Purim Lessons

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere, and you and your father's household will perish; and who knows whether it was not for just such a time that you attained your majesty.” Mordechai to Esther (by messenger), 4:14

"Go, assemble all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, day and night; also I and my maidens will fast in a like manner; then I will go to the king contrary to the law, and if I perish, I perish." Esther to Mordechai (by messenger), 4:16

Our prayers are all answered. We just don't know how or when. They accumulate in the Heavenly account. Why was Esther's prayer answered and not those of other generations in peril? We don't know. And we can't know. But all the prayers that came before have their cumulative effect in a place and time we cannot know. Perhaps now; perhaps later.

“For if you remain silent at this time..” - Do not remain silent. Add your prayer to the great stream of prayers and perhaps it shall tip the balance.

“Relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere...” - Do not cut yourself off from the community lest...

“You and your father's household will perish.” - If our prayers are answered, you will have severed yourself from us and are dead to us, and if they are not answered, you will perish with us anyway.

“And who knows whether it was not for just such a time that you attained your majesty.” - “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” Perhaps it was for just this occasion to intervene and save the Jews that you were made Queen of Persia. We all have our unique position that fulfills a divine purpose. “Make His will your will, so they he may make your will His will.” There may come a point where the whole purpose of our lives hangs in the balance of a single act. Choose rightly or “you and your father's household will perish.”

Purim Day in Mitzpe Ramon

Again, more megillah readings than you could shake a grager at. I went to the Chabad shul, not least of which reason was because they started davening at 8:30 AM, a most civilized time for me. The Chabad shul in Mitzpe Ramon is a small "L"-shaped room, with a room behind the long leg of the "L" for women and children. Ok, so it's basically set up for men. Most of the regular congregants are Russian, but Rabbi Slonim always has many bochrim who visit for holidays and Shabbat. Purim was no exception.

Davening at Chabad on Purim morning

After the megillah reading Rabbi Slonim and some of the bochrim went to Nafha prison outside of Mitzpe Ramon to read the megillah for the 50 or so Jews there. Nafha is one of Israel's high security prisons and mostly holds Palestinian terrorists, but Rabbi Slonim told me that Jewish prisoners who are hard cases are put there as well. I believe Yigal Amir, Yitzchak Rabin's assassin is held there, so Rabbi Slonim may have read the megillah for him as well.

Rabbi Slonim set up a table at the city center to do a public megillah reading, especially for the Israeli soldiers who come through town. Sunday is the busiest day for them, since that is when they return to base from their Shabbos leave, and since Purim was on Sunday this year, there were hundreds and hundreds who passed through town. Purim clowns were in attendance, and shalloch manos was distributed to the troops. It is always interesting to me to see all of the women in uniform. Israel has a universal service requirement for both men and women. Some of the women are just girls and so slight it looks like they might not have the strength to lift their big boots. But they do, and they carry M-16s, too.

IDF soldires in Mitzpe Ramon on Purim day

 Many hundreds of soldiers pass through Mitzpe Ramon on a Sunday

Rabbi Slonim danced with the soldiers throughout the day and before starting the reading of the megillah in the town center.
  

Dancing with the IDF (Israeli Defense Force)

Then the megillah was read.

Rabbi Slonim reads the megillah in the town center for Purim

 Clowning around on Purim
 

                             Dancing with Tzahal

Latter in the day Rabbi Slonim held a large Purim Seudah at the new Chabad house, but we had already signed up to do our own.

However, no Purim is complete without drinking "ad sheloh yadeh", until you don't know the difference between "blessed is Mordechai" and "cursed is Haman".


               Yeshivah bochers in Mitzpe Ramon

Night Time Megillah Reading at Chabad of Mitzpe Ramon

There are many megillah readings in Mitzpe Ramon. More than I can count, more than I know about. Pam and I went to the one held at the new Chabad House in Mitzpe Ramon. Before the megillah reading Rabbi Tzvi Slonim, the Chabad shaliach in Mitzpe Ramon, lead a spirited round of dancing accompanied to Purim music played on the accordion.

Rabbi Slonim (left) leads the dancing before the megillah reading
(For a full size image, click on photos)

There were clowns, candy and shaloch manos for the kids.

Rabbi Slonim with a 10 foot clown of Mitzpe Ramon

There were all kinds of costumes, including Pam  as a busy, buzzy Purim bee.

Busy, buzzy, Purim Bee Pam

Ladies of Achachveros' retired harem?

