Recommit this Purim

This time of year, the Kavana organization is abuzz and spring is in the air. Our programs are up and running at full-speed: Shabbat prayer services are beautiful and meaningful, partners are organizing social justice and adult learning events, kids are learning and having fun together, and of course we are looking forward to two incredible Purim celebrations this weekend! On the back end, March means that our staff and board have been busy with annual reviews and program evaluations, intentional growth work and multi-year budgeting. In a nutshell, we spend time each spring planning and recommitting in order to continue and deepen our work into another year.

If we were to play a word association game where I say the word "Purim" and ask you what it makes you think of first, I expect that I would hear a range of answers from members of our community. Words like joy, costumes, hamentaschen, megillah, Esther and Mordecai would probably top the list. If we went another round, perhaps we'd get to some broader themes like hiddenness and courage. And if we continued playing the game for a while, I imagine we'd eventually encounter some of the bigger, more difficult themes that have been rolling around in my head this year, such as Jewish vulnerability, sexual violence, and the limits of vengeance.

Even if we played for a while, though, I'm not sure we would ever naturally happen upon the word recommitment. And yet, this is exactly one of the ways our rabbinic tradition thinks of Purim: as a Shavuot-like holiday, a time for affirmation and for covenant renewal! The Talmud (in Shabbat 88a) says: 

The Torah was (initially) forced upon the Jewish people, as God held the mountain [Mount Sinai] above their heads… Rava said: “However, they accepted it later out of choice, in the days of Achashverosh, as it says (Esther 9:27): ‘The Jews kept and accepted all the words’."

The phrase of the Megillah that Rava is quoting here -- in Hebrew, "kiyemu v'kiblu" -- comes towards the end of the Purim story. By then, the Jews of Persia have already been threatened by Haman and have successfully defeated his plot against them, surviving to tell the tale. In context, it sounds like perhaps the Jews of "the days of Achashverosh" are taking upon themselves only the obligations to observe this brand new Purim holiday. Here is the verse from the Book of Esther again, with a slightly different translation of that key phrase and a little more context:

The Jews undertook and irrevocably obligated themselves and their descendants, and all who might join them, to observe these two days in the manner prescribed and at the proper time each year. Consequently, these days are recalled and observed in every generation: by every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants. (Esther 9:27-28)

In the bolded phrase "kiyemu v'kiblu," Rava and his colleagues must have heard an echo of the famous statement made at Mount Sinai: "na'aseh v'nishma," "we will do and we will hear." (Both are double verb phrases featuring alliteration, and in both, the order of the two verbs feels counterintuitive, as action precedes obligation.) In the rabbinic imagination, Moses's covenant at Mount Sinai may indeed have been entered into under duress... after all, what choice did the Israelites have in the wilderness but to accept God's offer of Torah or perish? Here in the Book of Esther, though, because these words appear after disaster has been averted, the rabbis perceive a model of a more active opting in... not only to the laws of Purim, but actually to all of Torah. As a result, the Talmud is clear that what's at stake in the Esther text is a re-affirmation of the Sinaitic covenant in its entirety. (Indeed, this idea is so important that it appears in multiple locations in rabbinic literature -- see also Shevuot 39a.)

There's another thing I find interesting about "kiyemu v'kiblu" as well. This phrase contains an example of what's called a "kri u'ktiv" -- a word that's written one way by a scribe but, according to long-standing tradition, pronounced in another way when chanted aloud. The second word of the phrase is written וקבל ("v'kibel") -- as though it's a verb with a singular subject -- but is vocalized וקבלו ("v'kiblu"), as though there's a plural subject. This leaves it ambiguous whether the act of recommitment that happens in Esther chapter 9 was an individual or a communal act. And perhaps that ambiguity is purposeful, because in truth, the best answer may be both! 

This Purim comes at a difficult time, as our Jewish community experiences the turmoil of the world, and as so many of us also experience some degree of inner turmoil around what it means to be a Jew in this fraught moment. It's hard not to notice our own fear and vulnerability in the wake of Hamas's October 7th attack and the rise in antisemitism we've observed in recent months; it's also impossible not to feel awful about and ask serious questions about the direction of the Israeli government and military as we see the living conditions of Palestinian civilians in Gaza continue to deteriorate towards famine and ever more acute crisis. The story of the Megillah, similarly, holds complexity and tensions around Jewish identity and morality, vulnerability and vengeance, and yet, its bottom line is to call on the Jews of its era -- both individually and collectively -- to recommit, to reaffirm their connection to the Jewish people and to tradition, and to do so in a permanent, forward-looking way. 

So too must we, today. This Saturday night, the Kavana community will gather to hear Megillat Esther in the very same space where we gathered to celebrate Simchat Torah on October 7th (just thinking about this gives me chills). As we encounter the text of the Purim story anew, in light of that day and every day since, we will doubtless hear new echoes of relevance and new questions in this text. Especially in light of the trauma and turmoil of these last 5+ months, there is something incredibly profound about being asked to recommit at Purim, to the covenant and to our people. We need to do so individually, each finding ways to embrace our own Jewish identities and live out our values, and we need to do so communally, as we come together to observe, celebrate, and lament in community.

As the Kavana organization continues doing its spring cleaning and planning over the coming weeks, ever deepening our work and preparing us for another year together, it's comforting to me to know that in parallel, members of the Kavana community will be recommitting too... to Jewish identity, to our values and practices, to our shared traditions and mitzvot, and to being part of the Jewish people (generally) and this community (specifically). I look forward to learning where this recommitment will take us all, as we move through this spring and beyond together. 

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Purim Sameach, 

Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum