It's time for another Jewish holiday (we have a lot, but most of them aren't quite as exciting as this one): Purim!
Purim begins at sundown on March 3rd. It's probably the most festive of Jewish holidays, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Mardi Gras. In Israel, there are often parades and people dress up in elaborate costumes to celebrate.
It's also the only holiday where Jews are supposed to drink until they cannot tell the difference between "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai". That translates to really, really drunk.
The story behind Purim is this: King Achashveyrosh feasted with his court for six months to celebrate the expansion of his empire. During one of the feasts the king summoned his wife Vashti to come and entertain his guests. Vashti refused, and fearing the all the wives of his court would follow her example she was killed and King Achashveyrosh had to find a new wife.
The king held a beauty contest and chose for his wife a young girl named Esther, who is the neice of Mordechai. Mordechai warns his neice not to tell the king of her Jewish heritage, and so Esther keeps quiet about it and marries the king.
After Esther becomes queen, Mordechai overhears a plot to kill the king. He reports the plot, and the perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice. Despite saving the king's life, Mordechai's efforts are soon forgotten, though they are recorded in the king's records.
During this, a man named Haman becomes the king's new prime minister. Haman makes it law that everyone must bow before him, and when Mordechai refuses to bow, Haman becomes angry. He convinces the king that all Jews must be executed. The king set a date for the 14th of Adar, which is the day we celebrate Purim.
Mordechai tells Esther that this was why she had to keep her Jewish identity a secret, and she must save her people. After praying and fasting, Esther comes up with a plan. She goes to the king uninvited and invites him and Haman to a banquet. After that banquet she invites Haman to a second banquet. Haman is honoured to be invited twice, and on his way home to tell his wife the good news, he bumps into Mordechai. Haman doesn't want to wait for the planned day of the massacre, and so he makes a gallows in his yard and asks the king for permission to hang Mordechai the next morning.
That night, the king has trouble sleeping, and so he asks for his records to be read aloud to help him get to sleep. By chance, he is read the account of Mordechai foiling the assassination attempt, and the king is told that Mordechai was never rewarded. Haman, who was spying on the king, but only happened to hear the king musing about rewarding a man, assumed that it was himself who was to be rewarded, and so he advised that the man to be rewarded should be dressed in king's clothes and led through the town on the king's horse and hailed by all as the king's devoted subject. The king is delighted with Haman's idea, and informs Haman that he will be the one to do it!
After the humiliation of parading Mordechai through the town, Haman goes to Esther's second banquet. There, Esther reveals that she is Jewish and exposes Haman's plot against her people. The king is so angry he has Haman killed. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop the massacre, because it already bore the king's seal. So instead he allowed the Jews to arm themselves and fight back.
Then the Jews fight and win. The same gallows that were supposed to hang Mordechai were used instead to hang Haman and his ten sons. There was a celebration throughout all the land and triumph for the Jewish people.
That's probably way too much reading. Anything else you want to know, just ask Leland or me (tonight is Shabbat, so I won't be on, and tomorrow is Purim, obviously, so I won't be on either).
Shalom!
Purim begins at sundown on March 3rd. It's probably the most festive of Jewish holidays, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Mardi Gras. In Israel, there are often parades and people dress up in elaborate costumes to celebrate.
It's also the only holiday where Jews are supposed to drink until they cannot tell the difference between "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai". That translates to really, really drunk.
The story behind Purim is this: King Achashveyrosh feasted with his court for six months to celebrate the expansion of his empire. During one of the feasts the king summoned his wife Vashti to come and entertain his guests. Vashti refused, and fearing the all the wives of his court would follow her example she was killed and King Achashveyrosh had to find a new wife.
The king held a beauty contest and chose for his wife a young girl named Esther, who is the neice of Mordechai. Mordechai warns his neice not to tell the king of her Jewish heritage, and so Esther keeps quiet about it and marries the king.
After Esther becomes queen, Mordechai overhears a plot to kill the king. He reports the plot, and the perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice. Despite saving the king's life, Mordechai's efforts are soon forgotten, though they are recorded in the king's records.
During this, a man named Haman becomes the king's new prime minister. Haman makes it law that everyone must bow before him, and when Mordechai refuses to bow, Haman becomes angry. He convinces the king that all Jews must be executed. The king set a date for the 14th of Adar, which is the day we celebrate Purim.
Mordechai tells Esther that this was why she had to keep her Jewish identity a secret, and she must save her people. After praying and fasting, Esther comes up with a plan. She goes to the king uninvited and invites him and Haman to a banquet. After that banquet she invites Haman to a second banquet. Haman is honoured to be invited twice, and on his way home to tell his wife the good news, he bumps into Mordechai. Haman doesn't want to wait for the planned day of the massacre, and so he makes a gallows in his yard and asks the king for permission to hang Mordechai the next morning.
That night, the king has trouble sleeping, and so he asks for his records to be read aloud to help him get to sleep. By chance, he is read the account of Mordechai foiling the assassination attempt, and the king is told that Mordechai was never rewarded. Haman, who was spying on the king, but only happened to hear the king musing about rewarding a man, assumed that it was himself who was to be rewarded, and so he advised that the man to be rewarded should be dressed in king's clothes and led through the town on the king's horse and hailed by all as the king's devoted subject. The king is delighted with Haman's idea, and informs Haman that he will be the one to do it!
After the humiliation of parading Mordechai through the town, Haman goes to Esther's second banquet. There, Esther reveals that she is Jewish and exposes Haman's plot against her people. The king is so angry he has Haman killed. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop the massacre, because it already bore the king's seal. So instead he allowed the Jews to arm themselves and fight back.
Then the Jews fight and win. The same gallows that were supposed to hang Mordechai were used instead to hang Haman and his ten sons. There was a celebration throughout all the land and triumph for the Jewish people.
That's probably way too much reading. Anything else you want to know, just ask Leland or me (tonight is Shabbat, so I won't be on, and tomorrow is Purim, obviously, so I won't be on either).
Shalom!
Seriously, hope your festival goes well.
