 Okay, welcome back to Community Matters. We're here with Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky, he's the leader of Chabad, Hawaii, and we're going to talk about a holiday that's coming up in the near term in actually two parts. That's Purim. Welcome to the show, Rabbi. Thank you, Jay. It's always a pleasure to be here and specifically to talk about such a joy upcoming Jewish holiday. I was in Israel in March of 1978 at the time of Purim and I remember how joyous it was. And when they read the Megillah in the temple, there were these noisemakers and everybody was having such a good time. So tell us about the holiday. So to start with, in the Jewish religion, we have biblical holidays, means those holidays that are mentioned in the Bible, like Passover, that's a big one. In Hebrew it's called Shavuas, Pentecost, as well as the Easter, the Tabernacle, Stochis. These are three biblical holidays that we celebrate that are mentioned in the Bible. But then there are two other important holidays which are post-biblical era and they were enacted by the rabbis and they're rabbinic in nature and they are the two very known Jewish holidays. One is Purim that we're going to talk about today and the other one is Hanukkah. Hanukkah in the Jewish calendar comes before Purim. Hanukkah we celebrated in December but historically Purim happened before Hanukkah. Purim happened about 360 years BCE and it happened after the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem and after the destruction the Jews were exiled to Babylon but then the Persian Empire took over and the Jews were subject to the Persian king and that's when the story of Purim takes place. Okay this is interesting, this is before Christ. This is hundreds of years before Christ and the Jews had lost the temple and they were sent to Babylon and thus ultimately to Persia now known as Iran, same country. The worst thing you could do in those times was to ostracize and send people away from their homeland. Well that's the exile, there was great suffering at that time for the Jewish people. There is a Jewish historian called Josephus. Josephus was a general, this is actually in the second temple era. He was a general for the Jewish army but then he became a traitor. He joined the Roman legions, they actually made him into a general for the other side and even though he was a traitor but he was a great historian. He wrote down not only his battles, the battles were the Jews against the Romans during the second temple era but he also wrote about briefly about the Jewish, the first temple era and we talk about it today as an historic event but it was a Holocaust like we've witnessed in our lifetime. Where everyone was killed? Yeah there were millions and hundreds of thousands of Jews killed and the rest were exiled. This is by the Romans? Also by the Romans but first by Nebuchadnezzar, the Hebrew name for the Babylonian king that destroyed the first temple and exiled the Jews. Well we were having a hard time in those days and every time you look we were being killed in our structures and holy places were being destroyed. But what we always preserved was our sense of humor and the saying is or to sum up Jewish history is that we live, they try to kill us, we won, let's sit down and eat now and celebrate. Well you know the culture is a very strong culture and the documents are very strong documents and the customs are very strong customs you know you talk about these holidays they tend to perpetuate the religion as people come from all over the world to celebrate these these holidays. For sure and interestingly enough the festival of Purim is perhaps the most joyous of all the holidays in the Jewish calendar. It is the story of a miraculous victory and survival of the Jewish people and just to recap the whole story of Purim is that the Jews were subject to the subjects of the Persian Empire and the king at the time was King Achashverosh and the story opens up this is the scroll of Esther which you refer to as the Megillah that's the Hebrew word for the scroll and the story. It's taking on another meaning that word. It's like the whole Megillah the whole Megillah it's a long story but in fact it's not that long in fact it's really an interesting story. It's a fascinating story that took place over many many years so King Achashverosh the third year of his reign decided to throw a huge huge party to celebrate his kingship and he invited all the subjects of his land of the country including the Jewish people and through a big feast and celebrated the feast took place for a duration of six months the Megillah tells us a lot longer than a presidential inaugural party today and at the party when he got drunk he called for his wife the queen her name was Vashti and he called and he wanted to parade her in front of all of the guests to show everyone how beautiful she was but she thought that was ridiculous he refused to come out to the guests and as a result of that Achashverosh consulted with his advisors and they said you have to put your foot down because if you don't then it will be established that the wives don't have to listen to their husbands and Vashti would do it again and again and all the wives would all the wives so it was off with her head oh oh and after he sobered up and he realized what the stupid thing that he did he had to look for a new wife a new queen so they had this pageant and all the pretty girls literally a beauty contest beauty contest exactly perhaps one of the first ones in the annals of history and there was one Jewish girl one Jewish woman her name was Esther who was the niece of the leader of the Jews at that time who his name was Mordechai he was part of the the the Jewish community Jewish supreme court he was oh he was a judge he was a yeah supreme judge and supreme court judge and so she was drafted in into this beauty pageant she didn't want to go but she went anyways she didn't have a choice and the king said his eyes on her and made her queen from all the contestants she became the queen so her uncle Mordechai instructed her not to let Achashveresh know her nationality and the fact that she was Jewish okay now while this was happening King Achashveresh had a minister who was like the prime minister the head minister of his ministers and name was enter Heyman Heyman exactly what an awful name that is you know it bespeaks of evilness it does and he actually was an evil player he was an anti-Semite and he hated the Jewish people