Kol Beth El ADAR-IYAR 5778
MARCH/APRIL 2018
The Difference Between Pesach and Purim Jews From the desk of Rabbi Kurtz
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Shabbat Schedule....................2 President’s Corner...................3 Hazzan Tisser...........................4 Formal Education.....................5 Informal Education..................5 Cultural & Learning Center.....6 History Corner..........................6 Development ...........................7 Sisterhood.................................8 Men’s Club................................9 Youth Community....................10 Pre-School.................................11 Passover Supplement..............12 Todah Rabbah..........................14 March Calendar........................19 April Calendar...........................20 Social Action.............................21 Events at a Glance....................22 All in the Beth El Family...........24 North Suburban Synagogue Beth El 1175 N. Sheridan Road Highland Park, IL 60035 (847) 432-8900 www.nssbethel.org
Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalom Hartman Institute, in an insightful article a few years ago, wrote about the difference between Pesach Jews and Purim Jews. He stated: “Jewish history speaks to our generation in the voice of two Biblical commands to remember. The first voice commands us to remember that we were strangers in the land of Egypt, and the message of that command is ‘Don’t be brutal.’ The second voice commands us to remember how the tribe of Amalek attacked us without provocation while we were wandering in the desert, and the message of that command is: ‘Don’t be naïve.’ “ According to Halevi “the first command is the voice of Passover, of liberation; the second is the voice of Purim, commemorating our victory over the genocidal threat of Haman, a descendent of Amalek. ‘Passover Jews’ are motivated by empathy with the oppressed; and ‘Purim Jews’ are motivated by alertness to threat. Both are essential; one without the other creates an unbalanced Jewish personality, a distortion of Jewish history and values.” In the course of an approximately sixweek period, we commemorate events in Jewish history which outline some of the feelings that Halevi suggests. Purim is the festival of the Diaspora. It reminds us that we always have to be careful. No matter
where we have been in the world, we have lived at the behest of the majority culture that has surrounded us. Mordecai learned the hard way that you can’t trust anyone, whether it was the King or the Vizier, Haman. It was only through the intervention of Esther, using her feminine wiles, and the cunning of Mordecai that we were saved. It reminds us, as Halevi suggests: “Don’t be naïve.” In other words, be careful where you live and the surroundings in which you reside, always monitor what is happening outside your community. The worst manifestation of the appearance of Amalek occurred only a generation ago as hatred of the Jew spread across Europe from Germany to the west and the east. Six million of our brothers and sisters were killed in the Shoah (commemorated on Yom HaShoah) and we learned that we could not rely on anyone except ourselves. Even the nations of the west, United States and Canada included, closed their doors to Jewish immigration and committed our people to the ovens of Auschwitz. Amalek lived at that time and we are admonished by the Torah “remember what Amalek did to you… do not forget.” A month after Purim and before Yom HaShoah we commemorate the holiday of Pesach. It reminds us how precious freedom is and how we have to continued on page18
MARCH/APRIL 2018 | KOL BETH EL | 1