Arts&Life
purim
34 | MARCH 5 • 2020
M
ost kids say
Chanukah is their
favorite holiday, but
I have always been a Purim
kinda girl. Maybe it’
s because
my middle name is Esther. I do
have vivid childhood memories
of the celebrations my family
did for the holiday. I think it’
s a
just great opportunity to cele-
brate as a family.
Purim — March 10 this year
— is a holiday filled with food
and joy that celebrates the story
in the Megillat Esther (Book of
Esther), where Jewish heroine
Esther saves Persia’
s Jews from
a deadly decree. It all starts after
the first Temple in Jerusalem
was destroyed and the Jews
were exiled. Some went to
Persia, now modern-day Iran.
Persian King Ahashverosh
had an affinity for parties that
lasted days. During one of these
wild parties, he wanted his
queen to dance for the men, but
she refused and was banished.
This led to a beauty contest,
with Esther being crowned
queen. She was born as
Hadassah, a Jew, who was raised
by her uncle Mordechai. He
told her to conceal her Jewish
identity during the contest.
Meanwhile, Mordechai
refuses to bow down to
Haman, the King’
s vizer, who
is furious. Haman takes his
hatred out on the Jewish peo-
ple and draws lots to pick a
death date for them all. When
Mordechai hears of Haman’
s
plot, he asks Esther to inter-
cede on the Jews’
behalf.
Esther agrees, but has the
Jews fast for three days to
give them luck. She dresses in
her finest royal apparel and
requests an audience with the
King, who wants to know her
desire. She says she simply
wants the King and Haman
to come to her banquet. She
arranges a feast abundant
with food and alcohol. At the
conclusion, she requests that it
continue the next night.
After the following night,
when the King was filled with
wine, she reveals her true her-
itage and Haman’
s plot to kill
her people. The King was furi-
ous. The plot was foiled, and
Haman was led on horseback
by Mordechai, the new vizer,
to the gallows to be hung —
instead of the Jews.
The celebration of this
heroine who saves the Jewish
people is memorialized in the
annual readings of the Megillat
Esther, when adults and chil-
dren alike can dress in cos-
tume and drown out the name
of Haman with loud noises
during a reading.
I always loved to create cos-
tumes as a kid and dress up for
Sunday school growing up. I
would carefully plan out what
I was going to be for Purim,
so I had the perfect costume. I
would use my mom’
s jewel-
ry when I dressed as Queen
Esther. As I got older, I helped
my mom create a hamentashen
(three-cornered cookie repre-
senting Haman’
s hat) costume.
Now, with my kids, I enjoy
Purim for
Kids
Teach them the story and then —
create crowns for the holiday
!
BROOKE LEIBERMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PHOTOS BY BROOKE LEIBERMAN
Cousins Jude Sternberg
and Talia, Matan and
Naomi Leiberman pose
in Purim hats they
worked on themselves.