Published March 2025
INSEPARABLE PARTNERS
So many joys of life are tinged with sorrow. We may attain success but too late for our parents to see it. We may become materially comfortable when we are too old to enjoy it. The joys of parenthood may be muted by the problems and frustrations of our children.
Perhaps that is why so many Jewish holidays have their solemn dimension. On Passover, the celebration of national independence is mingled with painful recollection of the bitter lot of our ancestors. During the harvest festival of Sukkot, Jews leave the comforts of their homes to dwell in flimsy huts, subject to the vagaries of the weather. The delights of ushering in the New Year on Rosh Hashanah are restrained by the necessity of engaging in a searching and often painful self-examination. The festivities of Purim are also mixed with the sadness of having to recall hated enemies of the Jewish people.
On the Sabbath before Purim, we read about Amalek and how he attempted to exterminate the Israelites as they wandered about in the wilderness. TheMegillah, which we read in the synagogue on Purim, tells how Haman, a descendant of the Amalekites, tried to obliterate the Jewish community of Persia. At the same time, our thoughts turn to the foes and enemies which our people face in every generation.
In our day too, the celebration of Purim must be coupled by remembrance of fellow Jews in distress as well as those who have made the supreme sacrifice. The date of October 7 will go down in history as a time to be pondered forever as a day of infamy. Haman and Hamas have a lot more in common than assonance of sound. Whether the name is Hitler, Himmler or Hezbollah, the mission is the same: Jews must be wiped off the face of the Earth. Sad to say, anti-Semitism is alive and well. No amount of rejoicing can change the brutal reality that Haman still lives!
On Purim , as on most other occasions in our lives, joy and sorrow remain inseparable partners.
Rabbi Alvin Kass
Chief Chaplain of the NYPD