Rabbi's Sermon 15th March 2025 / 15th Adar 5785

I remember a conversation with my teacher, Rabbi David Goldberg z"l, during my first year of Rabbinical College.

For those who don't know, besides being a brilliant and cultivated man and an eloquent speaker, David was a champion of Liberal Judaism.

We were talking about Purim, which was not his favourite holiday.

At the time of its foundation, for the generation of Lily Montague and Claude Montefiore, the Liberal movement had a problem with Purim: it was too messy, it encouraged the consumption of alcohol. It was all a fantasy: there is no historical evidence of King Ahasheverosh nor of a massive "revenge plan" by the Jews of Persia.

Worst of all, an essential religious element is dangerously missing in the celebration of Purim: decorum. There is no decorum in Purim. Quite the opposite.

For the generation of the founders of Liberal Judaism, Purim was the opposite of what religion should be; there is nothing spiritual, nothing "elevating" in Purim. Just a mess.

Unsurprisingly, up until the 30s Purim was not observed at all in Liberal synagogues (L. Rigal, R. Rosenberg, Liberal Judaism. The First Hundred Years, London 2004, p. 66).

To be clear, on this and other matters the Liberal movement has moved on (and considerably so!). Liberal synagogues today celebrate Purim like all the synagogues in the world.

But more than one century ago the prevailing opinion was different.

In that conversation David was advocating that old position with all his intellectual depth. If you want to be consistent with the values of truth and justice -he asked-, how can you glorify violence and observe such an indecorous festivity?

At first, I tried to counter David's reasoning with academic, anthropological arguments.

I was at the beginning of my Rabbinic studies. Part of me was still thinking as a European academic, trying to detach myself from the matter of discussion and look at it from an academic and "scientific" point of view.

So, I went to an explanation about holidays such as Carnival when social rules are "inverted" (that's the technical term) and what is forbidden becomes allowed.

Carnival is the most famous, but there was also the Saturnalia at the time of the Romans: seven days of merrymaking in Wintertime when gambling was allowed, and slaves pretended to be masters (and apparently the reverse)

Yes, but -David countered- if you enjoy this sort of thing, like masquerades, if you need a time of the year when social norms are overturned, and unrestrained behaviour is encouraged, there are plenty of indecorous opportunities throughout the year: masquerade balls, parties of all kinds.

There is no need to bring things like this inside a holy space such as a synagogue and sanctify indecorous behaviours.

This was, I must say, a very fair point; David knew that Sara's family was and is very involved in the Carnival of her town, Viareggio, the most popular Carnival in Italy; well, the second, after Venice's (my town). It is a massive event, with all sorts of parties and celebrations in which the local Jewish community and the rest of the city population have been involved for years.

You already have the (very Italian) Carnevale; what's the need for a (Jewish) Purim? That was David's reasoning, and as you see, there was some fair point.

Yes, but. That was not my objection; that was Sara's. There is something unique and peculiar about Purim that is not in Carnival, and that we Jews must remember (remember, not celebrate).

And it's this.

Purim reminds you that your non-Jewish neighbour can become -without reason- an enemy of yours. He or she can become an anti-Semite. All of a sudden.

Sara was right, as she always is. Purim contains a teaching that we Jews on the Continent (Italy included) know very well. Let's look at Jewish history from a Jewish point of view and without the Liberal Leftist presumptions, according to which all religions are the same.

There have been moments in history when Jews were safe (or thought they were), well off, and

comfortable, like Mordechai, free to visit the Royal Palace and be invited to banquets. They even

intermarry with the nobility like Esther did ... and yet, for no other reason than the ambition of some cruel courtesan, all of a sudden Jews were declared an enemy by the State, the same State they have built together with their non-Jewish neighbours.

This is the Italian Jewish experience.

In few months, you can move from being Italian citizens with all the civil rights to being labelled

foreigners ("Manifesto degli scienziati razzisti", July 1938). And then being expelled from schools

(September 1938), civil service (June 1939), and so on.

A similar pattern, from being citizens of a State to being considered enemies, deprived of rights and

property, can be found in Egypt under Nasser, or Syria with Assad senior, in Iraq in the 40s and on and on.

Then, massacres occurred as per Haman's plan. Thanks to the German ally (in Italy) or by the hand of the Muslim mob (in Iraq, Egypt, Syria etc etc).

With Purim, we remind ourselves that this could happen and indeed has happened several times: a king (or a political leader) becomes persuaded that: "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of the kingdom, and their laws are diverse from those of every people;

neither keep they the king's laws; therefore it profited not the king to suffer them". (Esther 3:8)

With that, David conceded that Sara and I had a point. We did not turn him into a Purim fan, nor did we persuade him to incorporate the celebration of Purim among the sanctity of Liberal foundations.

Still, he could see things from our point of view.

Time has passed. Antisemitism in England is undoubtedly worse now than it was at the time of that

conversation almost 20 years ago. We live in the post-October 7 world. We are not expelled from

universities and schools, nor from civil service and social work, as it was in Italy in the 30s. Still, we are forced to undergo informal loyalty tests.

To prove, in other words, that we are really British citizens, really left-wing, really "inclusive" - whatever it means- and not -God forbid- "Zionist".

In Italy in the 30s, there were Italian nationalist Jews, some of them Fascists. They believed in Mussolini's nationalist rhetoric and saw him as a protector of Jews. We call them "Bandieristi" as they had their own review—"La Nostra Bandiera"—and advocated for Reform Jewish values—yes, sadly.

Let us remember that Mussolini was also an ally of some Arab powers and was awarded "the Sword of Islam" in 1937 by a Muslim religious authority. Then he came home, and after one year, he signed the anti-Semitic racist legislation - which was harsher than the contemporary German.

Like in Italy at that time, we now have here that kind of Jews. Today, there are Jews who march in the streets on Shabbat, occupy university campuses, and lay tefillin (on Shabbat) during protests against "the genocide in Gaza". At the same time, other Jews are harassed inside the same campuses.

See? In these times, we need, more than ever, to review the lesson of Purim.

Amalek, the perennial enemy of the Jews, the one who tried to erase us from the face of the earth, to exterminate us, is still there. And to many of us don't want to see it.

It was Haman at the time of Purim; it was Mussolini; it was Arafat; it was Sinwar. The confrontation is ongoing, the confrontation happens in every generation, the hate never ends.

But in the end, we won, as we celebrated two days ago in the most raucous, chaotic, messy way.

There may not be much decorum. No. Let me rephrase indeed, there was no decorum at all.

And for a good reason, because on Purim, there is not. But it was, a very Jewish religious experience, a much-needed experience. Every year, it is.

In Judaism, there is a time for everything, after all.

Rabbi Dr. Andrea Zanardo, PhD