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Trumah-Zachor 5781

02/18/2021 06:00:00 AM

Feb18

Rabbi White

Purim is this coming week, and with Purim, we complete the cycle of holidays observed during the Pandemic. [We were fortunate last year, as we didn’t have to close the synagogue until after Purim.]

Purim is the holiday of ve-nahafokh hu’, that is “topsy turvy.” i.e., the mighty kingdom of Persia was planning to exterminate the Jews, but we came out victorious. This was accomplished by Esther having to hide her identity, and by Mordecai hiding his connection to Esther. Therefore, there is a custom that we hide our identities, by wearing masks.

This past year has really been topsy turvy. We all have been wearing masks!! [Most ironic was the sign I saw on the door of my local bank:  no one allowed inside without a mask. In a normal year, a masked person entering a bank would have generated a call to police!!]

So our prayer this year on Purim is ve-nahafokh hu.

May the virus be vanquished, and our lives turned back to normal!

*******

This week’s parasha talks of the construction of the mishkan. One of the items used was the skins of animals called techashim. What kind of animal was a tachash? The New JPS translation, on 25:5, says “a word of uncertain meaning.”  The ancient Aramaic Targums known as Onqelos and Yerushalmi translate as sasgevana, which seems to be a combination of 2 Aramaic words meaning “rejoice” and “colours..”  Rashi, quoting the Talmud tractate Shabbat 28b, says that the animal “rejoiced in its many colours.”

Likewise, we at the Spanish can rejoice in our many communities:  Ashkenaz, Ethiopia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, etc. etc. [and even me: American!} And, as we said above by ve-nahafokh hu’] we pray that the situation of this year should return to normal, and we can all rejoice being together, as it says in the Psalms: hinei mah tov u-mah na`im shevet ‘ahim gam yahad.

Shabbat shalom

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784