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Purim: The Killing Joke
A whirlwind into the serious fun of Purim…
Purim is close to our hearts. Its fun, its not very serious and its not too difficult to keep. Hear the Megilla, 'Booo!' when Haman is mentioned, dress up, get tipsy... and all in the name of Judaism. Harmless inconsequential fun in a harsh world. A bit of light entertainment to keep us going. More of a cultural tradition than a deeply religious festival. Right?
Wrong. Way off. Purim is one of the key moments in the Jewish calendar. It has more lasting significance than even Yom Kippur. Mordechai and Esther are infinitely more than characters in a cute fairy tale. They are players in one of the greatest battles of our turbulent history.... and they won.
But what was the crux of this battle? What was Haman's motive in trying to destroy us? Haman came from a prestigious line of Jew haters. A line whose foundation is to be found in the Torah. Haman's ancestral tribe was and is the greatest enemy of the Jewish people. They are 'Amalek,' a name burned on our hearts through the generations: "Remember what Amalek did to you as you came out of Egypt; how he met you on the journey and attacked the stragglers and the weak..." (Deuteronomy 25:17,18). The Amalekites were the first tribe to dare attack the Jewish people as they left the once great Land of Egypt in ruins.
But the Torah gets rather paradoxical on this topic, "You must erase the memory of Amalek from beneath the heaven: Do not forget!" (Deuteronomy 25:19). How do we remember to erase something? If we are successful in wiping it out then we will forget it! Are we supposed to retell the story forever or erase it from the history books altogether? What does the Torah mean? The answer can only be that the best way to eradicate Amalek and all they stand for is to remember and so value memory itself.
Amalek tried to bring us down. Remember the film 'The Untouchables'? When the first of the four heroes of the movie gets killed in a lift, the bad guys paint the word 'Touchables' on the wall with his blood. That is exactly what Amalek did when we left Egypt. No nation dared attack us because of the miraculous power of God who saved us. They all realised the significance of the event.
But Amalek attacked this significance, to reduce us to just another nation. Rashi brings a midrash that the Amalekites threw foreskins in the air right in front of the Jews to taunt them, and to mock of the covenant with God. They cynically tried to reduce our redemption into a lucky break with no real meaning.
In Amalek, cynicism was born. They made a joke out of our faith and tried to kill us for believing it. They planned to turn the Exodus, our greatest memory, into dust. Amalek challenged the meaning of life itself, and not being able to fathom any reason for the pain and difficulties of our complex world decided to ridicule it. Life’s a joke is Amalek’s creed. Jews, with their eternal belief in finding life's value and meaning thus became Amalek's sworn enemies.
Memory is selective. If you think about it, a person’s memory is a collection of all significant moments of their life. History is the memory of the collective, and the most memorable events in history are also the most significant. That is the point of the Torah's command. Destroy Amalek through memory, through living lives of significance. Purim is therefore the day of memory because it was the first time that the commandment of memory was fully absorbed: it was the first successful encounter with Amalek.
So how do the customs of Purim address this issue? On Purim, we take the joke Amalek tried to make of us and our beliefs, and we turn it around. We say, ‘You laugh at us and our Judaism because you think life has no meaning, well we understand that dilemma and we've faced it for years. But for us, life's problems are really challenges and they give us a purpose.’
On Purim we laugh in joy at the challenge of life. We see the funny side of the joke of life. We take life for granted because it has been granted and so on Purim we can even make fun of ourselves. Amalek cannot touch us for cynicism cannot touch a joker. That is why we don't sit back on Purim, we let our hair down. We make that effort to dress up.
So don't be cynical about Purim. Purim is exactly the wrong day to feel like that! Be a clown for one day, send gifts to your friends and the poor. Remember that in our humour is our survival because it reminds of those who tried to rob us of the significance of our lives. In remembering Purim we remember how much our lives matter. We recall all the past moments that make up who we are, from our birth as a nation, to our covenant at Sinai, to our own lifetimes. We are the living people of Jewish History.
