Kosher Bookworm: Purim takes place on Passover

With Purim now safely behind us, we are now ready to give our full attention to what is one of the most popular holidays on the Jewish calendar, Pesach.

In a recent essay by Shira Schechter, the Madricha Ruchaniyah of Stern College, titled “Purim and Pesach: Two Holidays, One Theme,” she notes the spiritually symbiotic link between these two festivals: “Every year as Purim approaches we already begin looking towards Pesach. Many begin cleaning, preparing menus, compiling guest lists and making sleeping arrangements, but there is actually a halachic requirement to start preparing for Pesach on Purim itself. The Gemara tells us that one should start to review the laws of Pesach 30 days before its arrival. The Mishna Berurah points out that the day on which we are required to start reviewing the laws of Pesach is indeed Purim.”

“On one hand, Purim completes the message of Pesach. We learn to recognize the hand of G-d that was clear in the miracles of Pesach in the ordinary miracles that take place each and every day,” Stern writes. “We take recognition of G-d’s revelation on Pesach to the next level, and see the ‘Pesach’ in Purim. On the other hand, we look to redemption of Pesach and realize that the redemption on Purim was not complete, and that we continue to be in a situation of incomplete redemption to this day.”

Schechter writes that in internalizing the message of Pesach and Purim, and using it to strengthen our belief in G-d through a recognition of his hand in everything, we will merit the coming of the final redemption; one that will be so great it will overshadow even the miracles of yetziat mitzrayim.”

A further thematic link between these two festivals is made by Dr. David Arnow, in his excellent work, “Creating Lively Passover Seders,” published this year by Jewish Lights. Arnow cites the following passage from the Haggadah: “We praise… the One who has brought us forth from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to a festival, from darkness to great light and from bondage to redemption.”