The “March” from Purim to Passover

By Rabbi Alex Freedman.

What if Purim and Passover weren’t two separate holidays? What if they were actually bookends for a single month-long process?

Rabbi David Hoffman of JTS taught me such. Notice that exactly one month separates the two holidays – Purim is on the 14th of Adar (15th in Jerusalem) while Passover is celebrated on the 15th of Nisan.

The one-word summary of Purim is chaos. Life nearly ended for all the Jews of Shushan, and then suddenly they were on top. Everything took a 180 degree turn, like Esther keeping her Jewish identity secret to sharing it with the king very publicly. Today Purim is marked by riotous, chaotic fun, costume, and shtick. 

When we turn to Pesach, though, we encounter the opposite. In one word, Passover is about order. The holiday is dominated by the Seder, the step-by-step dinner script whose Hebrew word means “order.” We follow time-tested processes and rules on Seder night to move us to a place where we taste slavery and freedom, literally and metaphorically.

The days that move us from Purim to Passover are themselves a step-by-step personal journey from chaos to order. How appropriate is it that this march happens during March? People can’t turn from one strong emotion to another on a dime. We need time and a step-by-step process to get us to somewhere else. And as the days of Passover draw nearer, we then have the opportunity to prepare ourselves for the next stage of the year.

Let us enjoy these two upcoming holidays – and let us find meaning in seeing them as fundamentally connected too.