partly because the customer at that time was people would bow to the ministers because Mordechai would not bow down to him stiff necked a because we the Jewish people only bow down to God that enraged him and he would discuss this with his wife and she said forget about Mordechai it's the Jewish people all of the Jewish people are like that so Haman decided that he was going to devise the scheme and that was to go to the king and petition for the king to allow him to annihilate all the Jewish people in all of his 127 countries that that he was the ruler of because because Persia was powerful in Persia was the was the superpower in those days now and while this was happening something else happened that is that Mordechai because his niece was now the queen he would hang around the royal palace just you know to watch and make sure that she was doing okay Mordechai as being the judge in the supreme Jewish court he was very knowledgeable obviously but also he knew all the languages of that day and one day when he was in the court king's palace he overheard two employees of the king talking about a plan to poison the king because they had grievance against the king so when Mordechai heard this immediately sent word to the queen to Esther saying that this is what they're planning to do so she immediately passed that information on to the king and they averted this you know this you know the king from the king being killed and the king was happy for the king was very very happy now in the meantime Homan is plotting to petition the king to destroy all the Jewish people so as the story goes in the magilla scroll of Esther one night the king couldn't sleep so he asked his attendance bring out the royal record book of what's happening here and read to me some bedtime story so they brought out this big book and it just happened to fall out and this page of the story where Mordechai saved the king's life by overhearing two employees wanting to kill the king so the king asked them did we reward him for saving my life and he said he doesn't say he don't think so while this was happening all of a sudden there was a big knock on the door heavy knock on the door they said who's here in the middle of the night and they went to the door and they saw Haman there the prime minister he said he has something urgent to discuss with the king so the king said bring him in and he came in and he said there is a nation this is a dear king your highness there's a nation called the Jewish people and they're different than us they follow a different way of life worship different gods different god and they're not good for the homogeneity of our people I suggest that we institute a decree to annihilate all the Jewish people one day one given day and to sweeten the deal Haman said I will bring from my from my treasures you know a vast sum of money to the king's treasures and the king said okay you know you didn't king wasn't a friend of the jews either he didn't know Esther was Jewish so he said okay so the the cre went out that all the Jewish people all the Jewish people this in this day all the persian people have the right to to bear arms and to kill the Jewish people of that day why that day so Haman threw a lot a lottery just threw a dart on the on the board see which day and in persian lottery is called Purim oh okay so by chance or by lottery this was the day that was chosen to annihilate all the Jewish people now I misspoke before because the decree happened before the decree happened a while before the night that Haman came to uh to talk to the king was about something else came to talk to the king because he had enough with Mordechai not bowing down to him that he had this suggestion or he wanted the king's permission to hang Haman in the city square the hang Mordechai I'm sorry the hang Mordechai the hang Mordechai the city square for for not bowing down to Haman so this knock on the door and this request came right at the time that Akhashveres was reading about Mordechai saving his life so Akhashveres thought for a second he said to Haman tell me what would you recommend how would the how should the king show his appreciation to someone who's very dear to the king what should we do to someone like that so Haman the very arrogant ministers thought himself who can the king be talking about if not for me so he said someone who the king really admires should be led through the city square on the king's royal on the royal horse with attendants all in sound all all around and they should all you know shout out in the streets this is how the king honors he who he admires so Akhashveres thought he says well that's a very very good suggestion now you go and you take Mordechai put him on my horse and you walk him through the city so things began to to turn around already now when Haman came out with a decree this is an important part of the story Mordechai who was the leader of the Jewish people at the time and the way the Jews look at the world is that it's all everything that happens there's no coincidences there's no accidents it's all meant to be and if if the Jewish people were were facing such a potential decree of annihilation we must have done something wrong that that you know they got got got angry at us and upset with us Mordechai rallied all the Jewish people to repent and to strengthen their connection to God and at the same time he sent word to Esther that Esther now is the time to go to the king reveal to him your identity and plead for the Jewish people so Esther sent word back that first of all she asked that all the people fast for three days in a way of a way of a form of repentance and asking God for forgiveness for anything wrong we may have done and she herself also would fast and then she would go to the king but she's reluctant because the the the royal the royal court even if you're a wife you couldn't just go into the king's chamber you have to be summoned by the king and if you weren't summoned by the king there is a danger that it would be off with your head as well like wife Vashti so Mordechai responds to her and with the famous lines and he says to her God will deliver the Jewish people from this danger as he has in the past but if but who knows if not for this moment you were placed in this station in life to be the king's queen seize the moment otherwise she's why you're here this is why you're here so she does go to the king and she says I have one request he says what he says I'd like to throw a party a private