March 18, 2011-Tzav/Purim

I had a very poignant conversation with a student this week which highlighted our approach to Jewish holidays. They are not commemorations,
but rather re-visitations. We fast on the fast of Esther because we need the message and the repentance. We rejoice on Purim because we need to feel the love of what it means to be a Jew. In short, we endeavor to re-experience the array of emotions and strengthen our steadfast convictions to the mission of the Jewish people. We shed the tears of pain and euphoria almost simultaneously. As only Jews can.

Over spring break, we once again journeyed to Poland - what better
preparation for Purim can there be. Without question, we experienced the lows of the lows, and thusly the highs of the highs. But something else happened this week which should give our fast of Esther some bite. And less the message be slightly unclear, we will be reading the Torah portion of Amalek this Shabbos, the remembrance of that nation whose only joy is the annihilation of the Jewish people.

Last week we stood at the mass grave of over 800 children from Tarnow in Galicia, Poland in a forest called Zbylitovska Gura. The Nazis sadistically rejoiced in exterminating the third reich's greatest enemy, Jewish children. And now, 70 years later, the same beast called Amalek has reared its head yet again. Last Shabbos the Fogel family in Israel was brutally slaughtered in their home - a father, mother and 3 children ages 11, 3 and 3 months - by hand with a knife as they lay in bed. In the streets of Gaza and the west bank, arabs celebrated and passed out candies and treats. If this isn't sobering, I don't know what is.

Please do not turn a blind eye to this tragedy. If you didn't know, be sure to look it up. If you did know, be sure to shed a river of tears.

It seems every year Purim becomes more and more relevant. We don't need to look around anymore for Haman - he's made himself quite known. And his henchmen are bloodthirsty in their loyalty to Amelek's anthem.

So how do we respond? We sing and dance and drink and eat. We read the Megilah which tells the timely story of our Divine salvation on the brink of extermination. We see that the Almighty was there all along - even in the darkness when He seemed furthest away. We pay attention to that story and strengthen our resolve to see through the haze of history and know with complete faith that even in our present darkness, the Purim story holds the key to our salvation. We dress in costume to mock the veneer of 'how the word looks' and we send gifts to our fellow Jew and alms to the Jewish poor to increase our love - nay, infatuation - for this enigma call the Jew and our responsibility to it. And we drink. Drink to feel the love. Drink to
bring out the heart which can defeat the skepticism of the head.

If you think Purim is one big excuse for a pub crawl, then unfortunately the holiday has been adulterated. And if people choose to spend the time as an excuse for frivolity and blithering drunkenness, then we will have fallen behind once again in achieving the lofty and elusive goal of tikkun olam. The Purim story is the most powerful message we can revisit today. Drunkenness for the sake of drunkenness is further fodder to our enemies. A drink for the love of being a Jew is the prescription of Purim.


Good Shabbos, and a Freilichen Purim.
Rabbi Lynn