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KOSHER DELIGHT - YOUR JEWISH ONLINE MAGAZINE!
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PURIM |
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ב"ה |
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אדר תשפ"ה |
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CHAG PURIM AND ITS COSTUMES
Why do we dress up on Purim?
Dear Friends,
Purim is a time of
celebration. 2400 years ago, the Jewish people were in danger of total
annihilation – for the first time; instead, the Children of Israel fought
for their lives, defeating completely an army composed of 75,000 troops.
Why do we change our identities – using costumes – to remember and
celebrate such liberation? Four related reasons for salvation are
provided:
• The Book of Esther – Megillat Esther
– that we read on this festivity explains:
“…the enemies of the Jews had expected to rule
over them, but the fortunes were altogether reversed, and the Jews did
rule over their enemies” (Esther 9:1).
The victory of Purim transformed the Jews
from victims to victors, and, in memory of this switch, we change
our appearances to celebrate Purim – dressing up as different characters.
• The Ba’al Shem
Tov (1698-1760), the founder of Chassidism, teaches that there is
a direct connection between the Purim’s mitzvah (the precept) of matanot
laevionim (helping the poor people) and the costumes. The reason for this
is simple: the best way to give charity is secretly, when the
identity of the giver and the recipient are unknown to each other, so as
not to embarrass the recipient of the money; therefore, we dress up in
Purim. Nor the giver neither the recipient can be recognized;
there cannot be any embarrassing situation while giving and receiving the
charity.
• Purim’s miracle was a “hidden” one.
In the book of Esther there is not a single mention of God’s name, as if
everything occurred “by pure chance”: By pure chance Esther was chosen to
be queen; Mordechai overheard the conspiracy against the king
Achashverosh; the king was in a receptive mood when queen Esther came to
call; the king slept badly one night and read in the book of his
Chronicles how Mordechai saved his life; Haman entered just as the king
was thinking of how to reward Mordechai; Harbona, the chamberlain, broke
in at a critical moment to report that Haman had already erected the
gallows to kill Mordechai… Too many casual things lead not to
casualty, but causality.In memory of this hidden miracle,
we “physically hide ourselves” by dressing up.
• Esther designed and implemented a secret program, known
only to her, to save the Jewish people. Esther "hid"
herself behind a plan that led to the salvation of the Jewish people.
That's why we use costumes on Purim, recalling the sophistication
of our heroine's actions and the secrecy of her actions.
In the spirit of our Maccabi Movement, perhaps the most
significantly component of the Book of Esther is that we did not stand in
passivity while being in absolute danger, but we took the destiny in our
hands, fighting for our life and continuity. We knew we had a
shared destiny, and we united as a people to face the challenges together.
Let this Purim
festival bring lots of happiness to our Movement, and to the
whole People of Israel everywhere, overcoming today’s challenges – so
many, so tough…
May God inspire us in this
Purim to feel closer to the State of Israel –
central to our creativity, to our collective
identity, to our life as a People.
May God grant us
Purim's message of life, hope and salvation
to encourage us to
celebrate together.
And may God will let each and
every one of us hears the story of Esther, Mordechai and their redemptive
history, and adopt it as our own.
With best
wishes,
Chag Purim Sameach!
Chazak ve'ematz!
RABBI CARLOS A.
TAPIERO
Deputy CEO & Director of Education
Maccabi World Union
carlos@maccabi.org |
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KOSHER DELIGHT MAGAZINE
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