The Message, Volume 12, Number 20, February 1985 Page: 2 of 8
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PURIM CARNIVAL
Editor
distinguish between them, since numerically they are
identical. The Purim carnival Adloyada, which has been
extended in Tel Aviv to three days, derives its name from the
just quoted talmudic pleasantry in Megillah 7b, where the
phrase Ad Delo Yada (till he does not know the difference) is
used.
Friday, March 1 - 8:00 PM
Mark you calendar now!
£2
Special Shabbat Guest!
Charles G. (Chase) Untermeyer
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
(Manpower and Reserve Affairs)
and former Houston member of the
Texas House of Representatives
will speak at Beth Yeshurun
The annual PURIM CARNIVAL - Youth Activities proudly proclaims
With food and fun, costumes and games
Sunday, March 3 - Beth Yeshurun’s the place we cheer
From 1:00 till 5 we’ll all be here!
Come along, and see us parading,
Having fun and masquerading
As Mordecai and good Queen Esther,
Ahasuerus, Haman and even a jester.
There’ll be Hot Dogs and tempting Hamantaschen,
With drinks to refresh us after all that noshin’.
Bake a cake for our Cake Walk; bring your neighbors and friends
For a festive afternoon of fun that never ends!
We’ll have games and prizes, a Wheel of Fortune, too
The Purim Carnival’s lots of family run for you, and you!
Buy your tickets early: get six for one dollar before Carnival Day
Come to the March 3rd Purim Carnival, and play your cares away.
So gather the family, even Bubbe and Zayde
Celebrate Purim with us, each child, gent and lady.
Bring canned goods for the Food Pantry - a Purim custom we share
It’s sure to be a fun day, with all of us there!
THE MESSAGE of Congregation Beth Yeshurun (USPS 968-500)
is published weekly, Sept. - May, three times in June
and twice monthly in July & August by Congregation
Beth Yeshurun, 4525 Beechnut, Houston, Texas 77096
Second Class Postage Paid at Houston, Texas.
Postmaster send address changes to Congregation Beth Yeshurun,
4525 Beechnut, Houston, Texas 77096
REWARD
For the return of a gift-wrapped jewelry box
containing earrings from a Tallit bag in the Greenfield
Chapel on Saturday, February 2, 1985. No questions
asked. H.P. Aron: 529-3901; 723-3352,
PURIM Weds. Eve. March 6 & Thurs. March 7
In its main outlines, the story of Purim is typical of the long
chain of persecutions to which the Jewish people in the
diaspora have been subjected. Because of a grudge against
Mordecai the Jew, Haman presents the Jewish people as a
whole to king Ahasuerus as a dangerous people, “scattered
and dispersed throughout the empire ... refusing to obey the
king’s laws.” A lot (pur) is cast, and the day of the massacre is
set for the thirteenth of Adar. After the intervention of queen
Esther, a cousin of Mordecai, a new act is promulgated by the
king, giving the Jews the right to organize for self-defense.
The festival of Purim was instituted in commemoration of
this event. It derives its name from the world “Pur”(lot) and is
celebrated on the fourteenth day of Adar, following the fast of
Esther which is observed on the thirteenth day when the Jews
had to fight for their lives. The annual celebration of Purim
helped the Jewish people, during the dark days of their
history, to maintain their trust in the ultimate deliverance
from the dangers and difficulties besetting them. The
merrymaking, feasting and masquerading, characteristic of
Purim, have served a much needed relief from the serious life
led during the greater part of the year. It has been supposed
that the origin of masquerading is to be viewed as a means of
disguise from the evil and coping with it. At the mention of
Haman during the public reading of the Megillah or the scroll
of Esther in the synagogue, it has been customary to stamp
with vigor on the floor, thus symbolically erasing the name of
Haman. Some would knock two sticks on which the name of
Haman was written against one another until it disappeared.
The noise-making instruments, used to blot out the name of
Haman, are reminiscent of Deuteronomy 25:19 concerning
the merciless Amalekites: “You shall blot out the memory of
Amalek from under the heavens.” Some were accustomed to
have Haman’s name written on the soles of their shoes, so that
it was worn away through stamping their feet whenever it
was mentioned during the reading of the Megillah.
The Megillah is read aloud in the synagogue at the
beginning of the festival in connection with the evening
service, and again during the morning service. The names of
Haman’s ten sons are read in one breath in order to lessen the
appearance of gloating over their deserved execution, in
keeping with the biblical warning: “Do not rejoice when your
enemy fails, do not exult when he is overthrown, lest the Lord
seeing it will be displeased ...” (Proverbs 24:17-18).
The special talmudic tractate named Megillah fully
discusses all the features of the joyous Purim festival, on
which the following seven mitzvoth are observed. 1) Megillah
reading, 2) exchange of gifts, 3) distribution of charity, 4)
Torah reading, 5) recital of Al ha-Nissim in the Amidah and
in the grace after meals, 6) the festive meal of Purim, 7)
restraint of all mourning or fasting.
The Hallel, however, is not chanted on Purim because,
unlike Hanukkah, the miracle of Purim occurred outside
Eretz Yisrael. The festive meal of Purim, reminiscent of
Esther’s banquet, is begun in the afternoon and carried on
well into the night. The day succeeding Purim (fifteenth of
Adar) is regarded as a minor holiday, called Shushan Purim,
referred to in the book of Esther (9:18) as the day when the
Jews of Shushan, capital of Persia, celebrated their triumph.
No hesped (funeral oration), or mourning, is allowed even on
Shushan Purim.
The two Hebrew phrases Baruch Mordecai (blessed by
Mordecai) and Arur Haman (cursed be Haman) have
numerically the same value, 502. Hence the talmudic
statement that, on Purim, a man should drink until he cannot
..................................................Myrna Rudolph
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Congregation Beth Yeshurun (Houston, Tex.). The Message, Volume 12, Number 20, February 1985, periodical, February 22, 1985; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1298445/m1/2/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.