Purim sameach!

It’s that time of year again where our Community parades in costumes, gorges on hamantashens and makes loud noises with the ra’ashan. Purim.  We all know the story. Haman tried to kill us, Mordechai and Queen Esther put themselves on the line, we survived.  Let’s celebrate and get drunk.  Or something like that.

That’s the narrative we were taught as kids.  But how often does the average Jew get a chance to expand on that narrative?  Between preparing Michloach manot and preparing a costume, it is easy to let Purim slip by us with a simplistic view of Purim. 

Here comes the ideas of Limmud.  An opportunity to scrutinize, examine, and turn your Jewish world on your head.  If you attended a Limmud conference in Chicago last year, you would have had the opportunity to hear Jaqueline Saper talk on how Iranian Jewry celebrate Purim.  Unfortunately, I could not attend her talk, but you can read an interesting article from Tablet Magazine about it here. Did you know that in the city of Hamadam in Iran, there is a tomb of Mordechai and Esther where Iranian Jews make an annual pilgrimage?  And Jews who don’t often attend Synagogue will make great efforts to hear the Megilla reading on Purim, and they only boo Haman at the conclusion of the Megillah when he is mentioned with his 10 sons.

If you attended Limmud Miami this year, you could have watched the movie Megillas Lester. Megillas Lester is a full length animated feature film depicting the fictional story of Doniel Lesterovitch; a boy whose imagination turns the Purim story upside down. 

Or you can hear a podcast from Clive Lawton, founder of Limmud, on J-DOV (Jewish TED talk equivalent) talk about Jewish festivals for grown ups. We often make Jewish festivals all about the kids, but Clive stresses that we need to keep Judaism for grown ups too.  When adults go to the theatre, they hire babysitters so they can enjoy the experience.  Why not with important festivals and services?

Limmud offers a space to explore  different points of view and offers an exposure  to new ideas.  So even if this Purim is about Hamantashens, there is always Limmud to take you one step further on your Jewish journey.

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Yom Limmud- The Festival of Jewish Ideas

Save the date: 3 July 2016 

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Limmud is a not-for-profit, volunteer based event supported by the Shalom Institute.