WHEN THE

FIFTEENTH FALLS ON SHABBAT, THE MEGGILAH IS NOT READ ON SHABBAT, RATHER, IT IS

READ EARLY ON THE DAY BEFORE SHABBAT, AND MONEY FOR

THE POOR IS COLLECTED AND DISTRIBUTED THAT SAME DAY.

TWO TORAH

SCROLLS ARE TAKEN OUT ON THAT SHABBAT. THEN CAME AMALEK IS READ FROM THE

SECOND;

AL

HANISSIM IS RECITED.

THE PURIM

FEAST IS NOT HELD UNTIL SUNDAY.

Like clouds, wind – but no rain – is one who boasts of gifts not

given.

(Mishlei 25:14)

Like clouds, wind, etc. – As when there is false hope, when the skies fill

with clouds, and the wind blows, and one expects rain but it does not come,

making one distressed and desperate, so it is with a man who boasts, saying, "I

will give such and such charity to the alms-collector," yet he lies and

the poor desperately anticipate his gift, but it does not arrive.

(Rashi on Mishlei 25:14)

Even though they said

that villagers advance [the reading of the Meggilah]

to the day they go into town, [gifts for the poor] are collected and

distributed that very same day. "Even though they said"?

On the contrary, because "they said" [i.e., gifts are given to the

poor on the day people go into town because

"they said" the Meggilah would be read on

that day]. Rather: Since they said that villagers advance [the reading of the Meggilah] to the day they go into town – [gifts for the

poor] are collected and distributed that very same day, because the poor look

forward to the reading of the Meggilah [knowing that

they will receive gifts].

(Meggilah 4b)

These

days of Purim

Yossi Penini

Upon the end

of the year of mourning

for the death

of my father,

Ya'akov z'l, whose life work was dedicated

to the Jewish

People and its land.

Biblical

holidays mark eternally meaningful events which occurred in the lives of those

who left Egypt. The Exodus itself is commemorated on Pesach, the revelation at

Sinai on Shavuot, and the experience of wandering through the desert on Sukkot. It is strange that the event which marked the goal

of that forty year trek – the entry into the Land – is not celebrated with a

holiday or otherwise commemorated. It is even odder that we find an allusion to

that event in the laws of the reading of the Meggilah.

So we read in RaMBaM's Mishnei

Torah, Hilkhot Meggilah

1:4:

What

is the time of its reading? The Sages established various times for it, as it

says in their times (Esther 9), and

here are the times of its reading: Any town that had a wall around it in the

days of Joshua ben Nun, whether in the Land or

outside of it, even if today it no longer has a wall – [there] they read [the Meggilah] on the fifteenth of Adar. Such a town is called a

krakh. Any town that did not have a wall

around it in the days of Joshua ben Nun, whether in

the Land or outside of it, even if today it does have a wall – [there] they

read [the Meggilah] on the fourteenth of Adar. Such a

town is called an ir.

The

big question is – what is the connection between the story of the Meggilah and the entry of the Israelites into the Land of

Israel? What is it that makes the events described in Meggilat

Esther into an occasion for celebrating – to an extent – the entry into the

Land of Israel? And if we are considering bewildering questions, it is fitting

that we continue reading the RaMBaM and see what he

writes in the conclusion of Hilkhot Meggilah 2:18:

All

of the books of the Prophets and all of the Writings will become void in the

days of the Messiah, except for the Meggilah of

Esther – that [book] will endure as will the Five Books of the Torah and the

laws of the Oral Torah, which never become void.

Similarly,

we find in the midrash Yalkut Shimoni on Mishlei (944):

…in the future, all of the holidays will

be abolished, but these days of Purim will never be abolished

What

is there in the Meggilah that makes it, together with

the Five Books of the Torah, uniquely relevant even in the Coming Future? What

advantage does it have over the books of the Prophets, over the books of

wisdom, and over those wonderful chapters of Tehillim

that touch the heart's hidden mysteries? And what makes Purim superior to all

other holidays, making its message and contents relevant after all other

holidays lose their contemporary significance and become mere chapters of

collective memory no more important than any other episode in the nation's

history?

