Purim

According to Torah scholars, the festival of Purim does not have its roots in the story written in the Book of Esther. Hayyim Schauss says that Purim first began to be celebrated among the Jews of Persia, who took the tradition from their non-Jewish neighbours. In Persia a festival was celebrated in the last month of winter, with masks, dances, joy, games and jokes, to welcome the spring that would announce the rebirth of Nature — a festival very like the festival of Dionysus celebrated by the Greeks and Romans of antiquity. As Dionysus was the god of wine, at this festival wine was drunk to the point of drunkenness. It seems this use of wine entered the customs of the Persians, and the Jews of Persia did the same thing. Let us not forget that at Purim we say 'ad lo yada', which means drinking wine until one cannot tell the white thread from the black. Today the very famous carnivals of Rio and Venice, held at almost the same time of year, have their roots in these customs of antiquity.

Theodore Gaster, in his book 'Festivals of the Jewish Year', speaks of various theories about Purim, and one of them is that Purim comes from the 'New Year festival' of Babylon. It seems that at this festival the gods decided the destiny of man, and this decision was made by lottery. The word for this in the language of Babylon was 'PURU', a root very like 'Purim'. At this festival they imitated the gods, who mocked and mimed other gods from outside Babylon.

Another theory says that formerly, for Purim, another word was used: 'Furdaya'. And the Jewish historian Josephus used the same word, which apparently derives from the Persian word 'Farvardigan', a festival held with wine towards the end of March.

Yet another theory says the word 'Purim' may come from the Hebrew word 'purah', related to wine, and derives from the Greek festival 'Pithoigia', the festival of opening the wine barrels. This festival began to be held in autumn and came to be held at the spring equinox, which corresponds to the time of Purim. But Gaster draws this deduction: the story of Esther is not a true story, and its relation to the festival of Purim has elements resembling the Greek festival, such as the selection of a queen — 'Esther'; the reception of one of the people who passes for king — 'Mordechai in the streets of Shushan'; the fast — 'the Fast of Esther'; the execution of the villain — 'the execution of Haman'.

In any case the story of the festival of Purim entered our traditions not before the second century CE. Another tradition is that at Purim we give each other little gifts and remember those in need, to help them with what we can.

A happy Purim to all.

Source: Rabbi Ron Isaacs