Isaac Sacca and the happiest celebration of the Hebrew calendar: “The story of Purim gives us hope”

The beginning of history dates back over 2,400 years. King Ahasuerus, ruler of the Persian Empire, celebrated his three years of reign with a grand banquet. Many Jews attended the celebration, honored by the invitation, but his wife Vashti refused to comply with the royal request. The king then sentenced her to death. Her advisers chose the beautiful Esther among the ladies of the kingdom as their new sovereign. She, on the advice of her uncle Mordecai, adviser to the king and great Jewish sage, hid her origin. It would be a key part of the modern celebration of Purim.

But that would be centuries later. Mordechai, at the time, discovered a conspiracy to kill King Ahasuerus. The complaint lodged with the palace authorities earned the adviser recognition and distinction. Minister Haman, who had full powers, was shocked by Mordechai’s attitude. “He predisposed the king against him and his people, forcing the monarch to sign a decree ordering the extermination of all Jews, seizing their wealth“Tells the story of World Jewish Organization Menora, whose president is the chief rabbi of the Sephardic community of Buenos Aires, Isaac sacca.

But Queen Esther, consulted by Ahasuerus, he asked as a wish that the life of his people, his life. And he named Haman as his potential assassin. “This is how the king ordered the use of the gallows – originally prepared for Mordecai – to execute the evil Haman. Mordechai secured Haman’s position and drafted a new decree authorizing Jews to bear arms and defend themselves against their enemies.Describes the story. Thus, in the Persian lands, the Jews unloaded their happiness on 14 Adar and the next day, in the city of Susa, they celebrated the salvation of the Hebrew people.

The story of Purim is cinematic. “We commemorate the historic event which was the salvation of a perverse decree of extermination of the Hebrew people initiated by a minister of the court of Emperor Ahasuerus because he quarreled with someone who was of religion Jewish. It was not enough to take revenge on him only, but also decided to take revenge on all his peopleSaid Rabbi Sacca.

He added, “The events which are recorded in the Scroll of Esther, in the Bible, tell the whole development of this story and how in the end Haman’s ideas and cruel plan were thwarted, he was dismissed. of office and the Hebrews were accepted as citizens of the Persian Empire like other citizens of all religions, and lived in peace. This is the central event we are commemorating: salvation as a people from eventual extermination“.

The rabbi said that the story hides in its depth different layers: each layer reveals a message. Think about the human tendency towards reductionism, historical shortcuts and generalizations. “To say ‘I have a problem with a Jew’ is not to have a problem with all Jews, ‘I have a problem with a Muslim’ not with all Muslims, the same with a Christian, an Argentinian, an American. It was Haman’s first big mistake. “He said all human beings have traces of Haman:”We can at a time of exacerbation, when we let our guard down, fall into this error, into the vice of generalizing by color, by religion, by nationality, by group, and not judging the good or the bad in oneself.“.

The second level of understanding is the festival of Purim which is preparing for the modern era: “It is a festival of 2,500 years ago but it is the last one which practically prepares us for life in the great society. . For the problems that we are going to have in large society, when the world is no longer made up of villages and becomes countries with a large number of people, then when we are going to have problems of reductionism, of generalization, the need to simplify easily to better understand the world ”.

Purim, which started this year with sunset on Thursday February 25 and ends in the afternoon of Friday 26, is known as the Jewish carnival. “It is first of all the most joyful feast of the Hebrew calendar because in the practices happiness is manifested a lot, the celebration the chief rabbi qualified. It has to do with a feeling of rash happiness, which arises with great force. When do we have a very, very happy experience? When expectations are pessimistic, when we expect the worst. When we see that the events lead us to the worst and suddenly we notice that the result was positive, savior, that everything that happened during the story at the end was good. La surprise makes happiness even stronger. The happiness that we already see in time is not the same as the happiness that arises spontaneously when we were not expecting it ”.

The radical change of the event generated unexpected happiness. “On Purim, everything turned around. This is an interesting message for all those people who sometimes go through difficult situations and think that everything is wrong. The story of Purim gives us hope, joy: everything can be changed and returned for the better»Said the rabbi.

The World Jewish Organization Menorah repeats, through a declaration, a conjunctural reading of the historical event: “In times like the present, Esther’s positive leadership emerges as a beacon for a new generation of women, who seek to defend the rights of oppressed minorities. It is an example of courage and struggle. It represents all those women who pursue noble ideals and are ready to sacrifice their comfort in the search for social well-being, justice, freedom and peace ”.

Purim is celebrated primarily with the reading of Esther’s scroll, warns Isaac Sacca. We must first understand what happened and incorporate the moral of the story: “evil does not triumph”, “we must not generalize”, “sometimes things can improve”. The celebration is with food “because salvation was salvation of the body”. Haman’s conviction was a physical extermination. “How physically the body was saved, the celebration of Purim is all about pampering the body a bit. It is celebrated with a banquet, with food and drink. Unlike Hanukkah, which is a cultural salvation from Hebrew ideology, threatened by the ancient Greeks. There is no food festival, there is a celebration of turning on the lights because what was saved was the spirit, ”he explained.

A popular custom has been established that the law does not specify. The use of the costume is not an obligation of the stay. His most detailed explanation is that advocated by the rabbi. On Purim, the giving of money or gifts is encouraged to democratize the celebration: “The sages recommended that masks and costumes be used at parties for those who have to ask for money, do not be ashamed. They are all dressed, those who have money and those who don’t. So we don’t know exactly who asked. Thus, he also began to be associated with the carnival, which coincides with these dates, but in reality there is no such association ”.

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