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C13 – e14 Adar, 5767l / Marche 1, 3, b4, 2007 ration! HOW TO PURIM the soulful meaning, customs, event schedules, and how to celebrate CELEBRATION! My Dear Friends, Wisconsin Jewry, Purim Guide The other day, while I was driving her to school in the morning, my seven-year-old grand-daughter asked me: “What’s the most important day of the year?” 2 PURIM THOUGHTS “Yom Kippur,” I replied instinctively. A moment later I said, “Or maybe Purim.” 3 THE REBBE’S MESSAGE At the next red light, I was backtracking again. “Actually, Passover is a very important day in our history. And Shavuot, when Why “Purim” we got the Torah. Rosh Hashanah, too....” I can’t really be blamed for my confusion. Open up any Chassidic text on the festivals of the Jewish calendar, and you’ll find that the 4 THE HISTORY OF PURIM most important day of the year is the one you’re reading about. The Passover discourses explain how the Exodus from Egypt is the most 6 HOW DO WE CELEBRATE? significant event of our history; and how it is on Passover, when the Exodus is “remembered and re-enacted,” that we establish the very Body & Soul foundation of our spiritual lives and our relationship with G-d. The Shavuot discourses say the same thing–about the revelation at Sinai. As do the discourses that discuss the inner significance of 10 PURIM RECIPES Chanukah, Purim, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot.... You get the idea. Hamentashen and Kreplach All of which are, of course, true. At every juncture of the spiritual terrain of Jewish time is embedded a resource–be it freedom, wisdom, joy, unity, commitment – that is the foundation of our 10 CARING AT ITS FINEST spiritual lives and our relationship with G-d. On each of these, the Bar Mitzvah and the Phoenix entire edifice stands. Yet Yom Kippur and Purim do stand out as “most important days.” Both are distinguished by the fact that they are single-day 12 JEWISH PRIDE festivals (as opposed to Rosh Hashanah’s two days, Sukkot’s seven, Who Needs It? Chanukah’s eight, etc.). Their names even sound alike. Indeed, the great Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) says that Yom Kippurim (Yom Kippur’s full Hebrew name) can also be read to 15 WHAT’S HAPPENING AT mean yom k’Purim, “a day like Purim” (which would mean that my first instinct was on the mark: if Yom Kippur is a day like Purim, LUBAVITCH OF WISCONSIN then Purim should top the list...). Photo gallery of recent events and programs For both days represent extremes. Yom Kippur in its spirituality – we fast, dress in white to emulate the angels, and spend the entire day in devotion and prayer. And Purim in its physicality – we party and feast, bestow gifts of food to friends and money to the poor, and are even commanded to drink (!) to excess. Celebration! Volume 38 #3 February 2007 Push yourself to your limits and beyond–both these days say Published 6 times a year by Lubavitch of Wisconsin to the Jew–and if you do it with all the integrity and devotion and 3109 N. Lake Drive • Milwaukee, WI 53211 goodness of your Jewish soul and body, there you will find G-d. Phone: (414) 961-6100 • FAX: (414) 962-1740 ••••• e-mail: [email protected] My dear friends, as you know on Purim we masquerade; the www.chabadwi.org Purim saga helps us realize that in truth things may not necessarily be the way they appear. We have to reach into the deepest depths to extract the best. Now, even though my name is signed to this message, it is only Dedicated to the Rebbe, masqueraded. I found this beautiful message at Chabad.org and Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, OBM, wanted to share it with you. Dig it, incorporate it, and, with it, whose boundless love and teachings celebrate a truly joyous Purim. are an endless source of inspiration and guidance. Rabbi Yisroel Shmotkin 2 The Rebbe’s Message umerous factors contributed to the salvation that G-d really cares about one people more than another? of the Jewish people from Haman’s decree, Can it be that He is truly pleased by “good” deeds and not least amongst them Mordechai’s rousing angered by “bad” ones? Surely G-d is beyond all that. There of the Jews to repentance and Esther’s efforts might be a level of reality on which goodness is rewarded Non their behalf. Yet the name of the festival – the one word and evil is punished, but on a higher plane, these things are chosen to express its essence – refers to a seemingly minor obviously meaningless. On that level, a truly