Purim Guests
Shushan Purim Sameiah!
In addition to the Purim carnival and shpiel, this year’s Purim was enhanced by the visit of some special guests. Sponsored by the National Peace Foundation and the Islamic Society of North America, Beth El hosted a delegation from Yemen, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. These twenty journalists, human rights lawyers and activists are traveling around the States visiting various sites for cross cultural exchanges. For most of the delegates, this was their first time meeting Jews and first time in a synagogue.
What must they have thought with a visit on Purim?! “Who are these strange people dressed up and acting crazy in their house of worship?!” Despite the unusual timing, it was a really interesting visit. The group joined us for part of shaharit and witnessed Torah and Megillah reading. They had a tour of our main sanctuary and enjoyed a traditional Jewish breakfast- bagels! All along, they asked (some through an interpreter) about Jewish life- holidays, customs, intermarriage, etc.
One question from a Yemini newspaper editor was unexpected but interesting. He asked, “if the Torah mandates punishment for adulterers (strangulation, stoning or burning depending on the situation), how are adulterers dealt with in today’s Jewish community?” The question led to an interesting exchange of thoughts on Jewish and Islamic legal systems. And the answer, “today we do not physically punish adulterers,” is directly related to Purim.
We know that the Jews received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. But what at Sinai was a system of law externally imposed by God on the Israelites, becomes on Purim a legal system internalized and adjudicated by sages. The modern Israeli thinker, David Hartman, speaks to this very transformation in his book, a “A Living Covenant,” in a chapter appropriately titled, “Assertion Versus Submission.” On Purim, he explains, we rise and say “God has commanded us to read the megillah.” But there is no such commandment in the Torah! How then can we claim to be “commanded to read the megillah?” The Talmud’s Rabbi Yoshua ben Levi interprets a verse in the megillah to prove that the heavenly court ratified the rabbis’ decision.
This is boldness approaching hutzpa! The rabbis turn to the Book of Esther (which never mentions God) and find proof that God commands us to read the book in the first place! And the implication of this move applies directly to the Yemini editor’s question. Hartman writes: “Just as the rabbis are competent to introduce new legislation how the community is to behave (i.e. reading megillah), so too can they define how God will act with the sinner.”
I don’t want this already thick email to get even more complicated. After all, some of you may still be sleeping off the effects of Purim! But the lesson here is profound: the sages “liberated Judaism from literalism” and applied its teachings to their lives. And we are charged with doing the same.
As is often the case in interfaith dialogue, we learn as much about ourselves as we do about those sitting across the table.
Bivracha,
Rabbi Davis
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