Trick question alert:  What is the holiest day in the Jewish year?  If you say it is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, you are wrong.  The answer is Purim.

“Purim?”  I hear you ask,  “How can a day that requires us to get drunk be holier than the day of atonement?”  Ok, maybe the drunks aren’t asking – they probably already know the answer.  But for the rest of us, let me share with you a little secret:  our sages tell us that the torah calls the day of atonement, Yom haKipurim.  And they translate Yom haKipporim to mean, “A day like Purim.”  Yom means “day.”  Ha means “the”.  Ki is a prefix meaning “like,” and Purim is Purim (which, by-the-way, means lots as in choosing lots – a lottery if you will).

This is all a very cute play on words… if there was nothing to back it up.  However, the sages do provide a proof to their wordplay.  Yom Kippur is a day of fasting and prayer and removing ourselves from the world in order to get to the place that we see all is one, that all is divinity, that all is good.  Even the bad, ideally, we come to realize is really good because all is one unity working together.  Hence, what might seem bad, is really good if we could only see the big picture.

And this is what the story of Purim is all about.  It is a story of how something that starts off seeming bad and getting worse, we see is really good when we can look beyond the small sections, and at the whole picture, the whole story.  And we realize there is no difference between “cursed  is the evil guy,” and,  “blessed is the  good guy.”

And this leads to the connection between the two holidays, and what makes Purim higher than Yom Kippur.  Yom Kippur requires fasting and prayer, and refraining from the pleasures of the world to get to this high place.  On Purim, you can get there while still indulging in the world.

Have a great Purim (Mar 8 this year) everyone.  And if you are in the Eugene, Oregon area that day, be in touch and come to my Purim meal/party that day.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.