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Page 4 The Southern Israelite >'.V <*> t\r*s March \Ath wan the (late of the festival of Purim, when all Jews celebrate the down fall of Haman of old arid sing praises to brave Queen Esther. This fascinating sketch describes the gaiety and hilarity with which Jews through the centuries have celebrated the most joyous holiday of the Jewish year.— The Editor. The .lews have often been called a somber people without the Rift of true joy and lightheartedness. Their repu tation for moral genius, their oft- recorded habit of dreary introspec- tionism, have too effectively hidden from an indifferent world that irre pressible levity which is theirs in com mon with all the sons of men. The risibilities of our own rank and file are as easily aroused as those of our pagan forefathers—and once brought to the fore they are hard to subdue. Witness Prim. Since the days of its fairy-tale origin Purim has been the embodiment of the careless gaiety, the hilariousness, even the licentious ness of a people totally unconscious of a higher destiny. The leaders did not always approve the program of the day; but for this day the will of a people not to be denied its heritage of laughter reigned supreme. The general rule was: “On Purim every thing is allowed, even transgressions.” Purim is unique among our holidays in that it has no actual religious background. Indeed, it wasn’t until some centuries after its inception that any religious observance at all was introduced; and then the only prescription was the reading of the Book of Esther, the delightful tale on which all subsequent Cinderella stories have been based. By the third century there was added to the ritual also the reading of the Megillah on the Eve of Purim. This reading had to be attended by all the women of the congregation, that they might hear the story and emulate the heroic traits of Sister Esther. But this religious observance was purely an afterthought. The Book of Esther itself prescribes no religious service whatsoever. The occasion of the recorded deliverance of the Jews was to be celebrated merely as a fes tive and social one. And this spirit extended even into the synagogue. To the present day, even in Ortho dox circles, the usual holy day symp toms are most distinguished by their absence. Purim is designated a Yom Tov, yet there is no injunction against the customary commercial inter change, nor is even manual labor pro hibited. There are certain regula tions, to be sure, but those in no way Purim Is H ere Aii Account of the Great Festival of Jewish Gaiety By FLORENCE ROTHSCHILD spoil the fun of the day. It is the custom to give gifts on Purim, and the giving of alms is compulsory. Col lections are made in the synagogue, and even a man who is himself on the charity list must give something. Thus far there is a smack of duty about the customs. But in reality duty is so incidental to the celebration of the day as to be practically negligible. The other features of the merry-mak ing resemble nothing more than the Hallowe’en activities of our own American children—from the mas querade to the begging at the doors of the neighbors. Not to mention such innocent little pastimes as hanging fence-gates on the nearest telegraph pole, or its equivalent. For on Purim damage to property is overlooked. This business of the Purim mas querade shows traces of direct descent from the old Roman carnivals. The Italian Jews were good pupils, and it was they who introduced fancy dress and masks into the Purim celebration at the end of the fifteenth century. This was just the type of celebration that Jews all over the world—at least, over as much of it as they inhabited at that time—had been waiting for, and it spread like wildfire. Except, that is to say, in the Oriental com munities. They took life too seriously to indulge in such frivolities. But the majority of the Jews showed great appreciation of the masque. Which is more than can be said for some of their rabbis and leaders. But for once the people paid no attention to these exhortators; and, willy-nilly, the objections were removed and the mas queraders danced blithely on. Even the biblical laws against having men dress in women’s clothes or vice versa were totally disregarded. Nor did they confine their activities to dancing. It is still the custom in Eastern Europe—and among some of our own American Jews—for the boys and girls to go from house to house rigged up in crazy costumes and gro tesque masks and to sing some such comic doggerel as: “Haint is Purim, Morgen is ois. Git mer a kreitzer Un warft mich arois.” And they achieve the same results as do those other youngsters on Hal lowe’en. Then there is the matter of drunk enness. The Jews have always been noted for their temperance. Yet on Purim it was quite the thing to drink until, in the words of the Talmud, one could no longer distinguish be tween the words “Cursed be Haman” and “Blessed be Mordecai.” Our later rabbis could not find it in their hearts to condone this practice. So they ex plained it away by pointing out that the Hebrew numerical values of both phrases is the same, and then they added some pilpulistic interpretations much in the manner of the