ֽ ֽ הְי תָ ֥
יְּ הוּדִַל ֕ שָׂ שְֹׂ֖ו חָ ֑הְמ שְִׂו
INTRODUCTION
Dr . Ora Horn Prouser
I have always felt a personal affinity for the Book of Esther . After all , when your name is Ora , people naturally quote the Book of Esther to you .
ים ָה אוֹרָ ֖ ה ן ִויקָ ר The Jews enjoyed light and gladness , happiness and honor
There is beauty , and at this point , wistfulness , in thinking that the Jewish community would be feeling light and joy and celebration and honor . Those emotions are not the ones that animate much of the Jewish community right now . Rather , the Jewish community in the United States right now is facing antisemitism , and fear , and the physical and spiritual concerns that stem from them . At the same time , we also think about all that is going on in Israel and our loss of a sense of security after October 7 , the loss of so many lives , and the painful experience of the hostages taken in the wake of those atrocities .
This supplement to the Book of Esther and Purim is an attempt to deal with that dissonance : an attempt to determine how we celebrate the joyous holiday of Purim in these times . The contributors to this book have many different answers to that question . They find reason to continue to celebrate ; they find that they are unable to celebrate ; they rethink what that should look like ; they grapple with painful sections of Esther , and throughout , do what we Jews do best . We struggle with the text . We give ourselves license not to accept the text at face value but to struggle over and over to find meaning , to connect regardless of the time , and to help the biblical text speak to our contemporary condition and to us , regardless of what that may look like .
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