The Story of Purim(Parst 2 and 3)

5th of Adar, 5770

(Continuation from yesterday...)

As part of his personal vendetta against Mordechai, Haman, the prime minister of the Persian Empire, decided to kill all the Jews in the Empire, the whole Jewish population in the world at that time.
But how do you kill a million people, spread all over a huge empire? Haman had a perfect genius evil plan. He issued an edict, which was immediately sent all over the empire, announcing that at the 13th of the month of Adar (few months from the issuing of the edict) every citizen of the Empire will have the lawful right to kill a Jew and take possession of his properties and assets…. By the laws of the empire, the Jews could not defend themselves! That was Haman’s master plan: motivating every person in the Empire to kill his own Jewish neighbors. No one would escape alive…

The Midrash tells that the non Jewish neighbors were fighting among themselves to determine who would kill this or that Jew on the 13th of Adar and take possession of his properties. The Jews declared a 3 day fast and implored God for their salvation….
The only thing left to do was to talk directly with King Achashverosh, bypassing the evil Haman… but who was going to do it?
Mordechai approached Esther and asked her to beg Achashverosh for her people. But there were very strict rules in the Persian Kingdom. For security reasons, no one was allowed to approach the King physically. If any person, even the queen, came close to the King, he or she could be sentenced to be killed on the spot...
But Esther, risked her life and approached the King. Esther invited Achashverosh and Haman to a private party. Achashverosh ignored the nature of the edict and Haman did not know that Esther was Jewish,
Once at the private dinner, Esther announced to Achashverosh that somebody wanted her and her people killed. The King, taken by surprise, asked with indignation WHO was behind this evil plot. Esther, signaled Haman, risking once again her life... At that critical moment, and still unsure if he would align himself with Haman or with Esther, the King leaves for his garden and when he comes back sees Haman begging Esther for his life, but allowing himself to get too close to her…The King saw this as an act of irreverence and ordered Haman to be killed immediately.

The edict was not canceled but reversed: the Jews now could legally defend themselves with the help of the Persian Empire enforcers and could get rid of their enemies.
Beyond the story with human protagonists, our rabbis taught us, the invisible "hand" of God Almighty was moving the strings in the right direction. God’s providence and miracles were performed in the small details, which ended up with the deliverance of our people from extermination.
We celebrate the festival of Purim on the 14th of Adar, this year 5770/2010 Sunday February 28th.

Shabbat Shalom!!!

The Story of Purim (Part 1)

4th of Adar, 5770

Approximately 2400 years ago, the Persian Empire was ruled by King Achashverosh. It extended from India to Ethiopia. It was the largest empire in ancient history. Approximately 1 million Jews lived in the empire, including 40,000 in the land of Israel, trying to rebuild the Bet haMikdash under the leadership of Ezra and Nechemia.

Some Jews lived in the capital of the empire: Shushan haBira. Achashverosh, apparently sensing threats to his life, appointed a very tough prime minister: Haman and gave him full authority to do as he pleases over the empire. Haman not only demanded obedience from all but also expected a kind of personal cult or worship: everyone had to bow down (fully bow down!) upon seeing him.

Mordechai was a leader among the Jews in Shushan. His niece, Esther, was taken to the palace and recently designated as the new Queen. Mordechai respected the king and even thwarted a plot against the King’s life, but refused to bow down to Haman. The prime minister was furious and decided to take revenge from Mordechai. He thought that just killing Mordechai will not do justice to the great personal offense. He decided then to exterminate all of Mordechai’s people: the Jews. Once again, we are not talking just about the Jews living in Shushan but all the Jews living in the Persian Empire, who were indeed all the Jews in the world!!! Had Haman succeeded, it would have been our end….

(to be continued....)

The leap year (part 2)

Today is the 2^nd day of Adar, 5770

Our months follow the actual cycle of the moon –new moon, full moon, etc- which consists on 29,5 days. Therefore, on average, Hebrew months will have 29 days and the next 30 and so on. A lunar (=moon based) year -12 lunar months- will have therefore 354 days (12x29.5).

There is a special Mitzvah in the Torah that says: “Shamor et Chodesh ha-Abib” which instructs us to keep the holiday of Pesach specifically on spring season. Now, if we would follow exclusively the lunar calendar, Pesach would fall at different seasons, because of the 11 days gap between the lunar and the solar year (354/365).

In order to ensure that Pesach would always fall during the spring season, these two calendars must be coordinated. How do we do that? Adding an additional month -a thirteenth month- to the year. A year that has 13 months is a called a leap year (shana me’uberet).

To summarize: The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar (=moon and sun) with a thirteenth month which is added to adjust the two calendars. This extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before the "real" Adar which is the one that comes immediately before Nisan and is called Adar Bet (second Adar). According to the Hebrew calendar calculation cycle this extra month is added seven times every nineteen years (specifically, in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19).

5770 is NOT a leap year, it has only one Adar.