purim every year on the fourteenth of Adar. Haman planned to kill us on the thirteenth. Rabbis says that reading the Megillah is an easy way to observe this festival every year. Some temples even perform a Purim spiel (a play) after the Megillah is read. Secondly, we must enjoy Purim and feast as we celebrate it. Most Jews do find that Purim is one of their favorite holidays. After that, Jews are commanded to give gifts to their friends. These are called mishloach manot (sending of portions). Most of the time these baskets will have food, especially hamantashen. Hamantashen are delectable cookies shaped like Haman's triangular hat. Various fillings are put into the middle of the hamantashen. Fourth, giving to the poor is required of us on Purim. At my temple, we are raising tzedakah for the people of Japan as they get over the devastating earthquake. Purim is a holiday of giving. We believe that at such a joyous time in the year, everybody should have the ability be happy.

Obviously, Purim celebrates the triumph over Jewish persecution. Some people believe that such intolerance is no longer existent in the Jewish world. On the contrary, we see it all the time on a number of different levels. Just this week, I saw an event on Facebook. One of the attendee was a man whose profile picture was Adolf Hitler. His profession was killing Jews. Now, for as many people like that out there, there are many righteous people who believe in equality and religious tolerance. I just wanted to point out that there are still some who are just as ignorant as Haman. People have been through out the ages. The Holocaust is a very prominent, recent memory, but there were also the Romans who kicked us out of our homeland, the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition, and the Russian pogroms, just to name a few. Antisemitism will still live as long as there are people who will respect us as individuals and as a people.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that Jews dress up on Purim? The Megillah is a story of being who we are, yet we pretend to be Esther, Mordechai, Ahashaverous, or Haman. We masquerade ourselves and camouflage into the temple on Adar 14. The tradition is to obviously celebrate these colorful characters. I just find it a little contradicting to go incognito and celebrate Jewish pride. It could go the other way
Perhaps, we Jews can dress up on Purim. Then, we could be ourselves every other day of the year. By ourselves, I mean be Jewish. Do not be afraid to wear your Bar Mitzvah shirt to school or bring matzvah for lunch on Pesach. Think of betoo. Every other day of the year, Jews do not universally dress up. For some reason, we feel in disguise though. Just yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. How many Jews do you know who feel conflicted to wear green on the Irish-Christian holiday? What should one do?ing Jewish as a priviledge, not an obstacle. Jewish pride is the easiest way to fight small scale intolerance. If we can handle the small hurtles early, the large ones will start fade too, In conclusion, a nice chag Purim to everybody. I hope that after Saturday, the costume comes off, and the real Jewish person underneath comes out.