Since

we are all well-acquainted with the story of the Meggilah

and it has fired our imaginations since childhood, there is no need to set out

much detail. It will be sufficient to recall the long days of wine-feasts

described in chapter one and the long process leading up to the choice of the

future queen in chapter two.

Set

against the background of the two introductory chapters, chapter three leads us

into the heart of the drama. Its fifteen verses subsume, in horrible brevity,

many similar episodes in Jewish history. Haman is

appointed to his high office. Mordechai, sitting at

the city gate refuses to bow down and prostrate himself before him. This catches

Haman's eye, but Mordechai

continues his defiant behavior. The actions of the Jew standing at the gate

flood Haman with dark, anti-Semitic feelings:

But

Haman plotted to do away with all the Jews, Mordechai's people, throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus. (Esther 3:6)

In a

flash, the "Jew" becomes a "kike" – all at once he stops

being an individual personality and becomes an archetype for all Jews; suddenly

there is no solution to the "Jewish Question" except for the "Final

Solution." And so Haman describes the situation

to Ahasuerus:

Haman then said to Ahasuerus,

thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury. (3:8-9)

Such

are the Jews: They are found everywhere, their appearance and lifestyle are

conspicuously unique, they are law-breakers, they live by laws different from

and contradictory to the laws of the kingdom, and they are unprofitable. The

final annihilation of the Jews will not only offer a permanent solution to

their problem, but the very process of executing "the final solution to

the Jewish problem" will bring appreciable revenue to the state treasury.

Reacting

to the king's positive reception of Haman's

suggestion, the "machine" leaps into coordinated and well-oiled

activity:

On

to plunder their possessions. (3:12-13)

The eye

and ear of imagination can see and hear the unfolding of maps, the pins marking

the locations of death camps, the cadres of mobilized academics searching for

quick and efficient methods of mass murder, the shapers of public opinion and

the propaganda machine cranking up hate and arousing blood-lust and its

justifications. How close these distant events are to us!

In

my humble opinion, Scripture contains no passage more terrible than the two

verses which complete the chapter:

The

Shushan was dumbfounded. (3:14-15)

The

picture is so bright and clear: An exhausting day's work is done, chock-full of

excitement and the exercise of authority. Passion for the mission and its

sacredness had increased the levels of adrenalin in their blood, so that the

king and Haman sat down to drink – in the drawing

room, with Mahler's god music playing in the background, schnapps served in

crystal shot-glasses, their faces sharing a look of relaxed self-satisfaction,

their eyes meeting and telling each other: "Oh, what a fruitful day's work

we had today!"

In

many ways, the story ends with this picture; the rest of the Meggilah merely offers the particulars of a specific event

that took place in Shushan and Ahasuerus'

kingdom. Perhaps here, at this juncture of the story, we can find an answer to

the questions asked in the beginning of this article. Here we are given an

all-embracing position. There is no guarantee for the continuation of Jewish

existence. Not only today, but also in the future-to-come. Not only when the

Jewish People is scattered among the nations, but also when they enter the Land

of Israel, lay claim to it, settle it, and gain sovereignty over it. Even there

they will not find a "safe refuge" against the eternally fragile

reality that always places a large question mark over Jewish survival.

Faced

with this blunt message, so unequivocal and fateful, perhaps we are left with

only two options: Either to jump off the "Jewish wagon" or to get

drunk…

In

any case, what shall we do?

Perhaps

part of the answer may be found in RaMBaM's Hilkhot Purim. Following the laws dealing

with the Purim feast and mishloah manot, we read in paragraph 17:

It

is better for a person to augment his gifts to the poor than to augment his

feast and mishloah manot

to his friends, for there is no greater and more glorious joy that to bring

joy to the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows,

and the strangers.

The

general message seems to be: Hold hands, hold them tight, and especially hold

and strengthen the hands of the weakest links of society – for they are likely

the first to break, bringing the whole chain down after them. Social solidarity

is the order of the day for Purim; solidarity with the embittered poor, the

unprotected, the beaten, the exploited, and victims of social injustice.

In

our days, especially as we live under a hard-hearted and pitiless social

policy, it is a certainty that, "It is better for a person to augment his

gifts to the poor than to augment his feast…" Perhaps it would be worth

considering, as both an act of kindness and an act of protest, to cancel the

feast altogether and to give all the more in gifts to the poor and to voluntary

organizations that deal with social problems all year round.