Don't ever forget and have a memorable Purim.
Purim is close to our hearts. Its fun, its not very serious and its not too difficult to keep. Hear the Megilla, 'Booo!' when Haman is mentioned, dress up, get tipsy... and all in the name of Judaism. Harmless inconsequential fun in a harsh world. A bit of light entertainment to keep us going. More of a cultural tradition than a deeply religious festival. Right?
Wrong. Way off. Purim is one of the key moments in the Jewish calendar. It has more lasting significance than even Yom Kippur. Mordechai and Esther are infinitely more than characters in a cute fairy tale. They are players in one of the greatest battles of our turbulent history.... and they won.
But what was the crux of this battle? What was Haman's motive in trying to destroy us? Haman came from a prestigious line of Jew haters. A line whose foundation is to be found in the Torah. Haman's ancestral tribe was and is the greatest enemy of the Jewish people. They are 'Amalek,' a name burned on our hearts through the generations: "Remember what Amalek did to you as you came out of Egypt; how he met you on the journey and attacked the stragglers and the weak..." (Deuteronomy 25:17,18). The Amalekites were the first tribe to dare attack the Jewish people as they left the once great Land of Egypt in ruins.
But the Torah gets rather paradoxical on this topic, "You must erase the memory of Amalek from beneath the heaven: Do not forget!" (Deuteronomy 25:19). How do we remember to erase something? If we are successful in wiping it out then we will forget it! Are we supposed to retell the story forever or erase it from the history books altogether? What does the Torah mean? The answer can only be that the best way to eradicate Amalek and all they stand for is to remember and so value memory itself.
Amalek tried to bring us down. Remember the film 'The Untouchables'? When the first of the four heroes of the movie gets killed in a lift, the bad guys paint the word 'Touchables' on the wall with his blood. That is exactly what Amalek did when we left Egypt. No nation dared attack us because of the miraculous power of God who saved us. They all realised the significance of the event.
But Amalek attacked this significance, to reduce us to just another nation. Rashi brings a midrash that the Amalekites threw foreskins in the air right in front of the Jews to taunt them, and to mock of the covenant with God. They cynically tried to reduce our redemption into a lucky break with no real meaning.
In Amalek, cynicism was born. They made a joke out of our faith and tried to kill us for believing it. They planned to turn the Exodus, our greatest memory, into dust. Amalek challenged the meaning of life itself, and not being able to fathom any reason for the pain and difficulties of our complex world decided to ridicule it. Life’s a joke is Amalek’s creed. Jews, with their eternal belief in finding life's value and meaning thus became Amalek's sworn enemies.
Memory is selective. If you think about it, a person’s memory is a collection of all significant moments of their life. History is the memory of the collective, and the most memorable events in history are also the most significant. That is the point of the Torah's command. Destroy Amalek through memory, through living lives of significance. Purim is therefore the day of memory because it was the first time that the commandment of memory was fully absorbed: it was the first successful encounter with Amalek.
So how do the customs of Purim address this issue? On Purim, we take the joke Amalek tried to make of us and our beliefs, and we turn it around. We say, ‘You laugh at us and our Judaism because you think life has no meaning, well we understand that dilemma and we've faced it for years. But for us, life's problems are really challenges and they give us a purpose.’
On Purim we laugh in joy at the challenge of life. We see the funny side of the joke of life. We take life for granted because it has been granted and so on Purim we can even make fun of ourselves. Amalek cannot touch us for cynicism cannot touch a joker. That is why we don't sit back on Purim, we let our hair down. We make that effort to dress up.
So don't be cynical about Purim. Purim is exactly the wrong day to feel like that! Be a clown for one day, send gifts to your friends and the poor. Remember that in our humour is our survival because it reminds of those who tried to rob us of the significance of our lives. In remembering Purim we remember how much our lives matter. We recall all the past moments that make up who we are, from our birth as a nation, to our covenant at Sinai, to our own lifetimes. We are the living people of Jewish History.
Don't ever forget and have a memorable Purim.
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