AND HE BROUGHT NEAR THE SECOND RAM, THE RAM OF THE INVESTITURES, AND AARON AND HIS SONS LEANED THEIR HANDS [FORCEFULLY] UPON THE RAM'S HEAD. AND HE SLAUGHTERED [IT]... AND MOSES TOOK SOME OF ITS BLOOD, AND PLACED IT ON AARON'S RIGHT EARLOBE, ON THE THUMB OF HIS RIGHT HAND AND ON THE BIG TOE OF HIS RIGHT FOOT.

 

If we have succeeded in explaining the three earlier uses of the shalshelet in the Torah as signifying a moment of indecision, why would we expect Moses to be especially indecisive and hesitant in the verse from our parasha?

On each of the seven Days of Ordination, three offerings were made: a sin offering, a burnt offering and a peace offering. Tension builds from slaughter to slaughter. This is expressed by the cantillation sign appearing above the word vayish'hat (and it was slaughtered) in each verse. Verse 15, referring to the sin offering, uses the sign reviya, which marks a break of moderate significance. Verse 19 deals with the burnt offering, and the very first word of the verse, vayish'hat, is marked with an etnahta, signifying the most important division of the verse. Our verse treats the ram of ordination, and is marked with a shalshelet. There are those who explain that in the course of the service, Moses experienced spiritual exaltation while performing the tasks that would be later reserved for the High Priest. While dismayed by the thought that he will soon have to abandon this role, he remains true to the divine command.

It seems to me that Moses' hesitancy had a completely different cause. The third slaughter, on the seventh of the Days of Ordination, was Moses' final ritual act before handing over the priestly role to Aaron. In the course of those days, Moses served as an educator. Just before he executes the slaughter and completes his job, Moses asks himself: Have I taught flawlessly? Perhaps I have failed in my preparation of Aaron for his role? That is why the word vayish'hat is marked with a shalshelet. The great teacher is subjecting himself to merciless self-criticism.

(From Yossi Morgenstern's article, "The Shalshelet as Interpretive Cantillation" Shabbat Shalom, Tzav issue, 5764)

 

 

 

A Little Purim-Torah

Devora Weissman

They used to say that Prof. Ernst Akiva Simon, of blessed memory, would spend Purim day in Jerusalem and Shushan Purim in Tel Aviv in order to avoid the obligation to observe the holiday's commandments, especially the reading of the Meggilah. His son, our comrade Prof. Uriel Simon (may he be granted long life) told me that this was just an "urban legend." In any event, Simon's "trick" wouldn't work this year or in similar years, when we observe a "Triple Purim" in Jerusalem and read the Meggilah together with the rest of the Jewish People However, the story does point to a genuine issue which is a problem for many of my closest friends.

Two elements can be found in every Jewish holiday: the "theory" and the "practice." The theory is the story, the meanings, and the ideas associated with the holiday. The practice is the set of actions through which we celebrate the holiday. Some of my good friends reject the theory of Purim, some of them reject the practice, and some reject both! (How people who do not enjoy food and drink, singing and dancing, unruly behavior, etc. became friends of mine is a mystery whose solution would take us far beyond the confines of the present article). However, I can understand why they have problems with the theory. Meggilat Esther seems to tell a story which is violent, anti-feminist, and full of vengeance against gentiles. Many do not see the connection between the rescue of a Jewish diaspora community and the carnival atmosphere of its celebration.

I must admit that since the 1990s it has become more difficult to celebrate Purim, given all of the tragic events that occurred on that day. It began in 1992, with the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Ares (which served as a kind of harbinger of the mass murder that occurred in the Jewish community center of that city two years later ion the tenth of Av.). The next tragedy came in 1994, when in revenge for murders committed by Palestinians, Baruch Goldstein entered the Ma'arat HaMachpela and murdered twenty-nine Muslims at prayer. There were serious attacks in Tel Aviv in 1996 and 1997. It is no wonder that for many people, this day bears extremely negative significance.

Despite all of the above, Purim is my favorite holiday. I believe that it is a very deep holiday; it is fascinatingly complex. I do not ignore its potential dangers. The Sages of the Talmud were aware of them, as we see in the tractate Meggilah 7a: "Esther sent a message to the Sages: "Establish me [i.e., my book] for the generations. They responded: "You are arousing the jealousy of the nations against us." She responded to them: "They have already written about me in the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia." According to this passage, Esther was herself aware of the potential for her story to arouse antagonism. Her argument was simply that her story was already known. Throughout Jewish history, Purim offered an opportunity for our fellow Jews to express their justified anger and their understandable frustrations. One might say that the Meggilah preserves the dream of the diaspora Jew: it was reversed, that the Jews should rule over their enemies.

