Purim Beer Pong

It is a mitzvah to drink on Purim

Did you ever wonder why amongst the various laws, mitzvot (commandments) and customs of the holiday of Purim, (this Monday night and Tuesday) we are commanded to have a seudah, a festive meal and to drink till the point of beyond tipsy? The law is codified that we should drink until we can’t tell the difference between curse Haman and praise Mordechai. For me at least that is about 6 shots more than what I take at kiddush on Saturday morning. To describe this commandment, I would call it absurd.

It is enough we have to drink 4 glasses of wine at the Passover seder but at least that is spread out over hours and shared with a full meal. I don’t usually see a lot of drunkenness at the seder, but I often see dozing off after cup 3, and I don’t take it personally as the seder leader. So, what is going on here that absurdity is the word of the day?

If you know the story of Purim as described in the Megillah you know that the story is really about antisemitism and antisemitism is absurd!

Why do so many people for so many centuries hate us for being Jews? There are many reasons that I won’t go into now for why but in the end it comes down to the absurdity of hating Jews just because they are Jews.

In the 1980’s I was on a Rabbinic tour of Poland and the camps. There were in those days maybe a few thousand Jews in Poland and many of them only discovering that they were Jewish later in life since their families survived by passing for Christians. Yet while we were there, we were told of an upsurge in antisemitism in Poland. Antisemitism rising without there being Jews around?

If that isn’t absurd what is, and that is the whole point. Every aspect of this over 2000 year old hate is absurd and that message is telegraphed in the Megillah.

Haman is a courtier in the capital city of Shushan in the Persian Empire. He is buddies with the king, Ahashverus. He is a high-ranking mucky muck and he craves power. When he goes out into the street all the people bow down to him, all except one, Mordechai.

Haman is enraged and wants to punish him but then learns that Mordechai is a Jew. Semi rational thought would have had Mordechai arrested and killed for disobeying the king’s decree to bow down to Haman. But when Haman finds out who Mordechai’s people are he hatches a plan to kill all the Jews. What do you call a personal slight by one man that ends with a plan to annihilate all his people? Absurd, of course.

The heroine of the story, Esther. rises to being queen because the king, in a drunken stupor banished his first wife for refusing to come and dance before him and his sloshed buddies. She wins a beauty contest to become queen. She will save the Jews in the end.

Absurd to say the least.

One night the king must be having heartburn because he can’t sleep and there was nothing good on tv so his people divert him by reading from the official chronicles of his own life. It is there that he reads about how Mordechai informed the palace about an attempted assassination plan to kill the king and because of Mordechai the plan was averted and the assassins hung.

The king asks what reward Mordchai received and he was told nothing. The king wants to make it up to him so the next day he asks his advisor, Haman, what should the king do to repay the loyalty of a subject.

Haman thinks it has to be for him (absurd) so he tells him exactly what he wants. The king agrees and orders Haman to implement the plan for Mordechai.

Later in anger Haman will build a gallows to hang Mordechai on which of course will be the gallows that he will hang on. Absurd, of course!

Now the big scene. How is the plot against the Jews foiled? Did the queen call for mercy for her people?

No.

Did she explain the future attack on her people as an attempt by Haman to kill her?

Of course not.

Did Mordechai lead an uprising against Haman without the king’s approval?

No because that would not have been absurd. So what happened?

Esther invites the king and Haman to a party in her quarters. There she asks for a favor. “ For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, massacred, and exterminated.”

When the king asks who dared to do such a thing she points to and says, “it is the evil Haman”. At this point Haman is shaking in his pants and the king storms out in anger. No one knows what will happen , least of all Haman who throws himself onto her divan where she is lying and begs for mercy. Now the absurdity of all absurdity, the king in a rage walks in and sees the queen lying on her divan and Haman lying at her feet and the king yells, “Does he mean to ravish the queen in my own palace?”

Haman is then sentenced to be hung on the very same gallows he built for Mordechai. He is killed not for trying to kill the Jewish people but because the king thought he was forcing himself on the queen. In a word, absurd.

But wait there is more. The almighty king cannot overrule himself and since he approved of the plan to massacre all the Jews he can’t stop it. All he can do is empower Mordechai to warn and arm the Jews to attack on the day of pogrom and to defeat the forces that Haman unleashed against the Jews. Again, absurd.

So what is the point of this story from thousands of year ago?

The hate of Jews has been here for over 2 millennia. It is irrational and often counterproductive, but persistent, nevertheless.

Yet in another absurdity all those who tried to eliminate us failed and we survived. Have you ever met an Egyptian, an Assyrian , a Babylonian, a Persian,a Greek, a Roman.or a Nazi from Hitler’s time?

Yet we who encountered all those civilizations are still here and they are not. Yes there is rising antisemitism in the United States, it has endured even as the perpetrators of it have not.

So drink up on Purim Day, have a multi course seuda meal, and toast to the absurdity of the perseverance of antisemitism, and to the fact that we are still able to drink while they have disappeared,

How pleasantly absurd is that?

As always please share with family and friends and those wishing to join the blog email me at ravpp1@gmail.com with your email and full name.

Please mark your calendar to join me for a complimentary breakfast and book launch Sunday April 23 at 9.30 am at Temple Beth Am. Please call 9549684545 to make a reservation so we can have enough food for all. Books will be available to purchase and be signed.