Leanne Stillerman Zabow, Times of Israel, Mar. 25, 2024
This is our first Purim in Israel as olim (immigrants). I heard the question “how can we celebrate and be happy at such a time”? asked several times.
The resounding idea came through that even more so, we should celebrate this year. We are here, together, with the opportunity to celebrate a holiday which embodies unity and love, exchanging gifts, sharing meals, including others. We have this precious moment, this one life, whose fragility renders it even more exquisite. We need to affirm that we are here. When Purim and Chanukah are contrasted, Purim is seen as the holiday of physical survival, its celebration expressed in physical, embodied actions.
There is no hallel (songs of praise) on Purim, and there is an idea that the megillah itself is a form of hallel, prayer; great praise for the possibilities of “ve-na-ha-foch hu”: things can be turned around, for the good.
God’s name is famously absent from the Megillah. But God is present in the story in allusions. Mordechai says to Esther: “perhaps it is for this moment that you arose to royalty”; perhaps there is divine intervention in the time and place you find yourself in a particular moment. Mordechai and Esther have to take things into their own hands, facing great uncertainty and very high stakes. Esther turns to God and invokes Jewish unity, asking Mordechai to gather all the Jewish people for 3 days of fasting and prayer. ….SOURCE