Steve Israel
Purim is in many ways the strangest of all the chagim. How can we explain the fact that the seemingly secular Purim story, as told in the Scroll of Esther, has elicited such extraordinary praise from the Sages of the Talmudic period and those who followed them? And as if the theological vacuum in the text is not enough, the way that the chag is celebrated also raises significant questions.
These two strange facts of rabbinic culture – the reverence for a book with a theological vacuum at its heart, and the obligation to get so drunk as to lose the ability to make distinctions between good and evil – force us to look for hidden messages in the Rabbis’ understanding of Purim.
You care about Israel, peoplehood, and vibrant, ethical Jewish communities. We do too.
Join our email list for more Hartman ideas
