How old is purim




















The Greek versions contain the name of God, which is absent in the biblical story. Purim is a holiday where celebrants are obligated to be happy — and to drink until they are unable to tell the difference between Mordecai and Haman Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 7b. The reading of the Book of Esther from an actual scroll, often an object of special decoration and care, is performed with distinctive cantillation on both the evening and morning of Purim.

Sarcastic, humorous, and iconoclastic entertainment has become a universal component of Purim celebration. Since Jewish performers and musicians did not exist as a professional class until the 18th century, Purim shpiels and wedding entertainments are our only source of Jewish popular pursuits for centuries.

The biting content of Purim performances and the socializing, mockery, dressing up, and carousing surrounding them often provide an important forum for boundary-crossing on issues of gender, sexuality, authority, and relations with the non-Jewish world.

Both Special Purims and Purim itself have proven particularly useful for adapting traditional Jewish narratives and customs to the changing historical circumstances of the Jewish experience. Each generation has related its own understanding of the Jewish experience to this deceptively simple story of good versus evil and Jewish survival in a distant and hostile land.

Some have seen in all this an annual attempt to find psychological relief from what otherwise might have become an intolerable burden of loyalty to the Torah Druyanow, Reshumot, 1 and 2.

Under the influence of the Italian carnival it became customary for people to dress up on Purim in fancy dress, men even being permitted to dress as women and women as men. While some Reform congregations abolished Purim, others continued to celebrate it as a day of encouragement and hope, some even arguing that it helped Jews to express their aggressive emotions and to sublimate their feelings of wrath and hatred W.

Plaut, The Growth of Reform Judaism , Jews are commanded Esther to send out gifts of food or drink, and to make gifts to charity. The sending of gifts of food and drink is referred to as shalach manos lit. A special festive meal is eaten on Purim afternoon toward eventide. Among Ashkenazic Jews , a common treat at this time of year is hamentaschen lit.

Nobody knows for sure how these sweets became so heavily associated with Purim, but we do know that similar cookies known as Mohntaschen were popular in 18 th century Europe, and they were adopted around this time as a Purim treat by European Jewish families. This association caught on, and soon the cookies were simply known as hamentaschen. During the 19 th century the cookies spread to America and the rest of the world, and have remained a Purim staple ever since.

It is customary to hold carnival-like celebrations on Purim, to perform plays and parodies, and to hold beauty contests. The Torah reading for Purim morning is Exodus — Work is permitted as usual on Purim, unless of course it falls on a Saturday. Purim is considered a minor holiday reflected in the Yiddish saying that as a high temperature does not denote serious illness neither is Purim a festival. Doniach, Purim Eng. Zevin, Ha-Mo'adim ba-Halakhah 10 , —; J.

Presumably to help him relax, he asks his servants to read to him from the kingdom chronicles. As it happened, the servants read how Mordecai saved him from certain death.

Naturally, he was frustrated when the king ordered that be done to Mordecai, not to him, but he carried it out as commanded. The king stormed out in anger. He ordered Haman be hanged, and ordered that Jews throughout the kingdom protect themselves from those who come to kill them, as the orders could not be rescinded any more. On the 13th of Adar and on the next day, Jews around the kingdom killed thousands of their attackers. But they themselves were saved.

The historicity of this story is highly contested. Proponents note the great detail in dates, names and objects mentioned, even to seemingly unimportant aspects of the story. They also argue that the description of court life fits what we know about the Persian court from other sources.

But it's still unlikely. No other ancient texts tell anything like this story, critics snort. Nor does Ahasuerus' character fit any of the known Persian monarchs though some supporters think he's Artaxerxes. And the most convincing argument against the story's veracity is that a Persian king would have never married an orphan of unknown parentage. The Mishnah is the first text to prescribe how Purim is to be celebrated - the Book of Esther is to be read in public.

The Talmud redacted CE augments the tradition of reading the Book of Esther in public with drinking wine, making merry - and giving gifts to the poor. That is prescribed in the Book of Esther itself, but seems to be a later addition to the book. Neither that practice nor the name "Purim" itsef appear in the earlier version of the Book of Esther, which we know from the Greek translation in the Septuagint, dating from the second century BCE.

Ahasuerus orders Haman to be hanged, and the Jews attack and kill the enemies preparing to slaughter them. Purim is celebrated on the 14th day of Adar, when the Persian Jews are said to have celebrated after vanquishing their would-be executors. It can be horrible. Even if we put our trust in God, who is not mentioned in the text, but works behind the scenes, we still have to do our part. Unusually, in certain ancient walled cities Jerusalem being the primary example Purim is observed not on the 14th of Adar but on the 15th.

Purim is often marked with parades and fancy dress, a custom that 13th century Italian Jews are thought to have adopted from the pre-Lent masquerades held by their Christian neighbours, Haaretz reports.

There are four main religious requirements for observant Jews on Purim. Most importantly, they must attend the synagogue on the eve of Purim or the following day, when the story of Esther is read aloud.



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