In what surely is one of the strangest, shocking and surreal of teachings, our Sages have noted that Yom Kippurim (which is what the Torah calls Yom Kippur), the holiest of days, is Yom k’Purim a day like Purim, the most frivolous day of the year. A day in which we stand before G-d in prayer and fasting is compared to a day of eating, drinking and all around merry making. And of the two it is apparently Purim which is the greater day – after all it is not Purim that is compared to Yom Kippur but Yom Kippur that is compared to Purim. How can this be?
Both Purim and Yom Kippur are seemingly one-day holidays. However, upon closer examination both these holidays are celebrated and observed for two days. Regarding Yom Kippur the Torah instructs us that we are to “afflict our souls on the ninth day of the month at evening i.e. on the tenth, from evening to evening shall you celebrate your sabbath” (Vayikra 23:32) hinting that Yom Kippur is somehow connected not just to the tenth of Tishrei but to the ninth as well.
As Rav Soloveitchik notes, Yom Kippur has two related, but contradictory, themes. It is the day G-d forgave the Jewish people for the sin of the golden calf and entered into a renewed covenant with the Jewish people. The Torah given on Shavuot was broken and until Yom Kippur it was unknown whether we would get “another” one or even if the Jewish people would survive[1]. Yom Kippur is a day of great celebration and as such we must feast and rejoice. Our Sages understood that the Torah’s use of “the ninth in the evening” indicates an obligation to eat on the ninth, going so far as teaching that eating on the ninth is to be equated with fasting on the tenth!
But Yom Kippur is also the day we beseech G-d to forgive us in the present, just as he forgave our ancestors in the past. We ignore our physical needs and stand in awe and abject fear of Divine judgement. As these two moods - the joy of renewal and the of punishment - conflict the we designate the ninth of Tishrei as the of joy and the tenth of Tishrei as a day of awe.
Similarly, Purim is also a two-day festival, reflecting the contradictory moods of the holiday. On the 13th of Adar – Ta'anit Esther – we recall the near genocide of the Jewish people some 2,600 years ago. Much more importantly, we are cognizant of the perilous existence of the Jew in face of his enemies “who in every generation stand ready to destroy us”. We pray that “the Holy One Blessed be He save us from them”. It is a day of fear, one that has sadly taken on greater relevance over the past 17 plus months (especially for those who grew up in the halo of the post-Holocaust Golden age of Jewry). But genocide was averted and the 14th of Adar is a day of tremendous rejoicing where in a most positive way the world was turned upside down.
Purim is the holiday of the Jew in exile – persecution and pogrom but also survival, success and triumph. Like Yom Kippur we cannot combine these emotions into one day – there is to be a time fear and a time to be fearless.
Yet there is a fundamental difference between the two days of Yom Kippur and the two days of Purim. On Yom Kippur we begin with the joy and end with the fear and trepidation, whereas on Purim we do the opposite. While there is joy on Yom Kippur the focus is the awe and fasting of the tenth. So much so that Jewish law insists we begin the fast early, while it is still the 9th of Tishrei. The awesomeness of the day must supersede the joy of the ninth.
On Purim it is the opposite. The Shulchan Aruch rules one may read the Megillah if need be from plug hamincha, some 75 minutes before sundown. The joy of Purim is to be superimposed on the fear of Ta'anit Esther.
Why does Yom Kippur conclude by focusing on the fasting while Purim focuses on the feasting?
On Yom Kippur we stand alone beseeching G-d to seal us in the book of life. As Rav Soloveitchik notes, the entire notion of prayer is rooted in the notion of aloneness, that there is no one to rely on for our needs except G-d in heaven[2]. We as individuals have very little claim to G-d’s benevolence. We are sinners in so many ways – something we highlight over and over and over again on Yom Kippur. We must stand in fear of G-d and pray that despite our shortcomings G-d will understand and act with mercy[3].
On Purim it was the Jewish people as a whole who were threatened with genocide. “And it was demeaning in his [Haman's] eyes to send forth his hand against Mordecai alone...and Haman sought to destroy all the Jews in the entire kingdom of Achashverosh” (Esther 3:5). Purim is the celebration of national survival. We party together, share gifts with one another and give gifts to the poor. The Jewish people are indestructible, and no force can permanently defeat us. It is Purim which is to be our foucs and not Taanit Esther.
Mordechai well understood this. “If you”, Mordechai tells Esther “remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father's house will be lost and who knows if but for this moment you arrived to the throne” (Esther 4:14).
Esther faced a dilemma faced by many a Jew in power. Would she risk her position, even her life, to help the Jewish people? If not, she would be a forgotten footnote in the glorious history of the Jewish people. If yes, she could be our saviour. But yes or no “relief and deliverance will arise” for the Jewish people. Esther might hasten that deliverance, or she might cause its delay. We can choose to be part of those who bring salvation to the Jewish people or we can “be lost” to the Jewish people. But relief and deliverance will always arise for the Jews.
Yom Kippur is the most important day for the Jew but Purim is the most important day for the Jewish people. Is it any wonder that it is Purim that serves as the holiday to which even Yom Kippur is to be compared[4]?
[1] This could explain why the Torah itself never connects the holiday of Shavuot to the receiving of the Torah. Even if that was when we originally received the Torah that Torah was soon to be broken – as we will read this Shabbat.
[2] We note that while the Jews fast there is no mention of prayer in the entire Megillah.
[3] Of course there is a communal component to Yom Kippur starting already with the sa’ir hamestalech, the goat send away. that has the capacity to bring communal atonement. There is private and public vidui, confession, on Yom Kippur and while the private one is said in fear and trepidation the public one is sung as the Jewish people as a whole don't just ask for but demand forgiveness.
Yet I do not believe that such negates the fact the essence of Yom Kippur – at least as it has been observed since the destruction of the Temple – focuses on us as individuals. Interestingly, unlike the communal festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot there is no mitzva of aliyah laregel of Jews coming to the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur (or Rosh Hashanah).
[4] It is not by chance that Purim is the final holiday of the year – the culmination of all holidays. On Pesach, the first holiday of the year, it is G-d alone who redeemed the people. On Purim, the culminating holiday of the year, it is man who has the ability to bring about redemption.
