For Such A Time as This: Purim 5782
New from Bayit’s Liturgical Arts Working Group comes this offering for Purim 5782, available both as a printable PDF and as illuminated google slides suitable for screensharing. Here you’ll find a new Al Ha-Nisim for our pandemic era, poems and prayers on themes of masks and revelation, reflections connecting Purim with what’s unfolding in the world around us, and more. This collection features work by Trisha Arlin, R. Rachel Barenblat, R. Bracha Jaffe, R. Dara Lithwick, R. David Evan Markus, R. Sonja Keren Pilz PhD, and R. David Zaslow.
Download the PDF:
Purim-5782-Bayit [pdf]
Preview the illuminated google slides:
The slides are also here on google drive:
For Such a Time as This – Purim 5782 from Bayit [google slides]
Here is a taste of what’s inside:
…In the days of Pfizer and Moderna, we learned that only some masks are holy. Ignorance masked science. Advocacy masked antisemitism. Book bans masked racism and genocide. The Chinese Olympics masked the plight of Uyghurs. “Fake news” masked climate change… //
בימי פייזר ומודרנה למדנו שרק חלק מהמסכות הן קדושות. בורות הסתירה מדע. הסברה הסתירה אנטישמיות. נידוי ספרים הסתיר גזענות ורצח עם. האולימפיאדה בסין הסתירה את מצוקתם של האויגורים. ’פייק ניוז’ הסתיר שינויי האקלים….
— R. Bracha Jaffe and R. David Evan Markus, “Al HaNisim for a Pandemic-Era Purim”
This mask is my love letter
to every immunocompromised soul
who doesn’t have white blood cells for the fight…
— R. Rachel Barenblat, “This Mask”
…I can’t leave the house. I don’t wear a mask because I don’t go out. I hurt. I cry without warning. Once I leave I’ll put on a mask in order to protect you from me…
— R. Sonja K. Pilz, PhD, “A Purim Principle: V’nahafoch Hu”
Over the last two years
I have discovered bourbon,
The good stuff.
With, when I can afford them,
Luxardo cherries.
In ginger ale.
— Trisha Arlin, “My Drink of Choice”
Esther is told that if she that if she keeps silent
regarding Haman’s schemes
deliverance will come מִמָּקוֹם אַחֵר
“from another place”
Mordechai says to her, “מִי יוֹדֵעַ Who knows,
maybe you’re here
for just such a moment in the Kingdom.”
— R. David Zaslow, “Be Esther”
A powerful woman
learns that her beauty is fleeting
and her influence was an illusion…
— Trisha Arlin, “Loglines for a Purim Movie”
Esther’s name means hidden
but when it matters
she reveals…
— R. Rachel Barenblat, “Hide and Shine”
On the 1st of Adar I (Wednesday, February 2) protests in Ottawa against vaccine mandates and masks and some and any and all public health measures, peppered with racist and antisemitic slogans and imagery, brought my city, Canada’s national capital, to a standstill…
— R. Dara Lithwick, “The Talmud teaches, when Adar enters, joy increases.”
Blessed One-ness,
We give thanks for this Purim festival
Of costumes and traditional noise,
Distracting us from the bad guys
For at least one night…
— Trisha Arlin, “A Prayer for What We Do”
And if this speaks to you, you also might find meaning in our new book
From Narrow Places: Liturgy, Poetry and Art of the Pandemic Era, available now for $18.
This collection features work by Trisha Arlin, R. Rachel Barenblat, R. Dara Lithwick, R. Bracha Jaffe, R. David Evan Markus, R. Sonja Keren Pilz PhD, and R. David Zaslow. Find all of our bios on the Builder Biographies page.