party and invite you and the prime minister Heyman and the king said yeah sure King said to her when he saw her rather than be upset he was very happy that she came and he extended his king's staff and after all she was beautiful right and he said to her in the words of the Megillah ask me anything you want up to half of the kingdom is he and so he invited she invited Heyman to the party and Heyman was so excited that he only he and the king were invited to this party that he talked to his friends and he said that every life is so good except for this Mordechai this Jew and the Jewish people who don't want to we don't want to respect me and Mordechai does want to bow down to me but the day will come soon the day when they when they chose for all the Jews to be slaughtered so he comes to the party and it was a nice party and everything and then at the end of the party the Hashirish asked Esther so what can I do what would you like to request so she said my request is if you can come next week to another party again with you and Heyman I want to do another private party so it came fine so he comes again and then at the end of that party the king says and what can I do for you what is this all about and she says that that I need to ask you to save my people who are in the danger of annihilation and he says what are you talking about he said because me and my people meaning the Jewish people have been have been decreed you know set up for this slaughter and the king turned to Haman he put two and two together and and in great anger he said to Esther is this the man who you're referring to and she said yes so all of a sudden everything turned around now Heyman from being all happy with himself now he himself was it was off with his head so the story of Purim is a story where things turn around from a day of potential sadness and tragedy to a day of great rejoicing because Hashirish immediately called in Mordechai and they reversed the decree and they said that the Jewish people should take up arms and defend themselves and and and therefore there wasn't this massacre that everyone was afraid of so that's basically the story of Purim and every year since Mordechai and Esther instituted that Jews come together and celebrate have a feast and as well as to give gifts to the poor that's the custom on point we give food gifts to one another it's called Meshloch Monus also to give money to the poor and and to have Haman Tashin and to have Haman Tashin can you tell the people what Haman Tashin is Haman Tashin I don't know if I can explain it really good but Haman Tashin is a kind of pastry it's a cookie that's a triangle in shape and I guess because Haman's hat the hat that they wore then was triangle in shape so Purim is a day the way we rejoice on Purim especially children is we masquerade in in the you know in the various characters various characters somebody play Achersferos Esther Mordechai they're the regular players yeah in costume in costume exactly and they read the Megillah now exactly and they have these noisemakers every time Haman's name is mentioned in the Megillah he's booed and he's drowned out but Purim it being a very festive joyous holiday also is a very meaningful holiday and it is very relevant the message tell us why really important the message of Purim is very relevant message because the commentaries point out something very interesting the commentaries point out that the scroll of Esther is part of the Old Testament one of the 24 books canonized as part of the Old Testament it is the only book of the Old Testament that God's name is not mentioned even once all throughout the Bible God's name is mentioned all the time God spoke and said but God's name is not mentioned even once why because God's name not being mentioned represents a concealment a hiding of God's face so to speak throughout history the word periods of time when God's face or God's guiding hand was very apparent very and very open but there were periods in our time that this was the first exile where God's face was hidden meaning seemed as if God abandoned the Jewish people it seemed as if God was no longer in control and other forces evil forces were we're taking over and responsible for all the for all the suffering but the story of Esther when you step back was a great miracle there was nothing in the story that you can point to say this is the miracle for example we know that biblically there was the splitting of the red sea when the Jewish people left Egypt there was a splitting of the red sea so that was an open and revered miracle God set aside the laws of nature and all of a sudden the water stood but in the story of Purim there was nothing like that there was no moment that you can say here the sea split or whatever but there was a series of events that fell into place in such a perfect timing where Haman comes to Achashverosh to get the green light to kill Mordechai right after he's been told that Mordechai saved the day that Haman in the stupor kills Vashti so Esther is now in the right place so that at the right time she can step forward and save the Jewish people there's some literary quality about it yes you know and as you tell the story I love the story as you tell the story one can imagine a Broadway play with the story yes one can imagine a movie with the story in fact for me one can imagine an opera with the story because it's such passion and some redemption there is anyway rabbi thank you so much for telling us the story you'll have to come back in a couple of weeks and we'll expand on it over go to the next holiday the what do you call it Purim Katan which is a little Purim right it's going to be in March and the big Purim is going to be in April so we actually know the little Purim will be in February in February the big Purim will be in March okay 30 days so we can talk some more about it just one last thought the closing line is that the message of Purim and this is the profound message of Purim two points one is that where we think God is absent he's actually more present in the moments and in the experiences when we feel he's absent than when we think he's present yeah so never feel that he has abandoned you right even if his name is not mentioned in that part of the Bible as well as the idea of as we talked last time the need to rejoice always and to celebrate the miracles and the good blessings that we have in life thank you rabbi as always thank you wonderful to see you we'll see you next time yes thank you