infinite G-d detail: the fact that Haman selected the date of his proposed has no concern with what goes on in the material world, and annihilation of the Jews by casting lots (pur is Persian for the prime minister of the mightiest empire on earth can do “lot”). Obviously, the significance of what he chooses to a small, dispersed Haman’s lots lies at the very heart of minority. what Purim is all about. So Haman cast lots, hoping to Why did Haman cast lots? Because “connect” to that level of reality that he was attempting to break what, to transcends the laws of good and evil– his mind, was a “vicious cycle” that to that level of reality on which, he had been plaguing him and his ilk believed, everything is up for grabs, as since the appearance of the Jewish free of any moral rules as a throw of nation a thousand years earlier. dice. Many great and powerful men, from What Haman failed to realize was Pharaoh to Nebuchadnezzar–not to that the people of Israel are G-d’s mention Haman’s own ancestors, the chosen people–that even on the level of divine “choice,” Amalekites–had tried to destroy this people. Granted, the which transcends all logical criteria, G-d desires them and Jews have a great and powerful G-d, but they also fail Him protects them. It is true that G-d, in essence, is beyond it all; by committing sins and anger Him with their transgressions. but this very G-d chose–for no other reason than such was All one needs to do, it would seem, is wait for such an His desire–to take the people of Israel as His own. opportune moment. But always, at the very last minute, the Jews repent and, time and again, their G-d is reconciled with The Jew always knows this in the deepest part of his soul, them and saves them. even if his external behavior may, at times, run awry of this realization. This, ultimately, is the reason why we always Haman knew that the Jews had sinned yet again by return to G-d, and why G-d always forgives us in the end. worshipping the king of Babalon, Nebuchadnezzar’s idol and partaking of Achashverosh’s feast; (see beginning of History This, ultimately, is the very essence of the miracle of - page 4,) but who knows how long their estrangement from Purim, and the very essence of the miracle called “the people G-d will last this time? of Israel.” As long as our plans hinge upon the virtue or iniquity of Israel, reasoned Haman, we’ll just have a repeat of the same Adapted from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, O.B.M. old scenario. A more basic approach is called for. Can it be By Yanki Tauber, Chabad.org Special Purim presentation at www.chabadwi.org/Purim 3 being summoned meant risking her life. Esther requested that all the Jews undertake a three-day fast of prayer and repentance. At the end of these three days, Esther stood uninvited before The History of Achashverosh and invited the king and Haman to a private banquet. At that banquet, she invited them both to a second banquet the next night. That night, after the first banquet, King Achashverosh was unable to sleep, and he asked his servants to read to him from his Book of Chronicles. When they reached the episode where Mordechai saved his life, he realized that Mordechai had never been rewarded. Just at that moment, Haman appeared in the courtyard, planning to suggest to the kind to hang Mordechai. Purim When he entered Achashverosh’s chambers, the king asked Haman to suggest the best way of honoring someone. “The Once upon a time… King wishes to honor me,” Haman thought. He was angered and mortified to discover that the honors he envisioned for It was the year 365 B.C.E. in the city himself would be accorded to Mordechai. of Shushan, Persia. The reigning At the subsequent banquet, Esther asked the king to spare King Achashverosh hosted a series of her life and the lives of her people. Surprised, Achashverosh lavish royal feasts in his palace that asked Esther who had threatened her. She replied that it was went on for a hundred and eighty none other than the wicked Haman. days – one half of a year! Every Haman was immediately hanged on citizen living in Shushan was invited. the gallows that he had intended for The Jews, too, participated in the great party. Mordechai. Intoxicated with the excitement of the festivities and days of Although Haman was dead, his endless drinking, King Achashverosh commanded his queen, cruel decree remained unchanged. Vashti, to appear before his guests wearing only her crown.

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