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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: TALMUDIC DISCOURSE: JEWISH HOLIDAYS OF NICANOR AND PURIM
The Fast of Esther (Ta'anit Ester, Hebrew תענית אסתר) is a Jewish fast from dawn until dusk on Purim eve, commemorating the three day fast observed by the Jewish people in the story of Purim. This fast was accepted by the Jews for all future generations, as it is stated in the Book of Esther: They had established for themselves and their descendants the matters of the fasts and their cry. (Esther 9:31)
The Fast is observed on the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar. If the Fast of Esther falls on Shabbat (Saturday), the fast is instead observed on the preceding Thursday.
Since the Fast of Esther is not one of the four public fasts ordained by the Prophets, the laws are more lenient; pregnant women, nursing mothers, and those who are weak are not required to observe it.
(A weak, sick, or pregnant person is not required or even permitted to observe any Jewish fast day.)
A common misconception about the fast is that it commemorates the anniversary of the fast which Esther declared before she risked her life to see the king. In fact, this and the rest of the story up to and including the execution of Haman occur before the month of Sivan and at least 9 months prior to the Purim Festival in Adar. It is generally accepted in the rabbinic Talmudic tradition that the original three-day "Fast of Esther" mentioned in chapter 4 of Book of Esther occurred on the 14th, 15th, and 16th days of Nisan, these being the eve and first two days of Passover. They fasted on Passover because Esther reasoned it would be better to fast on one Pesach lest they all be destroyed and thus never be able to observe the holiday in the future. The 13th of Adar was a fast day for the warriors while going out to battle, as it is believed to have been customary to fast during the battle in order to gain divine favor. Because fasting during Passover would be inappropriate in almost all circumstances, the "Fast of Esther" became attached to the eve of Purim, the 13th of Adar.
On the 13th of Adar during Minchah, it is customary to give three halves of the coin which is the basis of the local currency. The money is given to the poor to do with it as they wish. This contribution is made in memory of the half-shekel given by Israel when the Beit Hamikdash still stood; and whose forthcoming collection was announced on Rosh Chodesh Adar.
This commemorative act is performed before the Reading of the Megillah, because all Israel gathers for the Megillah Reading in the Synagogues. It is proper to give the half-shekel before Minchah, since 'the diligent perform Mitzvot earlier.' Those who live in 'open-cities' give the half-shekel before the Megillah Reading on the night of the 14th, whereas the inhabitants of Yerushalayim give the half-shekel before their Reading of the Megillah - the night of the 15th.
In a place which has no coin that is designated a 'half' coin, it is customary for the gabaim to bring three halves of silver coins which are issued elsewhere, and to give these coins in exchange, to anyone who makes his contribution in the coins available to him. After performing the Mitzvah, he returns the three 'halves' to the gabaim, so that others might also be able to observe the custom properly.
Those who seek to observe Mitzvoth with hidur (enhancement) give the half-shekel for each of the members of the household including minors, and in the case of an expectant mother, for the unborn child as well. Once a father has begun to give a half-shekel for a minor child, he is required to continue to do so each year.
The reason for the giving of three 'halves' is that the term trumah (contribution) is mentioned three times in the portion of Ki-Tisa, in the account of the Mitzvah of the half-shekel. The established practice is to consider the giving of the half-shekel as not freeing one from the Mitzvah of giving charity to the poor, which is specifically prescribed for Purim.
Aside from hearing the Megillah read aloud, there are 4 other mitzvoth connected with Purim. They are: 2) Recite "Al HaNisim" prayer thanking G!d for the great miracle of Purim. 3) "Mishlo'ach Manot" - sending a gift of two - ready to eat - foods to a friend. 4) "Matanot LaEvyonim" - giving charity to at least two poor people.5) Se'udat Purim - Eating a festive meal to celebrate the miracle.
There is a 6th mitzvah, of getting so drunk as to not be able to recognize the difference between ''blessed be Mordechai" and "cursed be Haman." "Rava said: It is one's duty levasumei, to make oneself fragrant [with wine] on Purim until one cannot tell the difference between 'arur Haman' (cursed be Haman) and 'barukh Mordekhai' (blessed be Mordecai)" (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 7b).
While many of us believe that the Megillah must be read on the 14th of Adar, the Rabbis of the Yerushalmi Talmud say that any day it is read in Adar fulfils the mitzvah. However the above mentioned mitzvoth, must be done on the 14th. (Yerushalmi Tractate Megillah 1:1).
The logic is interesting as our friends and the poor expect the gifts and the special meal on the 14th of Adar. But the reading of the scroll of Esther is actually a misnomer. It is not a scroll at all. It was a letter that was sent throughout the lands of Persia, as far as into India and Afghanistan, through the Kyber pass. A true 'scroll ' of Esther is folded in letter form and is not in scroll form. And Jews through out the realm read this letter on different days, and hence the Rabbis decided, so may we, especially since the Yerushalmi sages were in a far corner of Persia's rule as well and did not hear of the letter at the same time the Rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud did.
So what is the Holiday of Nicanor? Yerushalmi Tractate Megillah 1:1 tells us a bit. The ruler of Greece passed the land of Israel en route to Alexandria. He said: When I come back in peace, I will break down that tower. The Jews attacked the Greek king, chopped of his hand and head and stuck them on a pole. Underneath they wrote: Here is the mouth that spoke shamefully and the hand that stretched out arrogantly. And these were set up on a pike in sight of Jerusalem.
Nicanor, who was son of Patroclus, and general and friend of Antiochus Epiphanes, who in 165
Nicanor's arrogance is recorded:Every day [Nicanor] waved his hand against Judah and Jerusalem and exclaimed, "When shall it fall into my hands that I may trample upon it?" Talmud Bavli Tractate Ta'anit 18b.
