Shalom friends,

Purim is here! This holiday of joy and fun is one that provides profound messages, very relevant to our everyday lives. One of the most significant, is the holiday itself and the instruction to be joyful for the entire month of Adar.

A month might seem like a long time to be joyful. However, what is the appropriate amount of time to celebrate being saved from an attempted genocide?

The Jewish response to trauma is counter-intuitive and extraordinary. You defeat fear with joy. You conquer terror by collective celebration. You prepare a festive meal, invite guests, give gifts to friends. While the story is being told, you make a rambunctious noise as if not only to blot out the memory of Amalek, but to make a joke out of the whole episode. You wear masks. You drink a little too much. You make a Purim spiel.

Precisely because the threat was so serious, you refuse to be serious – and in that refusal you are doing something very serious indeed. You are denying your enemies a victory. You are declaring that you will not be intimidated. As the date of the scheduled destruction approaches, you surround yourself with the single most effective antidote to fear: joy in life itself. As the three-sentence summary of Jewish history puts it: “They tried to destroy us. We survived. Let’s eat.” Humor is the Jewish way of defeating hate. What you can laugh at, you cannot be held captive by.

Let’s celebrate! Am Yisrael Chai!

	Purim: The Danger of Not Knowing The Difference By Dr. Elana Yael Heideman Until we cannot differentiate... But how can we ensure that we know what needs to be remembered so that future generations don't fall into to the "yada, yada, yada, this doesn't matter to me at all" trend? Read More
	Purim Costumes: We Are What We Wear What is the connection between Purim, clothing, and our Jewish identity? Read More
	Purim Lessons for Today, Seriously By Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon explains how Purim is the holiest of our holy days because it demands that we mobilize our deep hidden resources, that we pierce through mindlessness and through the moral confusion of good and evil, in order to reach the divine. Read More
	Hebrew Words You Can Learn for Purim Do you know these Hebrew words that are commonly used during Purim? Read More
	The Therapeutic Joy of Purim By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Global religious leader, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, explains how we must never let ourselves be intimidated – and the Jewish way to avoid this is marbin be-simcha, to increase our joy. The people who can know the full darkness of history and yet rejoice is a people whose spirit no power on earth can ever break. Read More

We’ve created some Purim activities--great for kids of all ages!
Have individual or group fun! Happy Purim!!

Purim Sameach from Israel Forever!

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