Purim in Jerusalem – a phenomenon that can’t be explained

March 27, 2008 - 3:38 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

Purim in Jerusalem has to be one of the new wonders of the world. It should be up there with ancient Rome as a phenomenon that cannot be explained.

Imagine for one second that you are surrounded by a never-ending mob of hot, smelly, loud, and outrageously drunk people and you can start to wrap your mind around what Purim in downtown Jerusalem is like.

This year Purim was extended by an extra day. So just in case you weren’t hammered enough Thursday night…you had until Sunday to make amends.

Thursday started Purim off amazingly, me and a friend waited until sundown to go to the old city and listen to the story of Esther being read at the Western Wall. There were hundreds of people walking in and out of the area while different groups of Jewish men read the Megilah (scroll) of Queen Esther.

It was similar on Friday morning downtown. Religious people tried to hoard as many poor tourists as possible into small rooms in cramped buildings on Ben Yehuda St. so that they could have a minyan (the 10 people needed to read a holy book) to listen to Megilat Esther, again.

The Sabbath was relatively quiet. The real craziness was Saturday night and Sunday morning. In the middle of downtown Jerusalem, lies Kikar Zion or Zion Square. Saturday night there were hundreds upon hundreds of people waving flags, spraying each other with silly string, getting highly intoxicated, and my personal favorite, singing songs.

Other than the occasional stupid kid who thought it would be hilarious to throw those loud and scary firecrackers, the night was pretty amazing. I had goose bumps from all the excitement.

Trying to find a way out of there though was nearly impossible. Sunday morning there was this concert for children in the same square. It was a huge contrast to the night before. Saturday night was crazy older people who were passing around vodka bottles. On Sunday there were crazy little kids running around, laughing, and frustrating their parents no end.

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Dancing in the streets at Purim

March 18, 2008 - 1:00 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: General 

I grew up loving Purim. It’s probably my favorite holiday.

Not only do I get to dress up, eat thousands of cookies, shout and yell in synagogue, but it is kind of required to drink oneself silly (really, it is written that on Purim one should get so drunk you can’t tell the difference between Haman (the bad guy) and Mordachi (the good guy).

My synagogue in the US obviously fulfilled all the requirements, but people drove to the temple, people had to go to work the day after, families would go listen to the story be read and that was kind of it.

Here, according to my Israeli friends, is completely different.

Living in Jerusalem, I’m going to see people dancing in the streets, songs will be sung everywhere and groggers will be handed out at every corner.

They tell me that if I think Saturday nights are wild in downtown Jerusalem, I’ll be blown away by Purim.

I’ll be dressing up as mini mouse, hanging out with my friends and noshing on Hamantashin till my stomach explodes, and I have never been more excited to do so!

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