We clap and stamp on mentioning Haman the Amalekite,
each time the reader chants his name...
As if, the mere mention triggers this explosion of chaos a
wild manic stomping and clapping using instruments of
noise....
As if, we need to eradicate more than merely the name the
evocation of its horror, memories of intended genocide,….
No, this hysterical communal memorializing of that, which
we wish to forget, signifies something even more
sinister…
More than even the command, so paradoxical, to annually
“remember: not to forget” to erase the memory of Amalek,
by consistently bringing it back to conscious memory, no,
more than even this….
This communal controlled chaos limited to ten seconds
following the mere mention of “his name” HAMAN-as the
scroll unfolds, as the text is chanted, even this is not
spontaneous for “we know” we are readers we have read
before we foreshadow his mention…
SO sinister because of one reason alone, he remains alive
and deadly. He persists despite the happy ending of the
narrative story the fairytale of Esther. Despite the rolling up
of the scroll for another year the sing song and the festive
meal his name, is mention, his evocation lingers, haunts
us so, despite the merriment and liquor….for he, my
friends, is non other than….
You fill in the gap-all I can tell you is he is and is within not
without.
He remains and persists after all the merriment drink and
attempts at drowning out his voice with joy on this special
day
He works his task, divinely charged, the spoiler, that little
voice ever crescendoing, that never rests, the voice, the
critic, the doubter, the cynic, the dissolver of simple faith
with complex questions and analytical doubts.
He, whose volume can only be drowned out once a year
with a clapping and a stamping and a drinking
This is the joy of PURIM for only once a year a legislated
socially sanctioned alcohol binge to drown out his voice for
just a moment of relief a relief from that voice within. How
could we ever forget him!
