Purim

the Web Editors 3-08-2012

To celebrate Purim and International Women's Day, we give you the latest instsallment from one of our favorite storytellers — Rabbi Allen Secher (aka The Naked Rabbi) — and his tale of chauffeuring former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for five days in 1955 when he was a student at Brandeis University.

Mrs. Roosevelt was no Miss Daisy.

Cathleen Falsani 3-07-2012

http://youtu.be/q372pD1C2sA

When is it appropriate — nay, even encouraged, both socially and spiritually — to turn up at your house of worship in full costume, make a boisterous racket, and proceed to get drunk as a lord?

Well, if you're a Christian (or a Muslim or a Buddhist) the answer is never.

But if you're Jewish, it's Purim!

Drunk man during Purim festivities in Israel, 2011. Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty I

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lies drunk on the groun during Purim festivities in Israel, 2011. Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

It's almost Purim, and Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is feeling a mix of joy and dread.

Joy because the Jewish holiday commemorates the survival of ancient Jews against the threat of extinction and children dress in costumes and exchange gifts and candy. Purim, on Wednesday (March 7), is also Weinreb's birthday.

Dread because too many times, Weinreb has seen the high cost of Purim's darker side, the "ugly and despicable behavior" of young yeshiva students who drink to excess on a day that is equal parts Halloween and Fat Tuesday.

Purim carnival in Jerusalem. Unidentified people watch the show. (Ekaterina Lin

Purim carnival in Jerusalem. Unidentified people watch the show. (Ekaterina Lin / Shutterstock.com)

WASHINGTON — Debby Levitt's four children are dressing up big time for Purim, one of the more raucous of Jewish holidays, which begins on Wednesday (March 7) this year.

Commemorating Queen Esther's brave and successful efforts to save the Jews of Persia from extermination, Purim calls on Jews to rejoice in costume and to give goodies to neighbors and friends.

Girls often dress up as the beautiful queen, and boys as her valiant cousin Mordecai, who refused to bow down to the evil Haman, who aimed to extinguish all vestiges of Judaism from the kingdom.

The goody baskets — mishloach manot, in Hebrew, or the "sending of portions" — are meant to contradict Haman, who asserts in the biblical book of Esther that Jews were a people riven by strife.

Costumes? Goodies? Sounds like Halloween. But for the Levitts, it's nothing like Halloween.