In "these

days of Purim" there are also weak links of another kind; those whose

faith is on the brink of a great crisis. For instance, the

residents of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron. Despite all possible disagreement with

their project and with their interpretation of the Torah, and despite the great

hope and the great improvement that the retreat promises to bring, despite all

of this – our brothers are in distress. We, whether we agree or disagree with

them, share a great duty: to hold their hands, to embrace them, to assist them,

to express empathy for their plight, to feel their pain rather than to turn

away from it.

For

their sakes – and for own – for the sake of Jewish continuity and the continuity

of the Zionist project.

We,

by our action or inaction, will share in the religious, moral, and national

responsibility if their crisis pulls all of Israeli society to the edge of the

abyss.

"Be strong, be strong" we shall

arrival.

Yossi Penini is the general manager of "Meitarim,"

the Jewish-Democratic educational network.

The blood is the soul

Eat no blood: For

it is improper for one having a soul to eat a soul, for the souls all belong to

God. The human's soul and the animal's soul are both His, they have one and

the same fate: as the one dies so dies the other, and both have the same spirit

(Kohellet 3:19).

(RaMBaN on VaYikra 17:11)

It may also be said

regarding the prohibition upon eating blood: Besides its being an ill humor,

eating it causes one to become cruel. [That is what happens] when a human

swallows parts of animals that are physically similar to him, the parts upon

which the animals are dependent for their very lives. It is known that animals

have a "soul", which the philosophers call the "animal soul"

– that is to say, [a soul] that is not intellectual, even if it is apparent

that their soul is capable of the discernment necessary for avoiding falling

into holes and a few other things…

(Sefer HaHinukh

148)

It is not implied that

the actual substance of the blood is life, only that the blood bears the spirit

of life which is in living creatures and is inextricably connected with the

spirit of life, and both together form the living creature. The blood is the

instrument of the soul through which it carries out its activities.

(R. David Tzvi Hoffman's

commentary on VaYikra, as quoted in

Prof. Nehama Leibowitz z"l's Studies

in Vayikra, pg.55, Aryeh

Newman, translator)

The consciousness of

shame is the beginning of moral improvement…Cover the blood! Hide your shame!

These actions will bear fruit and ultimately educate mankind. The mute protest

will, when the time is ripe, [i.e., after generations of meat-eating, but of

eating within the context of a system of commandments regulating slaughter,

inspection, and salting of meat] be transformed into a mighty shout and succeed

in its aim. The very nature of the principles of ritual slaughter with their

specific rules and regulations designed to reduce pain, create the atmosphere that

you are not dealing with an inanimate automat, but with a living soul.

(R. A. Y. HaKohen Kook, ztz"l, Talilei Orot, as quoted in

Prof. Nehama Leibowitz z"l's Studies

in Vayikra, pg.55, Aryeh

Newman, translator)

But they did not lay hands on the spoil — The Distinction Between Rescue and Redemption

But they did not lay

hands on the spoil (Esther 9:10) Even

though the royal decree specified to plunder their possessions, they did

not take spoil, lest the king say that their intention was not deliverance from

their enemies, but the taking of spoils, therefore but they did not lay

hands on the spoil – that it be known that they were innocent of that. Know

yet more, they related properly to this miracle, for the miracle was wrought

not so that Israel acquires wealth, but to vanquish their enemies. This is the

difference between this deliverance (geulah)

and other deliverances: from all other deliverances, they profited. When they

left Egypt – the geulah was to bring them out

of Egypt and make them a free people – they profited from this geulah. But the purpose of this – the Purim – miracle

was to remove the foe, but not to gain anything beyond what they had before,

for even after the miracle they were still subjects of Ahasuerus.

Thus Israel acquired nothing in Ahasuerus's days

beyond what they already had. Even though the fear of Jews was upon them, this

was to remove the adversaries, but not to rule over them, as will soon be

explained. Had they taken their wealth, it would have looked as though the

miracle was wrought so that they profit from the geulah

– but certainly there is no profit here, for they were still in exile.

(Ohr Hadash

p. 308)

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