prohibi tionists who insist that when Jesus turned water into wine he at the same time introduced a new, non-alcholic formula for the beverage. All of which did not change the fact that the people continued to get drunk. This spirit of revelry invaded the synagogue itself. Purim in the syna gogue is still the high light of many a little Jewish boy’s existence. There for once he can be boisterous without reprimand and can indulge in the tra ditional hissing, stamping, knocking and turning of raucous rattles at the mention of the name of Haman, and whistling at the mention of Mordecia. The specific habit of knocking goes back to the manner in which the French and German rabbis of the thirteenth century fulfilled the Mid- rashic injunction on the Deuteronomic text: “Thou shalt blot out the re membrance of Amalek.” In accordance with the precept to blot out even from wood and stone, they would write the name of Haman—who was considered even a greater enemy of the Jews than his direct ancestor, the infamous Amalek—on two stones and knock them together until the writing was worn off. But since the most popular High Commissioner Sees Need of Jewish Settlements To Become Self-Supporting Jerusalem.—The importance of the Jewish settlements becoming entirely self-supporting was stressed today by Sir John Chancellor, High Commis sioner at Einha red where he received representatives from all the Keren Hayesod colonies in the Eastern part of the Emek. Commenting on the communal form in the big settlements, he said, “you are free to choose the communal form of life if you desire. It is a matter of taste but you don’t think me unfriendly for saying that I couldn’t live such a life, which doesn’t prove you are wrong for desiring to live thus.” The high commissioner said that everyone in “Palestine under British rule are entitled to live according to their own rights the same as in Eng land provided they do not disturb their neighbors.” Sir John appeared to be delighted at the healthful ap pearance of the children from the kvutzas and was especially pleased with the well-managed central Emek hospital while Lady Chancellor re gretted that the women were unable to converse with her in English. Sir John expressed himself as sorry that the government was too poor to build all the roads necessary. He ex plained that Inspector-General Dow- biggin was elaborating a defense scheme against the Transjordan bed ouins and urged Einharod to repair the road to the railw r ay station to fa cilitate ordinary traffic and also for the transport of troops when neces sary. > v r- ^Ae > v r ?\f\ feature was the noise of the knocking that was the part that was retained The stamping is a throwback to the time when Haman’s name was writ- ten on the soles of the shoes. As a rule dramatic performances were regarded as somewhat beneath the dignity of Jews; but, plays were early allowed as a part of the I’urirr, celebration. The players would stroll from house to house, often playing one scene in each house. The climax of the day is still the feast. For this occasion there are all sorts of special delicacies, the best- known of which are probably the Ger man Hamantaschen or Hamanohren the Italian orrechi d’Aman. These consist of three-cornered pockets of flaky dough stuffed with poppy-seed (Mohn) or prune jam—depending on your ancestry. It is also usual to have a festive meal on the eve of Purim. In the fifth century there arose the custom of burning the effigy of Ham an after elaborate preparations that sometimes extended over a period of five days or so. But this custom was. as a rule, prohibited by the rabbis, for the Christians considered it a dis guised attempt to ridicule Jesus, and there were times when they were aroused to the pitch of threatening physical violence in defense of their honor. But the people were hard to control on Purim—and sometimes, in fear of the results, the rabbis even called on the law of the country to come to their aid, as happened in Lon don in 1783. All this festivity goes back to the fanciful tale that a Greek writer spun about Xerxes— ‘The king who sat on the rocky brow rhat looks o’er sea-born Salamis - iway back in the fifth century B.C. \hasuerus has been identified with Cerxes—but that’s just about the only lart of the story that’s based on fait Still, despite the numerous scientific ibjections that point to the imposv bility of the reign of Esther, thi> s by way of being a perfect tale, contains all the elements of l°' e * leauty, courage and malice the hero. ;he heorine, the villian—the ' ntrl £!j e ilanned and dramatically foiled. e "abbis conceived of Esther as peren lially young and beautiful, e '* n ;hough some of them held that s e ,vas seventy-four years old—hen ler name Hadassah, the numeric* ralue of which is seventy-four in * irew—when she won the worlds r - leauty contest. No_wonder that e ale of Esther caught the popular im agination as did none other, lame may have had some connec 1 vith that of the heathen ^ddess o ight and spring—Eastre, who f _ ler name to the Christian ret it was deeply respected, t ' ‘ jxtent that it was a widely u**t. n among the Italian Jews of 1 ;eenth and fifteenth centuries, an still one of the most frequ* nt ' ^ .rnnvright