Purim

Why Israeli Purim spiels don’t do the trick

Nathan Jeffay — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:15:18 +0000

As Jerusalem prepares for US President Barack Obama’s visit on March 20, Israelis have one burning question — what will the prime minister’s wife wear?

Sara Netanyahu’s dress sense was widely criticised after the Knesset swearing-in ceremony in early February, when she wore a dress that was, in parts, semi-see through. While a transparent dress helped to turn Kate Middleton into a princess, for Mrs Netanyahu it brought only criticism, including from fashion commentator Dorin Attias, who sniped that she looked like an advert for Michelin tyres.

On Sunday, Haaretz reported that ahead of the Obama visit, the Prime Minister’s Office was handing responsibility for Mrs Netanyahu’s appearance to the public. Following a campaign to have the public choose the logo for the event, it has posted three possible outfits on its Facebook page and will make its choice based on a popular vote.

The Jerusalem Post had conflicting information. It too reported that Mrs Netanyahu was outsourcing her dress choice — but to Lady Gaga. “I know I can’t pull off wearing raw meat or a head cage, but I know I can do better than that black lace, see-through outfit I wore at the Knesset,” she said, according to the Post.

Although it is hard to know how many were taken in by the two Purim spiels, one thing is certain. Benjamin Netanyahu’s his wife has long been a figure of fun and sometimes disdain in the media, so it came as no surprise that two publications used Purim as an excuse to make her the butt of a joke.

The Times of Israel’s highly unbelievable spiel came at the expense of another popular target in Israel — Charedim. It told the story of a young Charedi plane crash survivor who drifted around the Atlantic as a castaway for 227 days along with the Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, whom he struggled to keep away from in their 16ft lifeboat.

The pro-settler site Arutz Sheva took aim at its favourite punch-bag — Israeli left-wingers. It said that they were holding alternative Purim events to commemorate the suffering of the non-Jewish residents of Shushan, where the Purim story is set. According to the Book of Esther, the Jews fought against them. Leftists were to remember the “Shushan Nakba” and were reportedly collecting testimonies from members of Haman’s family.

While Israeli publications are good at using Purim to take aim against their favourite targets, they are poor tricksters. With their emphasis on serious political and security matters, many pass up the opportunity to wind up readers, and those that do tend to either clearly identify the stories as pranks or make them outrageous enough to avoid confusion. They do not want the joke to spark an international media storm.

If only Beersheva mayor Ruvik Danilovich had been as careful. He told a local paper that he planned to relocate out of the city — a revelation that caused concern among some local residents who took it seriously. He issued a statement clarifying that he was staying put.

Y-UJIA Purim party attendees perform The New Harlem Shake

Sandy Rashty — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:47:57 +0000

Purim 2013

Sandy Rashty — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:28:00 +0000

How to make hamantashen for Purim

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:12:02 +0000

A simple recipe in time for Purim.

Queen Esther and the ﬂap of a butterfly’s wing

Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:57:57 +0000

In the summer of 1666, the English physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton is said to have pondered the falling of an apple while in the gardens of Woolsthorpe Manor, his family home in Lincolnshire. This apocryphal story describes the seminal moment which prompted him to realise that there must be a force acting on the apple which draws it to the centre of the earth.

After publishing his universal law of gravitation together with his three laws of motion in 1687, Newton was able to explain not only the fall of an apple, but also the orbits of the moon and other celestial bodies with incredible accuracy. This discovery heralded a revolution in scientific understanding, which resonated with the beginning of the Enlightenment period. The cosmos was no longer mysterious; epitomised by William Blake’s painting of Newton as the divine geometer, God could be replaced with the rational scientist as master over a measurable, knowable and predictable clockwork universe.

This strengthened the concept of causal determinism, which implies that every physical event has a physical cause or group of causes. In any system, given one set of specific initial conditions, only one physical outcome is possible.

Yet almost 300 years later in 1961, the American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz was running a computer algorithm designed to model weather systems. Each variable, such as temperature, wind speed and atmospheric pressure, had to be entered manually. After running the model and generating a normal but sophisticated weather system, Lorenz decided to repeat the experiment but rounded one variable of 0.506127 to 0.506.

As the algorithm started to run, it began to produce the same results. Yet in a short time, it had deviated from the original model and ultimately generated a completely different weather system.

When Lorenz went to present the work, his colleague Philip Merilees devised the title “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Texas produce a tornado in Brazil?” Lorenz’s most famous observation soon became known as the “butterfly effect”. The flap (or non-flap) of the butterfly represents a tiny change in the initial conditions comparable to Lorenz rounding up the initial variable to 0.506. Although compatible with a deterministic universe, unlike Newton’s celestial orbits, complex systems such as the weather are not predictable for long periods due to the immeasurable number of influencing variables and the unforgiving sensitivity to initial conditions.

By implication, the butterfly effect must be true for every complex system; traffic flow, a football match or even the countless interactions we have each day. At every moment of our lives, the decisions we make and interactions we have will affect the future; the chance meeting with an old friend, missing the train or a social introduction by a mutual acquaintance. In fact, every decision that we make, consciously or subconsciously, affects a myriad of interconnecting factors that make up our lives.

