A couple things about Purim…
We celebrate this holiday with a pastry that is meant to resemble our enemy’s ears (or hat)! Are we nuts?! Maybe not, join Rabbi Aaron as he explains how the hamantashen wraps it all together.
We read Megilat Esther because that’s the book that tells us the story.
We eat because that’s a basic Jewish tradition – they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat!
That makes sense, but there are other things in the holiday that are very bizarre.
It just doesn’t sound so very Torahdik to get drunk. The very idea is bizarre – even more so that we are meant to get drunk to the point that we would mistakenly bless Haman! Why would we do such a crazy thing?
And why do we give shalach manot and matanos la’evyonim on this particular holiday?
Also extraordinary is that the Midrash says that Purim is the only holiday that the Jewish people will continue to celebrate in the end of days (surpassing the significance of Passover!) and that Megilat Esther will be the only writings that we will continue to read alongside the Chumash in the future. Why?