Saturday night and Sunday, March 3 and 4, we celebrated the joyful holiday of Purim at Temple Israel. A small group of people from one of the local churches, who are studying the Book of Esther in their Bible class, dropped by the Temple on Saturday night and heard that biblical text in a way I'm sure they had never heard it before.
As with all biblical texts read in the synagogue, the Book of Esther, the Megillah, is chanted to a traditional melody which is indicated by little symbols printed above and below the Hebrew text in the Bible. The primary melody for the Book of Esther is a joyous, fast-paced tune. The custom, however, is to intersperse it with a number of other melodies to underline the meaning of the text. Thus when certain verses are read that remind us of the sad events of Jewish history, we switch from the upbeat melody of the Book of Esther to the mournful melody of Lamentations.
When the book tells us that the king could not sleep one night, we recall the rabbinic commentary that says that this refers not only to the earthly King, Ahasuerus, but to the Heavenly King as well. To underscore that commentary, we sing the phrase about the king's insomnia to the melody of the introduction to the High Holiday liturgy, which speaks of "the King who sits on a high and exalted throne."
It is customary for both children and adults to attend Purim services in costume, often representing characters in the Book of Esther. I add to the fun by attempting to read the dialogue in the Megillah with an appropriate voice for each character: a deep voice for the king, a high voice for the queen, a raspy wicked voice for Haman, the villain. Whenever the name Haman is mentioned, all those present use noisemakers, called graggers, to attempt to drown out his name. In short, we have a lot of fun with the reading. This is the Jewish version of the Mardi Gras carnival.
Sunday morning, we read the book a second time and, again, those present got into the spirit of the holiday by wearing costumes and using their graggers during the reading of the text. Afterwards, we enjoyed an impromptu French Toast breakfast. While this might not be exactly what Queen Esther had in mind when she proclaimed this holiday a time of feasting, this little meal in the Temple's social hall began the process of linking Purim to the next major festival of the year. Only one month from now, we mark the holiday of Passover or Pesach.
Passover celebrates the redemption of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery over three thousand years ago. There are many customs associated with Passover, but the most distinctive is preparing for the holiday by removing all sorts of bread and leaven products (chametz) from our homes. Throughout the eight days of the holiday, it is forbidden to eat any chametz. We eat matzah ,unleavened bread, and various products made from matzah meal. Our ancestors showed their faith in God's providence by marching forth from Egypt into the wilderness with only the unleavened cakes they had quickly pulled from their ovens on the night of the Exodus. We recall that faith by eating matzah on the holiday. For many commentators the leavened products symbolize evil qualities that we should strive to remove from our lives. Because leaven is totally forbidden on Passover, observant Jews go out of their way to clean their houses thoroughly and remove anything that might contain chametz.
Our French Toast breakfast Sunday morning was the first step in the cleansing process for Passover. The Temple's freezer held an overabundance of challah bread that should be finished off before Passover. Those gathered for the Purim celebration did their small part in finishing off several loaves of Challah, which makes wonderful French Toast. Though Passover is still nearly four weeks away, it is not too early to begin preparing ourselves and our homes for that holiday. Thirty days before Passover, the rabbis suggest that we begin to review the laws of Chametz and Matzah to make sure that we are familiar with the requirements of the tradition and that our homes are ready when the holiday arrives.
The redemption of the Jews that we celebrate at Purim is seen as a harbinger of the greater redemption marked by Passover. Passover, in turn, is a holiday on which we look forward to the ultimate redemption of the world when Elijah the Prophet will arrive as predicted in the book of Malachi: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers" in preparation for "the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." Lofty concepts are so often hidden in modest symbols. A loaf of bread or a sheet of matzah point beyond themselves to significant values, and our quest as Jews is to seek ever deeper meaning in these symbols.