The mid-week notes concern the holiday of Purim which begins tonight. I want to thank David for having a learning and get together at his house last night, especially for those who will not be able to come out tonight due to weather or other reasons.
We discussed how today, on Adar 13, our enemies were given permission and encouraged to attack us. Eventually it was rulef that we could defend ourselves, but this did not deter a lot of the attacks. Today we fast from around 5 am until after the megillah reading tonight. Today it is customary to go to shul and give 3 ½ dollar coins. These coins can usually be acquired in shul.
We discussed how we successfully defeated our enemies, however in Shoshan the fighting continued for an extra day. Because of this extra day, Purim was to be celebrated an extra day in all walled cities, however today this extra day of celebration only takes place in Jerusalem. Although the fighting did not take place an extra day in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is given a special status and is not left out of important holidays.
We discussed how Esther asked the sages to include Purim in Tanach. We discussed how the book of Esther was included in Tanach, and ties the knot between the written and oral parts of our Torah. We discussed how the first 4 mitzvah of Purim have Torah status, and the last 3 have rabbinic status. Torah status means we “go strict” if in doubt, and rabbinic status means we “go lenient”.
We discussed how Purim is considered to be the most important holiday. This is the holiday in which we take Judaism to the max. It is the only holiday which we will continue to celebrate into the messianic era. Judaism is all about bringing spirituality to the physical world, and we try to do this as much as possible on Purim. Purim is a very hard holiday to celebrate because it is easy to lose track of why we are partying so much. The purpose of all the consumption and fun is to elevate the sparks of kidusha, as well as to celebrate our victory as a Jewish people.
We discussed how this victory is the first one in which Hashem remains hidden. There are many other differences between Purim and the other holidays. This is the only holiday in which we wear costumes and engage in parody. This is the only holiday in which we show up to shul and make a lot of noise. On purim, we let loose and be ourselves. Our divisions in society are lost. All of this is different than the other holidays.
On any other day all of this would be quite inappropriate. But on Purim this “ISSS the program”, as my friend would say. David presented a very interesting take on all this. David discussed the idea that on Purim the rules remain the same but the definition changes. We still come to shul wearing Shabbos clothing, but the definition of “Shabbos clothing” includes wigs and masks on Purim. Men still can not dress like woman, but the definition of how men and woman dress on Purim changes.
Finally we discussed that drinking on Purim can be a mitzvah, but there are many exceptions to this. There are cases in which we would be commanded not to drink. These include cases where we have health issues, may be on certain medications, may be pregnant, may be underage, and certainly if we are driving we would be commanded not to drink. We discussed how drinking a small amount and sleeping would still give us credit for the mitzvah.
It is extremely important to choose between drinking or driving tonight and tomorow. If we get bad weather it may be necessary to choose between walking on ice and drinking. Please do not take risks just because it is Purim. The holiday will soon be over and we certainly do not want to have created problems that will stay with us for a long time.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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