Hello all!
This is Brady starting what looks to be an amazing collection of people celebrating Purim across the world. This blog will be the place for communities to let the rest of the world know how they plan to celebrate Purim. This will aslo be the place to share pictures and stories once your fantastic parties have taken place.
Purim is one of the most wild and fun to celebrate Jewish hoilidays, yet not that many people celebrate it. In fact not that many people know how to celebrate it or the story of why we celebrate it. This being said I am taking this first blog entry as an opportunity to tell the Purim story.
Here it goes:
Purim commemorates events that took place 2,500 years ago just after King Achashverosh consolidated his rule over the Persian empire. According to Megilat Esther, which is Hebrew for the Scroll of Esther, Achashverosh’s empire stretched from Hodu ad Kush, which on today’s map, would mean from Ethiopia to India.
To celebrate the expansion of his empire, King Achashveyrosh and his court feasted for six months. It was during one of these feasts, and after a lot of food and wine, that Achashveyrosh called for his wife, the proud Queen Vashti, to appear. However, Vashti, who did not appreciate being summoned on demand, refused.
The Midrash, which is a series of biblical commentaries, says that Vashti refused out of modesty, because she was summoned in order to dance naked in front of the King and his friends. Another version is that Vashti refused to appear out of vanity, because she had a blemish on her face.
Whatever Vashti’s reason, when she did not appear, the King became very angry. His advisers, fearing their own wives would take courage from Vashti and become similarly disobedient, told the king to have her killed.
With Vashti gone, the foolish King is advised to stage a beauty contest to pick a new wife. A beautiful Jewish orphan named Esther is chosen as the new queen. Esther, whose Hebrew name is Hadassah, was raised by her uncle Mordechai, an important Jewish religious leader. Mordechai, sensing a divine plan, tells Esther not to reveal that she is Jewish.
Soon after Esther becomes queen, Mordechai overhears an assassination plot against the King. He reports the conversation to the palace, and the two perpetrators, Bigthan and Theresh, are apprehended and killed. The incident is recorded in the king’s chronicles, and, although Mordechai saved the kings life, his efforts go unrewarded and are quickly forgotten.
Meanwhile, a power-hungry courtier named Haman is appointed as the King’s new Prime Minister. Haman quickly passes an edict that all must bow before him. Mordechai incurs the wrath of Haman by refusing to bow. After complaining to his wicked wife, Zeresh, Haman decides to take revenge on Mordechai by convincing King Achashverosh to decree that all Jews be executed. Lots are cast and a day is chosen for the annihilation of the Jews. That day, of course, was the 14th of Adar, the day we celebrate Purim.
Mordechai tells Esther that it is because of Hamans evil plan that she, a Jewish woman, has become queen and that she must plead with the king to save her people. After some initial reluctance, Esther agrees, and in preparation, she and her people fast and pray for three days requesting Divine assistance.
When she is finished, she has a plan. Esther decides to visit the king uninvited, an act punishable by death, and invite the king and Haman to a special banquet. At the banquet she eludes Achashverosh’s questions and invites the king and Haman to a second banquet.
Haman is elated that he is so honored, and hurries home to tell his wife. On his way, he bumps into Mordechai. Haman can’t wait for the day of the planned massacre, and at the advice of his wife, he erects huge gallows in his yard. He rushes back to request the king’s permission to hang Mordechai the next morning.
That night, King Achashveyrosh had trouble sleeping. To pass the time, he asks that his book of chronicles be read out loud. The chapter read to him is about the time Mordechai revealed an assassination plot against him. He is told that Mordechai was never rewarded. Haman, who just happened to be in the palace, overheard the king wondering how to reward such a man.
Haman, who assumed the King wanted to honor him, advises the king that the lucky one should be adorned in the king’s robes and crown, paraded through the streets on the king’s horse, and proclaimed as the king’s honored subject.
The king likes Haman suggestion so much, he informs him that he is to lead Mordechai through the streets of Shushan, the capital. Haman, is stunned, but has no choice but to fulfill the King’s orders.
After this humiliation, Haman attends Esther’s second banquet. It is there that Esther reveals that she is Jewish and exposes Haman as the evil plotter against her people. The king is so angry that he orders Haman killed. However, the king is unable to rescind Haman’s decree against his Jewish subjects since it already bears the king’s seal. Instead, he allows the Jews to arm themselves and fight.
So, on the thirteenth of Adar, the Jews defeat their enemies in the provinces, and on the thirteenth and fourteenth of Adar, the Jews defeat their enemies in Shushan and in the cities.
The day turned from grief and mourning to one of joy for the Jewish people when Haman and his 10 sons were killed on the very gallows erected to kill Mordechai and the Jews. In fact, the joy of Purim is so great, we are told, that even in Messianic times, unlike other holidays, Purim will be celebrated.
There it is! Hope you enjoyed it! Can't wait for March 3rd!
--Brady
Purim photo
