Observing Purim In This Time of Catastrophe
Multifaith Iftars/Break Fasts for Ceasefire
Ta’anit Esther
March 21, 12 pm EST
Join us as we wrestle with this complicated holiday’s violent legacy, and ask: How might the subversive spirit of Purim help us to wrest Judaism from its current application as a tool of violence, and instead promote justice and peace?
Israel’s ongoing campaign of devastation against the Palestinians of Gaza provides a chilling backdrop to Purim in 5784. It is absurd to experience joy in this time, when some 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 100 Israelis remain in captivity as hostages. Moreover, the Purim story’s culmination in a revenge fantasy of mass violence will likely be deployed as a license for real-world harassment and pogroms by the Israeli military and settlers – as it was in the 1994 Hebron massacre of 29 Palestinians.
If Purim teaches us anything, though, it is that our darkest moments hold the potential to be inverted in the service of goodness, if we can rise to the occasion.
Fulfilling the 4 Mitzvot of Purim
Join a Megillah Reading led by a Rabbi for Ceasefire!
Disability Justice Torah Circle (@ SVARA)
5pm ET (4pm CT, 2pm PT) on Sunday 3/24
Hinenu Baltimore
Saturday 3/23: 6:45pm EST
Sunday 3/24: 8:45am EST
Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue
7:45 pm Eastern Time ma’ariv and megillah reading
All Purim information here (only the erev Purim / Saturday evening megillah reading will be livestreamed)
Give Tzedakah!
Donate to UNRWA, the only relief agency able to distribute desperately needed humanitarian aid in Gaza, that was recently defunded by the U.S.
About Purim
Purim is a holiday based on Megillat Esther, a complicated story on how the Jews of Persia were saved from destruction but destroyed others in response.
During the reign of King Ahasuerus, one of his ministers, Haman, sought to murder all the Jews in Shushan in retaliation for Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, refusing to bow down to him. Haman drew lots (purim) to determine the day that he would murder the Jews: the 13th of Adar.
Mordechai collaborates with his cousin Esther, the King’s new queen, to save the Jews. She fasts for 3 days before interceding to protect the Jews. Esther is successful at saving the Jews. Haman is hanged, and a decree is sent that Jews are authorized to violence. In Chapter 9 of the Book of Esther we read “So the Jews struck at their enemies with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their enemies. In the fortress Shushan the Jews killed a total of five hundred men.”
Jews have long struggled with the gruesome violence in Chapter 9 and its implications. This year The Shalom Center invited writers to draft 10 new original chapter 9s that center peace, nonviolence, and the dignity of all people.
Today Purim is widely celebrated as a joyous holiday. It is customary to wear costumes, and turn things upside down, to drink so heavily you can’t tell between good and evil. We are invited to give money to those who need it, enjoy a celebratory feast, give gifts to your neighbors, and hear the story of Esther read.
On Purim in 1993 when Goldstein, a doctor from Brooklyn living in a settlement near Hebron, entered into the mosque in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank and opened fire, murdering 29 Muslims at prayer, injuring dozens more. Inspired by the story of Purim he committed mass murder. Goldstein was a follower of Meir Kahane, who while once was a fringe religious extremist, now has followers who hold office in the highest levels of Israel’s government.