A number of months ago I was in Los Angeles over a weekend at the end of October. I knew in the back of my mind that Halloween is celebrated widely at the end of October, but had not thought about it as I made my way to the U.S. for MJTI meetings. I was in for a very real surprise to see all the jack-o’-lanterns on the lawns and ghosts and cobwebs. This really got crazy on the night itself when out of the woodwork came a multitude of adults dressed up as devils, ghosts, and Playboy bunnies. To say the least it was a bit of a culture shock for me, as the last time I experienced Halloween was as a kid some 25 years ago. As I watched these adults walking around in crazy costumes, I thought of the story of Purim and the festival that we celebrate here in Israel every year during the month of Adar.

Jews all around the world celebrate Purim, with costume parties for the children and the delivery of gift baskets to friends, but I think there is nothing like the richness of this experience here in Artzeinu. During the month of Adar, the last month of the sacrificial calendar, we are almost ready to clean our homes for Pesach and remember that festival of redemption, but before we can do that we have the opportunity to celebrate another great festival of redemption—the miraculous saving of the Jewish people from the descendant of the Agag king of the Amalakites, Haman. He came seemingly close to bringing about the extinction of the Jewish people, but Hashem intervened through the agency of Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, who were in just the right place at the right time.