Rabbi Howard Morrison

Seven times in every nineteen-year cycle, we have a leap year in Judaism. This means an additional month is added to the Jewish calendar. The necessity is based on the fact that Passover must always take place in the Spring season. If there was no adjustment of the calendar, Passover would recede eleven days every year since the Jewish lunar calendar has 354 days per year, and the solar calendar has 365 days per year. While Jewish days, weeks, and months are lunar based, Passover and by extension the other Pilgrimage holidays are solar based. Without the intercalation of the Jewish calendar. Passover would drift into other seasons. By contrast, in Islam, there is no adjustment of their calendar. As a result, Ramadan drifts from one season of the year into the next, since their calendar is completely lunar based.

Aside from my introductory class on the various calendars, this is a leap year in the Jewish calendar. As a result, we have two months entitled Adar #1 and Adar #2. In a non-leap year, there is one standard Adar. In a regular year, this weekend would have been Purim. However, Purim will take place a month from this weekend in the middle of Adar #2. Nevertheless, the Jewish calendar marks yesterday and today as Purim Katan and Shushan Purim Katan. Thus, the story and ritual of the holiday are in our minds today, even though the actual observance takes place a month from now. You have a month to get your costumes and noise makers ready.

As many of you know, All if not virtually every sermon I have given since October 7^th has resonated with the horrors of that day and its aftermath on many levels. I cannot help but think of the Purim story in light of our current reality. A repetitive theme in the Book of Esther is the expression, "Nahafoch Hoo," meaning, "Upside down." There are many instances in the story where the world surrounding Purim is so completely upside down. There are many examples to support the thesis. The most obvious one is that until the end of the book, it is the wicked Haman who seems destined to achieve recognized leadership, while the righteous Mordecai seems to be destined to be hanged. Only toward the end of the narrative is justice achieved. Haman is recognized for his wickedness, and Mordecai is honored for his righteousness.

Now over four months after the horrors of October 7th, the world continues to be upside down. While often using political rhetoric, much of the word is pro-Hamas and anti-Israel, which means anti-Jews. Two weeks ago, even the president of the free world commented that Israel was "over the top" in its response to Hamas' murdering of some 1200 people, the taking of some 140 hostages, the brutal treatment of many of those hostages, the continued hurling of missiles into indiscriminate civilian centers of Israeli life. Why is popular critique levied against Israel, the victim of October 7th? While it is true that many Gazans have had to relocate because of Hamas representing them, why is there no outcry that over a hundred thousand Israelis have had to evacuate from their homes in the North and in the South? 

Why is there no outcry levied against Hamas to surrender? Why is there no outcry that not once has there been a humanitarian visit to determine the status of the hostages? Why is world pressure not put against the source of the evil, Hamas?

Even here in Toronto, the world around us seems upside down. For example, just a week and a half ago, Pro-Hamas agitators blocked entrances to Mt. Sinai hospital, holding signs bearing the word "Intifada." In front of a hospital? Where young and old are treated? Where people of all walks of life are treated and cared for? Because the name of the hospital is Mt. Sinai? "Nahafoch Hoo - an upside-down world."

Nahafoch Hoo - Just as in most of the Purim story, our world is, simply put, upside down. 

Toward the end of Megilat Esther, we are told, "Kiymu V'Kiblu," that the Israelites freely accepted the obligations to live a Jewish lifestyle in complete unity with each other. A small silver lining of October 7^th is the unity that most if not all Jews feel in a virtual unprecedented way. When the word hopefully becomes upright; when the world accurately distinguishes right from wrong and good from evil, may the unity expressed at the end of Megilat Esther and the unity expressed nowadays continue to be so.

Shabbat Shalom and Purim Katan Sameach,

Rabbi Howard Morrison