In Israel, you get to use a REAL half-shekel for Machaztit ha'Shekel.

Half-shekel

Finally, the megillah reading begins, led by one of the Chabad Yesivah boys.

Megillah reading at the new Chabad House in Mitzpe Ramon

As is the Chabad custom, Haman's name is only blotted out with noise when the megillah gives his full name, Haman the Agagite or Haman ha'Rashah, etc. But when they did, it was a commotion like I have never heard, with the clopping led by Rabbi Slonim as he and the Yeshiva boys paraded around the room, banging large kitchen pots and making cymbals of large pot lids.

Rabbi Slonim gives Haman a shellacking like he has never had before

After the megillah reading and Havdallah, 

Rabbi Slonim gave out gifts, and what better way to pick the winners than by lottery!

 Putting the "Pur" back into Purim

  

The Black Hebrews of Mitzpe Ramon do it

That is, celebrate Purim. At least they dress up for it.

When I was in school in Chicago in the '60s and '70s, a group of Chicago blacks came to prominence from the Black Hebrew Israelites. They believed that the true Jews were black and that they were descended from the ancient Israelites. They were one of many kind of scary black groups in Chicago at the time. I remember driving past their building on Chicago's South Side. It had stained glass windows with menorahs and Stars of David. Of course, the Black Hebrews were far from the only black religious group active in Chicago. Most notoriously there was the Nation of Islam that claimed Muhammed Ali and Malcolm X as members. In recent times, Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the NOI, has gained scandalous notoriety through his anti-semitic pronouncements.

In any case, some of the Black Hebrews, who are black but not Jewish, decided to decamp from Chicago and made their way to Libya, where they were not welcomed with open arms. They later came to Israel and settled in the Negev in Dimona, the site of Israel's nuclear reactor. Some eventually moved farther south to Mitzpe Ramon. I don't know how many Black Hebrews live in Mitzpe Ramon now, but one of our upstairs neighbors is a member of the group. I see them around town all the time. They speak Hebrew fluently, and always greet you with a "shalom" or "shabbat shalom".

It is amazing to me that their English is still accented with the cadences of South Side Chicago. While sitting in the CafeNeto photographing the face painting just before Purim, the gentleman below came in doing a rap song about Mitzpe Ramon. He said he was dressed as Bat Dog for Purim.

A Black Hebrew dressed as "Bat Dog" for Purim

He was performing his Mitzpe Ramon rap, which he interrupted to give me this account of his costume.

                        "Bat Dog"

Then he went back to rapping...


                 "Bat Dog" rapping in the CafeNeto

   

Face Painting for Purim at the CafeNeto

Continuing the theme of early Purim preparations, the staff and denizens of the CafeNeto in Mitzpe Ramon had their faces painted on Friday, three days before Purim. The face paint artist was Isabelle (left), who made Aliyah to Israel from South Africa 14 years ago. She teaches English in the local school system.




The staff of the 'Neto lined up to have their faces done, and this was the result:

CafeNeto staff painted for Purim

 Itamar, one the denizens of the 'Neto

  

  

Preparing for Purim

Purim is a very big deal in Israel. It makes Halloween in the U.S. look like a flash in the pan. Preparations for Purim start early. We were in a mall in Ashdod on Wednesday, five days before Purim, and all of the teenagers were already decked out in their costumes. However, it did appear, at least this soon before Purim, that it was mostly the girls who were dressed up.

This party area in an Ashdod Mall was filled with teens already dressed for Purim

 Blonde descending stairs in the manner of Braque

One thing that did surprise me was how risque the girls costumes were, not at all like the costumes of my childhood, where everyone dressed up in some costume related to Purim, either Esther, Mordechai, Haman, Achaschverous, or some other Megillah character or Purim object. 

Perhaps they're all just dressed like Vashti?

   

 Dressed for Purim

 

Purim Starts Early in Israel

The Purim countdown timer says it is just 10 days and 18.5 hours until Purim. But they start celebrating Purim early in Israel, right after Tu b'Shevat in fact. Tu b'Shevat was Saturday, January 30th this year. As soon as Shabbat ended, preparations for Purim were in full swing.

 Dressed for Purim at Toys-r-Us

We went to Be'er Sheva that Saturday evening and visited the Toys-r-Us store in the "One" shopping center. The clerks were already dressed for Purim and the costume department was under full attack by the children. Just like Christmas after Thanksgiving, but Jewish!

Toys-r-Us in Be'er Sheva immediately after Tu b'Shevat