Purim is our great release

Rabbi 2 Rabbi

The holiday gives us a chance to laugh in the face of life’s struggles, and to cross over from the certainties we know to the possibilities that could exist


Rabbi Yael Splansky

Holy Blossom Temple, toronto

Rabbi Mark Fishman

Congregation Beth Tikvah, MONTREAL


Rabbi Splansky: Yiddish wisdom teaches, “Neither cursing nor laughing can change the world.” I’m not so sure. Purim is a great release. We let off a little steam at Haman’s expense and we laugh in the face of life’s struggles.

Curses, laughter and a little schnapps can be strong medicine – at least for one night.

Rabbi Fishman: Oy vey! Yiddish curses. They somehow manage to give you a blessing at the same time as trying to cause you harm. Take for instance: “He should have a large store, and whatever people ask for, he shouldn’t have, and what he does have shouldn’t be requested.”

If all we have to help us deal with our enemies or troubles is a cheeky quip, the chance to laugh, or a Yiddish curse, it’s enough. And what better expression of laughter that overcomes evil than the holiday of Purim?

Rabbi Splansky: When Jews were powerless over the ruthless rulers of their own time, they allowed themselves one day a year to take revenge against a prop of a villain from a world of long ago and far away.

One Purim, I made a Haman effigy out of a broomstick. Instead of fire or stones, we lobbed Yiddish curses at him, including: “May you have a hundred houses, in each house a hundred rooms, in each room 20 beds. And may fever and chills and delirium drive you from bed to bed throughout the night.”

And “May you enjoy a good time with plenty to drink, so your blood turns to whiskey and 100 bedbugs get drunk on it and dance the mazurka in your belly button.”

Or, “May you be so enamoured of good food that you turn into a blintz, and may your enemy turn into a cat, and may he eat you up and choke on you, so we can be rid of you both.”

Rabbi Fishman: The story of Purim is one of reversals. Such reversals can show us that fate can be blind, and yet, at times, it can work in our favour. The only response to such mazel is to laugh.

At Purim, our laughter is a sign of transcendence. At the end of Chapter 31 of the Book of Proverbs, we are taught about the Eshet Chayil: “She shall laugh on the last day.” When everything is said and done, when we come to the end of the process and we can see everything that led up to the final crescendo – then we will laugh the laughter of true joy.
In the meantime, Purim gives us many reasons to rejoice and to celebrate while still being very much in this world. With food and drink – a “mishteh” – I’m reminded of another Yiddish saying: “At other people’s parties one eats heartily.”

Rabbi Splansky: L’havdil.

On a very different note, I wish to sincerely thank you, Rabbi Fishman, for travelling from Montreal to be with me and my congregation earlier this month. After two years of exchanging ideas in writing, it was a blessing to finally meet you in person and to be able to speak without the restriction of a word count.

May your Purim be filled with joyful surprises and just one moment when laughter brings tears. That’s how a Jew celebrates Purim.

Rabbi Fishman: I once celebrated Purim with a mystic from Jerusalem. He was known as a great Kabbalist, and many people flocked to him for advice and to hear his words of Torah. By the end of the Purim meal, everyone around the table was sure that he had revealed the date of the Messiah’s arrival. The next day, he denied the entire matter, and we were left wondering what was real and what we had imagined. I think that’s the spirit of Purim – to cross over from the certainties we know to the possibilities that could exist.
I departed Toronto and your congregation with a deep appreciation for your hospitality, a new understanding of just how valuable this column is, and the sense of how one is able to turn strangers into friends.

“Let them observe these days of feasting and gladness, for sending delicacies to one another, and giving gifts to the poor” (Esther 9:22). This Purim may we merit stepping out of our certainties and entering into the realm of possibilities.


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