The holiday of Purim celebrates the Diaspora.
It takes place in Shushan, the capital city in the ancient Kingdom of Persia. Like the Joseph narratives in the Book of Genesis, it is the story of a court Jew: it features the rise of a Jew/Hebrew to the uppermost stratum of royal leadership, a position which s/he will need to save her/his people. The Book of Esther is a secular story, never once mentioning God (except for one possible oblique reference in 4:14 -- "deliverance will come to the Jews from makom akheir / another place"); moreover, it is not at all concerned with traditional (Jerusalem-centric?) forms of Jewish religious practice, such as the observance of Shabbat, the keeping of kashrut, or Temple sacrifice. It is a story in which Jewish safety is threatened, in which the Jews have no national military recourse for protecting themselves. It is a story in which the Jewish characters have two names: Esther is also known as Hadassah (2:7), much like the secondary "Hebrew names" given to Jewish babies throughout the Jewish Diaspora. The story highlights the ambiguity as to whether a Jew is visibly (externally) recognizable as Jewish: Esther goes many months in the King's palace before her Jewishness is discovered (Esther "passes"); by contrast, in the mayhem of Chapter 8, many non-Jews choose to "act Jewish" (8:17 -- translation following Dr. David Sperling), indicating that they adopted some behaviors and mannerisms that were externally identifiable as Jewish. Finally, Haman makes the (classic anti-Semitic) assertion that the Jews of Persia are a fifth column: "their laws are different than all peoples', and they do not follow the king's laws" (3:8).
Taken together, these many observations demonstrate the high import of Diaspora to the Purim story.
The questions raised by the Book of Esther are relevant still today for Diaspora Jewry. Below, a list of questions (geared towards teens, to be answered in the style of a human thermometer: stand on one side of the room if you totally agree, on the other side of the room if you totally disagree, or somewhere in the middle if you're ambivalent) arising from the contemporary Diaspora Jewish experience and the Book of Esther.
It takes place in Shushan, the capital city in the ancient Kingdom of Persia. Like the Joseph narratives in the Book of Genesis, it is the story of a court Jew: it features the rise of a Jew/Hebrew to the uppermost stratum of royal leadership, a position which s/he will need to save her/his people. The Book of Esther is a secular story, never once mentioning God (except for one possible oblique reference in 4:14 -- "deliverance will come to the Jews from makom akheir / another place"); moreover, it is not at all concerned with traditional (Jerusalem-centric?) forms of Jewish religious practice, such as the observance of Shabbat, the keeping of kashrut, or Temple sacrifice. It is a story in which Jewish safety is threatened, in which the Jews have no national military recourse for protecting themselves. It is a story in which the Jewish characters have two names: Esther is also known as Hadassah (2:7), much like the secondary "Hebrew names" given to Jewish babies throughout the Jewish Diaspora. The story highlights the ambiguity as to whether a Jew is visibly (externally) recognizable as Jewish: Esther goes many months in the King's palace before her Jewishness is discovered (Esther "passes"); by contrast, in the mayhem of Chapter 8, many non-Jews choose to "act Jewish" (8:17 -- translation following Dr. David Sperling), indicating that they adopted some behaviors and mannerisms that were externally identifiable as Jewish. Finally, Haman makes the (classic anti-Semitic) assertion that the Jews of Persia are a fifth column: "their laws are different than all peoples', and they do not follow the king's laws" (3:8).
Taken together, these many observations demonstrate the high import of Diaspora to the Purim story.
The questions raised by the Book of Esther are relevant still today for Diaspora Jewry. Below, a list of questions (geared towards teens, to be answered in the style of a human thermometer: stand on one side of the room if you totally agree, on the other side of the room if you totally disagree, or somewhere in the middle if you're ambivalent) arising from the contemporary Diaspora Jewish experience and the Book of Esther.
- I plan to wear a costume this Purim.
- I love hamantaschen.
- I am more drawn to Purim than to Yom Kippur (the silly or the sublime; the cultural or the religious)—if such a spectrum existed.
- I think it’s important for American Jews to understand (at least parts of) the Torah and prayer book.
- I think keeping Kosher is an important Jewish practice.
- It is important to me to marry someone who is Jewish.
- I think it’s important for all Jews in the world to know Hebrew.
- As a Jew, I sometimes feel like an outsider in American society.
- I feel that I am often recognized (visibly, from the outside) as a Jew.
- I think that anti-Semitism is a problem in the US.
- I think it’s important for American Jews to visit Israel.
- I think it’s important for Israeli Jews to visit the US.
- I could see myself making aliyah to Israel.
- North American Jewry needs Israel more than Israel needs North American Jewry.
- “Jewish” is a religion more so than a culture/people.
- I believe that America is a safe place to be a Jew.
- I believe that the world at large is a safe place to be a Jew.
- I believe that Israel is a safe place to be a Jew.
- My sense of identity is primarily American more so than Jewish.
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