Purim Good Purim Good Purim Purim Good Purim Purim

Living in Jerusalem is like nothing else. Some say it’s indescribable, magical, mystical, and crazy even. As January ran in to February and before I could breathe March appeared, I continue to scratch the surface of understanding those who describe Jerusalem. Under this umbrella of understanding lies the experience of chaggim in this wonderful country. A few posts back I wrote about the beauty of the holiday of Tu Beshavat in Jerusalem. Something permeates the air here on chaggim- and Shabbat for that matter- and I definitely caught a whiff the past three days when Purim engulfed the city of Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem, Purim is celebrated the day after the rest of the world celebrates it- called Shushan Purim. For the same reason holidays are celebrated for two days in the states ( it took a while to hear the news), Jerusalem- a walled city- heard the “news” about the Jews of Shushan a day later. In Jerusalem, therefore, we celebrate “shushan purim.”

For days I wrestled with costume ideas for this joyous celebration of yet another victory for the Jewish people in a foreign land- landing on the idea to be mother earth. ( Pictures will be on facebook eventually) Mother earth was a hard one for Israelis to grasp- going green isn’t as big here yet. I wore all green - a long flowing skirt and chacos to tie it together- with flowers in my hair and paint on my face.

As for actual purim- I spent the night at the Karlebach moshav outside of Modin. What an experience. The karlebach moshav is unlike anything. The gist of this place is about 7 couples in the early 1980’s were huge fans of Rabbi Shlomo Karlebach- decided it would be great to move outside of the craziness of a city to a more rural communities- where a lot was communal, their kids could run free and they could enjoy living their religious, hippie, nature-loving, Karlebach-inspired lives. The moshav now holds about 45 families, seemingly stuck in time. My friend Carly and I arrived just as megillah reading was beginning- after about an hour long journey, including a relatively normal blowing up of a suspicious item in the street which stopped traffic for about 45 minutes- to find men, women and children completely decked out in purim-garb! Following the reading of the megillah was a costume contest, a concert and of course a rave in the forest. Everyone was enjoying in the mitzvah of drinking wine on purim. We stayed on the floor of one of the founding families of the moshav- the Silvers- and the next morning made mishloach manot, a seudah meal and the like with them. There were other guests at the silvers as well- from Toronto, Argentina and Sweden!- and we had intense conversations about everything from American politics, Judaism, family, history and more. I found myself, about twenty minutes into our conversation, taking a step back realizing the true beauty in what was occurring in front of my eyes- only in Israel. I concluded after my less thatn 24 hours at the Moshav that is was essentially Jewish overnight camp for families. As Purim was ending on the moshav and the rest of Israel, and in full swing in the states, we began out trek back to Jerusalem to start it all over again!

We tremped back to Jerusalem ( hitch hiked- don’t worry we weren’t alone and the man was wearing a kippah and listening to Chassidic music also, ITS ISRAEL!) just in time to hear the megillah for time number three in Nachloat- the place to be for Purim. Later the night we met up with tons of friends and began celebrating! At about 11 pm the streets of Nachloat turned into the most intense party I have ever been to in my life even trumping the greatest party week of all time, little 5 ( sorry hoosiers!). People dressed in the most unbelievably creative costume, dancing, jumping rather; to Purim songs in the streets of the hippie religious neighborhood that is Nachlaot. I lasted until about 3 in the morning until my dancing feet couldn’t hold me any longer. The next morning I heard Megillah yet again, and helped make a seudah at the house I was staying at- sushi!!!! As for the rest of the day, the streets of Nachlaot became alive again, we delivered mishloach manot, met up with more friends, and enjoyed.

Purim surpassed every expectation that I had of it. It is unlike any little 5 party, Halloween, city wide event or the like. People running through the streets screaming chag sameach and good purim, doesn’t exist anywhere but here. Kodem Kol,
That’s one more point for Jerusalem!

Until next time,
Sara