The literary motif of it was reversed is certainly characteristic of many of the Meggilah's plot developments. On its surface, the Meggilah is a trivial tale of court intrigues and drinking parties. Meggilat Esther is the only book of the biblical canon in which God's name does not appear. This motif also finds expression in the holiday's customs. Ad'deloyada requires that one drink alcoholic beverages until it becomes impossible to distinguish between "blessed is Mordechai and "cursed be Haman." The customary "Purim Torah" laughs at the most sacred things. Good Jews who are usually serious dress up in costumes and act wildly.

The story of the Meggilah can be seen as an archetype of Jewish communal experience in the diaspora; it includes assimilation, antisemitism, existential threats, stress, lobbying, and self-defense. The article on Purim in the Encyclopedia Judaica lists more than a hundred local "Purims" celebrated in communities from Frankfurt and Saragossa to Egypt. Over the course of many generations, when a Jewish community wanted to commemorate a "miraculous" escape from some impending disaster, it established a "local Purim" which used the Meggilah as its model. Since communal solidarity is one response to danger - Go gather all the Jews (4:16) - the holiday's commandments, such as gift to the poor and mishloah manot [sending gifts of food to neighbors] (9:22) are deeds that encourage social solidarity.

And what of the costumes?¹ I would like to propose that, in the final accounting, the holiday is about our identity and our relation to the other. It is interesting that, one the one hand, Purim is the most universal holiday on our calendar. It's mode of celebration is very similar to the festivals of other peoples. African tribes practice rites of role reversal. Some of these rituals and festivals are celebrated in the same season as is Purim, between winter and spring, a time of uncertainty and anxiety. On the other hand, Purim is the most Jewish of holidays; it reflects Jewish experience - the experience of "Jews" rather than of "Hebrews" or "Israelites." Mordechai is the first biblical character referred to as a Jew who does not belong to the tribe of Judah: he is an ish Yemani (2:5), a Benjaminite. This mix of the universal and the particular seems paradoxical, and the holiday is awash in paradoxes.

One way to relate to the other or even to identify with him is to "walk in his shoes." Perhaps this is a way to contend with the other inside of us. The Hebrew word for "to masquerade" - lehit'hapes - is a reflexive construction of the verb meaning "to search for." It literally means "to search for oneself." In order to masquerade, we must first know who we are; we must first know who we are in order to pretend to be someone whom we are not, or perhaps in order to masquerade as who we really are - the "I" who finds no expression on the other days of the year.

Eruvin 65b contains a well-known proverb: "One can be known by one's cup, by one's pocket, and by one's anger; some say also by one's play." In its original context, the saying has no direct connection with Purim. I would like to propose a "Purimesque" interpretation of it: First of all, "one's play" - Purim is the classic opportunity for Jewish humor, laughter, and acting. The Yiddish and Hebrew theatres find their roots in the Purimspiel. Any nation's humor is deeply connected with its cultural identity.

"One's cup"? We have already mentioned the commandment of ad'deloyada. We can be proud of the fact that this drinking rarely gives rise to the violence and "crimes of passion" found in other carnivals.

"One's pocket"? We have already mentioned that we are commanded to pay for charity and gifts of food from our pockets on this holiday, making it an opportunity for social cooperation.

And what of the anger, which heads the list?

The Purim tradition offers a wonderful model for the sublimation of aggression into a non-destructive form. The Torah does, of course, contain a commandment to erase the memory of Amalek. At first glance, this commandment looks like it could lead us - God forbid - to commit genocide. In practice, the commandment is observed with the help of an ingenuous invention: the noisemaker. We erase the memory of Amalek by making noise when Haman the Agaggite's name is mentioned during the reading of the Meggilah. What a wonderful way to temper feelings of anger, frustration, and aggressiveness. If only all the nations could find such creative ways to deal with their anger, no matter how justified.

I say that on Purim the Jew's character is revealed in his cup, his pocket, his anger, and his play. It is not a holiday of Jewish vengeance, but rather a holiday of Jewish identity. Purim is potentially dangerous, just as is Jewish identity if it finds expression in nationalist chauvinism or hatred of the other. However, it also contains a potential for blessing, for balance between the universal and the particularistic, and relations of identity with the other, be that other within us or outside of us.

You don't agree? Than accept these words as "Purim Torah" - and let us drink le'hayyim...

[1]. It might be also said that this expresses one of the Meggilah's central ideas in a charming and Purimesque fashion: one must never depend on reality's outer appearance, and we do not always know how to interpret that appearance. A king can actually be a "clown" (e.g., King Ahasuerus is completely negligent of state affairs, preferring to organize banquets and drinking parties), a Persian queen can be a loyal Jew, an antisemitic public servant can dress up his hatred in patriotic guise, and the hand of God which saves the Jews can masquerade as the happenstance that drives the plot (hester panim - the hiding of God's face).

Dr. Devorah Weisman, a founder of Jerusalem's Kehillat Yedidya, is an educator.

 

 

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.

(Proverbs 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 Proverbs 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)

 

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 L'Purim, MaHaraL of Prague, p. 308)

 

 

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