Each year on the festival of Purim, we read the story of Esther, which describes how the Jewish people were saved from schemes of the wicked Haman. Yet while we recount the miracles which God performed at that time in our prayers, there is no reference in the story to any miracle. In fact, God is not mentioned once.
Yet miracles in which God can influence our lives do not have to break the laws of nature. In our prayers we thank God al nisecha sheb’chol yom imanu, for the miracles that are with us each day.

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, in the 18th century, explained that God uses natural phenomena to influence His creation, triggering the hidden miracles which guide our lives. Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer (also 18th century) described God’s interaction with the physical world extending to even the most mundane natural phenomena, such as a wisp of straw blown from a thatched roof or a the path of a falling leaf. While we cannot see God’s guiding hand directly, the butterfly effect resonates with the notion that God can intercede in the running of the world without being noticed.

In simple language, Megillat Esther means the scroll of Esther, but the root of the word Megillah is l’galot, meaning to reveal, and Esther is from the word l’hastir, meaning a secret, something hidden. Megillat Esther therefore means “revealing that which is hidden”: God’s guiding hand.

This is why we dress up on Purim, symbolically hiding our true identity. As we drink wine, the real self is slowly revealed — in vino veritas, or as the sages of the Gemara put it, nichnas yayin, yetzei sod, “as the wine goes in, the secret comes out”.

Our celebrations on Purim therefore convey the deepest expressions of our faith in divine Providence and the hidden, yet ever-present hand of God. The challenge for us is whether we choose to bolster our faith and recognise the divine influence in our lives, or submit to the cold randomness of a Godless world.

Truly unbelievable

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:53:36 +0000

Traditionally, Purim is a time for inviting people to believe the unbelievable. As is so often the case, this week provides a rich crop of stories which have that "good grief, can that really be true?" factor. They range from the preposterous - an Israeli politician suggesting a three-state solution - to the near-science fiction - Russian Jewry facing meteorites as the latest threat to their safety. Among the most entertaining is the slightly desperate attempt by the Board of Deputies to impose order among its anarchic representatives: a code of conduct so that unruly deputies will play nicely with each other, metaphorically speaking, at Sunday plenary meetings. We have to confess: all these stories, sadly to report, are true.

The Maccabeats: Purim shpiel with Obama and friends

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:55:10 +0000

A Purim mash-up from the kings of Jewish pop.

Libyan Safra for Purim

Victoria Prever — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:52:24 +0000

Safra, also called sefra, is an aromatic semolina dessert from the Jewish community of Tripoli, Libya, and a fun Purim treat. Rome’s cuisine benefited when the Libyan Jews found refuge in Italy in 1967. The honey and orange glazing give a rich flavour and adds a lovely sheen to the almond and sesame seed topping.

Preparation time: 50 minutes
Makes 20 approx

INGREDIENTS
300g semolina
1 egg
100g sugar
50g raisins
100ml water
100ml sunflower/corn/vegetable oil
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
20-25 blanched almonds
Handful of sesame seeds

For the honey glaze:
150ml water
150g sugar
3 tbsp honey
Zest of 1 orange or 1tbsp orange water

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a 22x22cm square (or similar volume round or rectangular) oven dish with baking parchment.

Spread the semolina on an oven tray and toast in the oven for 10 minutes, shaking the tray after 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the egg, sugar, raisins, water, oil, baking powder and salt. Gently fold in the toasted semolina.

Pour in the mixture and with a knife mark diamond shapes by crossing lines. Place an almond on top of each diamond square. Sprinkle the sesame seeds all over.

Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and mark the diamond lines again with a knife. Return to the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the honey glaze. Gently heat the water and sugar in a non-stick saucepan for 8-10 minutes stirring occasionally. When the sugar has dissolved, add the honey and orange zest. Bring to the boil then turn off the heat.

As soon as the cake is ready, pour over the glaze and return to the oven for a couple of minutes.

Remove, cool completely then cut the diamond squares.

Rabbi meets Cuban Jewish prisoner

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:50:36 +0000

A humanitarian delegation to Havana has met the man serving a 15-year sentence for providing Cuban Jews with computer equipment.

New York rabbi Arthur Schneier, from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, urged Cuban officials to release Alan Gross.

The international development worker was imprisoned in 2011 for “crimes against the Cuban state” after bringing mobile phones and computers to Cuban Jews, without a state permit.

Rabbi Schneier, who was accompanied by a Mexican archbishop, a US bishop and a former US ambassador, was granted permission to visit Mr Gross in prison, giving him a tallit, a set of tefillin and hamantaschen for Purim.

He said: “I found a man of faith, concerned about his family, hopeful and reassured that he has not been abandoned. Purim is a festival of miracles, and we pray that a miracle will allow us to see a resolution of the pain and suffering of all involved.”

In their meetings with Cuban officials, the delegates said they stressed that Mr Gross’s 90-year-old mother and a daughter both had cancer.

They also visited Havana’s synagogue and Jewish community centre. The charity provides a shipment of Pesach food every year to the tiny community.

The Maccabeats do Purim: Raise Your Glass

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:52:44 +0000

Remember the Maccabeats' Chanucah version of Candlelight. Well, the band from New York are back with a song for Purim, to the of Pink's hit Raise Your Glass.

Full coverage of Purim here