Yet that is not what Yossi Klein Halevi meant . “ Passover Jews are motivated by empathy with the oppressed ; Purim Jews are motivated by alertness to threat .” 48
Passover Jews are the ones who take the message of the Haggadah that we were all slaves in the land of Egypt , and we were all freed . Therefore , because we were slaves , we need to welcome the widow , the orphan and the stranger . Purim Jews remember the attack of Amalek . They see threat and danger in every moment . They worry about who the next Haman , the next Hitler might be .
I , too , have written about this tension before . I argue , we need both . It is not an either / or . It is a both / and . We need balance . A balancing act . In this age of rising antisemitism , at this very moment , I will rise . I will be fierce like Esther . And I will remember to welcome the widow , the orphan and the stranger . At the same time .
48 h < ps :// www . hartman . org . il / pesach-jews-v-purim-jews-the-agony-of-ourdilemma /
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