THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
8 Friday, March 31, 1918
Purim Should Go World-Wide
REMEMBER
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.)
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AND EVERYTHING IT
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'MPORTANT OCCASION
When the -outside world
first became acquainted
with the Jew, the thing
which especially drew its
interest was the Jewish
Sabbath. Imagine a people
stopping all work one day a
week. No one had ever
heard of such a thing.
The Jews spend one-
seventh of their time in pure
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idleness, said Seneca, the
Roman writer, who Seemed
to think that civilization
would collapse if the prac-
tice were copied by others.
Christianity introduced
the idea with the Sunday
day of rest and then the
Moslems adopted it but
made Friday the holiday.
It's the old story, we sup-
pose, any new idea is first
laughed at.
Einstein thought the
Jews' greatest contribution
to civilization was the
weekly day of rest.
Today of course, we
have many holidays.
Thomas Jefferson tried
to do a little restricting in
that area. As President,
he refused to continue
the -call to the country, in-
itiated by his predeces-
sor, John Adams, for the
celebration of
Washington's birthday as
a holiday.
Jefferson had nothing
against Washington — in
fact Adams was far more
critical of Washington —
and Jefferson had nothing
against holidays but he
thought such celebrations
partook of a kind of human
idolatry. Jefferson even
tried to keep his own birth-
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Continued by popular demand to April 30th
day a secret to prevent its
celebration.
The Jew has a similar
point of view. Not even
Moses has a day named
after him.
Purim might have been
called Esther's Day — she
was the heroine who saved
the Jews — but the holiday
instead is called Purim.
How did it get that name?
It seems this guy,
Haman, who wanted -to
kill the Jews, was a gam-
bler, threw dice, bet on
horses — you know the
type. So when he got the
King's OK for his nefari-
ous plan he cast lots, or
purim, to choose the day
for the slaughter and it
fell on the day of the
month of Adar on which
Moses, according to trad-
ition, died.
Haman felt it was a lucky
day for him. What he didn't
know, according to the
Jewish legend, was that
Moses was also born on the
same day.
Anyway, Esther made it a
lucky day for Jews. She
turned the doomsday into a
day of joy. So on Purim,
Jews eat Hamantashen,
make "lechayim" and
otherwise have a great
time.
Perhaps because it is
marked by so much jollifica-
tion, it is not regarded as a
very serious holiday. But
strangely enough, one of the
great Jewish sages of old
said that when the Messiah
comes and all holidays are
done away with, the one
holiday which would re-
main would be Purim.
This seems a bit odd at
first, but when we think
about it there is a good
deal of logic to it. Purim
celebrates the triumph
over prejudice — and
that is not simply a
Jewish problem. It is a
world problem.
Take the matter of the
great Civil War between the
North and South. A large
part of the cause of that war
was simply the prejudice of
one section of the country
against the other — the
North versus the South.
Here are two sections set-
tled by people of common
origin, yet in a short time
developing very strong pre-
judices against one another.
To the southerners, the
northerner was a "damn
Yankee," and the north-
erner looked down on the
man from Dixie.
As the basis of most wars
there is always the attempt
to appeal to the passions of
prejudice which different
people have against one
another. It is only by in-
flaming these prejudices
that people can be aroused
to fight one another.
I think that rabbi of old
who said that after all the
holidays are done away
with, Purim would remain,
has a point. What the world
needs is a world holiday and
the Purim holiday, com-
memorating the triumph
over prejudice, might help
us make an end to war.
Let all the world eat
Hamantashen one day in
the year!
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