It is the Book of Macabees that declares the holiday, just as the Book of Esther declares Purim as a holiday.''The people rejoiced greatly and ordained that this day should be observed annually on 13 Adar.'' (II Macc 15:36 )
There is no trace of its celebration years after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
Hence in the areas under influence of the Babylonian academies and their Talmud, noting of course, that Mordechai, was a supposed member of the Great Assembly receiving the oral transmission in a direct route from Moses on Sinai, and not the Judea Rabbis, Purim was celebrated as the more important holiday in the middle of Adar, as this above ruling is from the Talmud Yerushalmi and did not hold weight outside Judea.
Note however, that the word Purim, does not show up in Talmudic writings until after the historic Hanukah, which is supposedly 300 years after the Esther story. Until that time it was called Mordechai day.
The single hint of an emergent proto-Purim is found in the aforementioned decree in the Book of Maccabees II, announcing the Feast of Nicanor on Adar 13th. The text notes that the feast falls one day before a certain "Mordecai Day," a previously unmentioned, but obvious precursor of Purim.
It seems that the holiday later known as Purim arose in the long-established Babylonian/Persian Diaspora, as a Jewish adaptation of a Persian end-of-winter masquerade celebration, similar to Europe's Carnivale and Louisiana's Mardi Gras.
One need look no further for the holiday's Babylonian roots than the names of its heroes: Mordecai is derived from the Babylonian god Marduk; as for Esther, Rabbi Nehemiah explains in Talmud Bavli Tractate Megilla 13a as follows: "Hadassah was her original name; why then was she called Esther? Because Idol worshipers referred to her after the name of the planet Venus, or Ishtar."
Since Mordecai Day was a holiday of the Mesopotamian and Persian Jews, it's not surprising that their brethren in the homeland didn't come around to adopting it for some time. After all, they already had their own established day of national deliverance in the form of Nicanor's Feast.
The ambivalence of homeland Jews with respect to both Purim and the Book of Esther is suggested in the Talmud Tractate Bavli Megillah 7a relates a mysterious tale in which the rabbis of Israel receive a letter from Queen Esther demanding that the rabbis accept - the text isn't clear which - Purim, her Megillah, or both.
The rabbis of the Holy land hesitate, wondering aloud whether yet another festival that is sure to upset the gentiles is really necessary. Esther persists in her demands in the face of their resistance, declaring that the King of Persia himself has accepted her holiday.
As it happens, the Talmud records the vigorous rabbinic debates on the merits of admitting the Book of Esther into the Biblical canon. Those rabbis that doubted the Megilla's sacred bonafides took issue with the total absence of God's name from the narrative as well as the spectacle of a Jewish maiden marrying a gentile king.
But as we know, the Jews of Israel did ultimately adopt Purim, and the Megillah was finally allowed into the Biblical canon.
Thus brings us to the fate of Nicanor Day. Two disastrous Jewish rebellions (in 66-70 and 132-135 CE) against Rome and a destroyed Temple would have rendered the jubilant Nicanor's feast outdated. Under the circumstances, a transformation of the 13th of Adar from Nicanor's jubilant feast into Esther's mournful fast would not have been unreasonable.
With the old feast now a new fast, the Persian Mordechai Day was left to develop into Purim.
That Esther's day replaced Nicanor's does make historical sense: after all, it was the Babylon-based rabbis who would ultimately gain halachic pre-eminence and leadership at the expense of their colleagues in the Land of Israel, deciding which holidays were or weren't observed.
With the fall of the Second Temple and the influx of Babylonian Rabbis into Judea and into the academies of Yavneh, when the Jewish scriptures were codified, all of the 4 books of Maccabees were not in included. This is not because the Rabbis disliked Judah, his brothers, or his father. They indeed were G!D fearing heroes. But they despised their grandchildren who were in cahoots with the Romans, and made a mockery of the Davidic line of Kingship and the Cohanic and Levitic line of the Priesthood.
Hence while at the time of the Maccabees, Nicanor day was celebrated in Judea, and the fast of Esther got bumped to after Purim, within time, it was forgotten, and the Babylonian Rabbinic Talmudic ways of celebrating Purim were restored.
It is interesting to note, that many cities have their own Purims celebrating their own deliverance. The best known is Purim Vintz, traditionally celebrated in Frankfurt am Main, one week after the regular Purim. This commemorates the Fettmilch uprising (1616-1620), in which one Vincenz Fettmilch attempted to exterminate the Jewish community. According to some sources, the influential Rabbi Moses Sofer (the Chatam Sofer), who was born in Frankfurt, celebrated Purim Vintz every year, even when he served as a rabbi in Pressburg .( now Brataslava, Slovak Republic). (My wife and I were blessed to say Kaddish at his restored grave at the restored Jewish cemetery, on the banks of Danube, in the shadow of the town's Castle, two summers ago.)
Many Jewish families have also had "family Purims" throughout the centuries, celebrated at home, whereby they celebrate their escape from persecution, an accident, or any other type of misfortune.
For example, in Krakow, Poland, Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1579-1654) asked that his family henceforth celebrate a private Purim, marking the end of his many troubles, including having faced trumped-up charges. Since Purim is preceded by a fast day, the rabbi (known as the Tosfos Yom Tov because of his work of the same name) also directed his descendants to have a (private) fast day, the 5th day of Tamuz, marking one of his imprisonments (1629), this one lasting for 40 days.
Happy Purim and nosh as many Hamantashan as you can grab.
Rabbi Arthur Segal
JEWISH RENEWAL:
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC
BLUFFTON,SC
SAVANNAH, GA
(references from Wikipedia, Rabbi E. Kitov, Rabbi
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