[Based on a talk presented by Rabbi Riskin on Arutz Sheva Radio]
Purim is a strange holiday. Two examples:
1) The criterion for determining on which day a city celebrates Purim is if the city had a wall at the time of Yehoshua Bin Nun. Yet the Purim miracle occurred in Persia, a long time after Yehoshua. Why isn't our criterion what cities were walled at the time of Achashveros. What does Israel have to do with Purim which is largely a Galut holiday?
2) In the Tractate of Megillah, page 7, Rava says that it is incumbent upon every individual to get drunk on Purim until he can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai and cursing Haman. Judaism teaches "k'doshim tihiyu" - a person has to be holy. Certainly, a person has to be sober! How can there be a holiday on the Jewish calendar commanding drunkenness?
You have to understand historically when Purim comes out. According to Megillah 11, Ahashveros was King of Persia after Cyrus (Koresh) and before Daryavesh. Cyrus had told the Jews of the Exile (they lived in Babylonian Persia after the destruction of the first Temple) that they had permission to return to the state of Israel - the land of Judea at that time - similar to the situation of the Jews since 1948. Unfortunately, very few Jews returned. Perhaps 15% of the population. Everyone else remained in exile. They remained for two main reasons. 1) Economic - the conditions were better in Persia-Babylon. 2) Security - it was more physically secure there.
So in effect, Megillat Esther tells the story of what happens to a Jewish community when it opts to remain in Exile, although it has the opportunity to return to Israel. It is therefore a very modern book. It pictures for us a community on the abyss of assimilation, perhaps wealthy and respected. It opens with Achashveros inviting the entire population to a major party given in his palace. The Jews come as well and they eat and drink, despite no kashrut supervision. The Midrash says that that's why they deserved to be destroyed. From the perspective presented in an interpretation by Ibn Ezra, Esther hides her background because she is afraid that she will not be chosen as queen if the King knows that she is Jewish. She wants to be queen even if it means hiding her Jewishness.
Then comes the moment of truth. Haman wants to destroy all the Jews. Mordechai makes a big demonstration and Esther is embarrassed and she tells him, in effect, to cool it. Mordechai says to Esther, ?If you think for one moment that you will be saved when all the Jews are killed - that won't happen. Hashem will see to it that the Jews are not destroyed. That?s his promise, but if you don?t act now, then you and your entire family will be destroyed for all of Jewish history.? Esther acts. She becomes a proud and fighting noble Jewess, who places her life on the line, and the Jews are ultimately saved. However, when you read between the lines of the story of Purim, what you see is that the Jews of exile were forgetting that they were Jews. The one who reminds them is Haman. To a great extent, that?s the story of Jewish communities throughout history. Whenever Jews lived in a place where they were accepted - Alexandria, Egypt, China, the United States - then they assimilated and intermarried and quickly forgot that they were Jews. Only under the threat of anti-Semitism did the Jews remember their Jewishness.
Now Purim is much clearer. We give proper honor to Israel by talking about cities that were walled from the days of Yehoshua, because what emanates from the scroll of Esther is that when Jews have the opportunity to go to Israel, they should go. Exile may seem better, but that's only on the surface. Economically and militarily they may seem to be more secure, but, bottom line, as far as Jews are concerned, they will be destroyed either by assimilation or by anti-Semitism.
In order to rejoice the victory of Purim, when at the end of the book we are still slaves of Achashveros and a Haman can again rear his ugly head a week or a month or a year later, you have to get drunk. Drunk until you can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai and cursing Haman. Who was the real hero? Who was the one who really reminded the Jews that they were Jews in ancient Persia. Was it Mordechai or Haman? To be happy on an exile holiday like Purim, you indeed have got to get drunk.
--------------------------------
Rabbi Riskin is the Chief Rabbi of Efrat and founder and Dean of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs. His weekly Torah commentary on Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio can be heard on our On Demand Audio page.
Purim is a strange holiday. Two examples:
1) The criterion for determining on which day a city celebrates Purim is if the city had a wall at the time of Yehoshua Bin Nun. Yet the Purim miracle occurred in Persia, a long time after Yehoshua. Why isn't our criterion what cities were walled at the time of Achashveros. What does Israel have to do with Purim which is largely a Galut holiday?
2) In the Tractate of Megillah, page 7, Rava says that it is incumbent upon every individual to get drunk on Purim until he can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai and cursing Haman. Judaism teaches "k'doshim tihiyu" - a person has to be holy. Certainly, a person has to be sober! How can there be a holiday on the Jewish calendar commanding drunkenness?
You have to understand historically when Purim comes out. According to Megillah 11, Ahashveros was King of Persia after Cyrus (Koresh) and before Daryavesh. Cyrus had told the Jews of the Exile (they lived in Babylonian Persia after the destruction of the first Temple) that they had permission to return to the state of Israel - the land of Judea at that time - similar to the situation of the Jews since 1948. Unfortunately, very few Jews returned. Perhaps 15% of the population. Everyone else remained in exile. They remained for two main reasons. 1) Economic - the conditions were better in Persia-Babylon. 2) Security - it was more physically secure there.
So in effect, Megillat Esther tells the story of what happens to a Jewish community when it opts to remain in Exile, although it has the opportunity to return to Israel. It is therefore a very modern book. It pictures for us a community on the abyss of assimilation, perhaps wealthy and respected. It opens with Achashveros inviting the entire population to a major party given in his palace. The Jews come as well and they eat and drink, despite no kashrut supervision. The Midrash says that that's why they deserved to be destroyed. From the perspective presented in an interpretation by Ibn Ezra, Esther hides her background because she is afraid that she will not be chosen as queen if the King knows that she is Jewish. She wants to be queen even if it means hiding her Jewishness.
Then comes the moment of truth. Haman wants to destroy all the Jews. Mordechai makes a big demonstration and Esther is embarrassed and she tells him, in effect, to cool it. Mordechai says to Esther, ?If you think for one moment that you will be saved when all the Jews are killed - that won't happen. Hashem will see to it that the Jews are not destroyed. That?s his promise, but if you don?t act now, then you and your entire family will be destroyed for all of Jewish history.? Esther acts. She becomes a proud and fighting noble Jewess, who places her life on the line, and the Jews are ultimately saved. However, when you read between the lines of the story of Purim, what you see is that the Jews of exile were forgetting that they were Jews. The one who reminds them is Haman. To a great extent, that?s the story of Jewish communities throughout history. Whenever Jews lived in a place where they were accepted - Alexandria, Egypt, China, the United States - then they assimilated and intermarried and quickly forgot that they were Jews. Only under the threat of anti-Semitism did the Jews remember their Jewishness.
Now Purim is much clearer. We give proper honor to Israel by talking about cities that were walled from the days of Yehoshua, because what emanates from the scroll of Esther is that when Jews have the opportunity to go to Israel, they should go. Exile may seem better, but that's only on the surface. Economically and militarily they may seem to be more secure, but, bottom line, as far as Jews are concerned, they will be destroyed either by assimilation or by anti-Semitism.
In order to rejoice the victory of Purim, when at the end of the book we are still slaves of Achashveros and a Haman can again rear his ugly head a week or a month or a year later, you have to get drunk. Drunk until you can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai and cursing Haman. Who was the real hero? Who was the one who really reminded the Jews that they were Jews in ancient Persia. Was it Mordechai or Haman? To be happy on an exile holiday like Purim, you indeed have got to get drunk.
--------------------------------
Rabbi Riskin is the Chief Rabbi of Efrat and founder and Dean of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs. His weekly Torah commentary on Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio can be heard on our On Demand Audio page.