Eitan Update 2.5, Purim 5767/2007

[Eitan Levy]

BS”D / בס"ד

Eitan Update v.4, #5------March 6, 2007 / טז אדר תשס"ז

PURIM 5767 / פורים תשס"ז

 

I. INTRODUCTION, LESSONS LEARNED

 

I didn’t really get drunk this Purim, just pleasantly tipsy, but the psycho/spiritual space opened up by the holiday was powerful enough that I didn’t need to.  I realized a few things about myself this Purim.  One is that, though I am a planner, and a very self-contained, deliberate sort of person, I would do well to be less so, and I am capable of doing so, and I am happier when I let go a bit.  Of course, my ‘letting go’ is closer to most people’s ‘normal’ way of being in the world, more open to what the world, and life has to offer, and that's also what emunah (something like 'faith', but the translation is more than a bit off) in Hashem is all about.

 

II. WHAT’S PURIM?

 

Purim in the Yeshivah was pretty wild.  First an introduction to Purim for those who are not acquainted.  To put it shortly, Purim celebrates when one of the servants of a Persian kind decided to kill all the Jews, and how the decree was overturned, and eventually the evil Haman (who was trying to kill us) ended up being hung on the gallows he had constructed for Mordechai the Jew, a Jewish leader at the time.  There are several important commandments associated with Purim, but the most notable, at least for it’s strangeness—in general and within the Jewish tradition—is to drink “ad d’lo yada”, that is, “until you don’t know” the difference between Haman (the villain of the story) and Mordechai (one of the stories’ heroes).  In the halachah, there are different views about what this means, from the Rambam (Maimonides) who says you can have a few drinks until you’re sleepy and go to bed and then when you’re asleep you ‘don’t know,’ to others of equal stature who say you really have to drink yourself silly.  Another factor here is how Purim fits in the calendar.  At the end of the story the Jews were given permission to, essentially, form militias and destroy those that would have destroyed them, and they do so with gusto.  In most of Persia, they did so on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar, but in Shushan, the capital, they got a ‘extension’ to continue through the 15th.  So, all over the world people celebrate Purim on the 14th of Adar, and in cities walled at the time of Joshua’s entrance into the Land of Israel (which for our purposes means, Jerusalem), they celebrate on the 15th.  So, if you live near Jerusalem, you can celebrate Purim TWICE!  Once wherever you are, like Bat Ayin, and then go into Jerusalem for the second day to celebrate Purim again.

 

III. DAY 1, PURIM IN BAT AYIN

 

So, the reading of the Megillah (the story of Purim, read from a parchment scroll) on Saturday night was absolutely wild, and took a good 2 hours to complete.  Many showed up in ridiculous costumes, quite a few had already been drinking (though the mitzvah is only for the next day, not the night AT ALL) and there was much merriment.  I won’t describe all the details, but I will simply say that by the end of the reading there were streaks of fake blood—made from beets—all over the roof of the Beit Midrash, and piles of old broken chair parts which had been ripped apart and the wood smashed to almost wood-chip size pieces.

 

In the morning, after Shacharit (morning prayers) and the Megillah reading for the day, which was much more calm, we started drinking in earnest, and did what any self-respecting drunk people should do, which is decide to dig barbeque pits in the yard, kasher (make kosher by cleaning and super-heating) some old grill tops, and cooking 20 rolling around playing with fire and drinking outside all day.  At some point we all went in for Mincha (afternoon prayers), which consisted more of drunk people rolling around on the floor and singing than actual tefillah (prayer), but was holy nonetheless.  Rav Yehoshua Kahan won at Purim this year by stripping down to his underwear and reading from the ‘Sermon on the Mount’(from the book of Matthew, in the Christian Bible) during the repetition of the Amidah.  At some point in the afternoon, after more barbecuing, and yelling from the rooftops of caravans, we made our way to the houses of the Rebbeim (Rabbis) of the yeshivah, first going to Rav Daniel's, and then heading over to Rav Natan’s (together with Rav Daniel), where we witnessed the two Rav’s arguing about incredibly deep things.  It’s interesting, how incredibly different the views of two people who live life within the same, very specific strictures can be, and Rav Natan and Rav Daniel are a perfect example of this.

 

Then I went home and passed out.

 

IV. DAY TWO, PURIM IN JERUSALEM

 

The next morning I went into Jerusalem, out to Neve Yaakov to visit with the Lebow family, and their neighbors, and to join them for a seudah (festive meal).  Unfortunately the rabbi was sick, so he wasn’t able to join the festivities.  After that I headed into Jerusalem to see Ze’ev and Bayla for the first time since they were married, and ended up joining the end of their Purim Seudah in Nachlaot (AKA Jerusalem’s ‘bohemian quarter’), where frum hippies, and the requisite guitars and singing abounded.  The apartment had a climbing wall built in, the kind that curves going up until you’re hanging upside down, and a thick mattress as a landing pad underneath.  This proved to be great drunken fun, both for attempting to climb and falling, and for wrestling and knocking people down, etc.

 

At some point that evening, I made my way back to the Central Bus Station, and eventually out to Bat Ayin.  This morning, yeshivah started back up as usual.

V. PARTING WORDS

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch over the last few weeks.  It's always good to know people in your extended community care and are thinking about you.  Please keep in touch.  As always, I love hearing back from people.  Please feel free to write me at <eitan...@gmail.com>.  And for those of you in Denver, I'll see you in a few weeks!

---

B'ahavah,

-Eitan Levy