Three Pluses and a Wish for Purim

During my teaching days, I used to end the year with an assignment called “Three Pluses and a Wish.” My students had to write three things they enjoyed about the year (besides recess) and one thing they wished I would do differently. With Purim a mere week or so away, I would like to give three pluses and a wish to one of my favorite days of the year.

What I love:

The adrenaline rush. Doesn’t matter that we came home late, after hearing megillah and attending the local synagogue or school party. There’s no sleeping late the next morning! Too much to do! Hear megillah again, deliver mishloach manot all over the city (and receive in return, mmmm), put the finishing touches on the festive seudah, eat the festive seudah! Go, go GO!

Megillah reading. Every year I listen to it and feel the anxiety and the desperation that gripped the Jewish people, followed by the incredible exhilaration when the tide finally turned their way. I mourn with Mordechai, hold my breath nervously with Esther as she is summoned to the king, and wait for the moment when Haman is dragged out in shame, and the Jews fight their way to victory.

Some of my favorite lines in all of Tanakh are contained in Megillat Esther: “K’asher avadti, avadti” (When Esther, after some hesitation and hand-wringing, decides that she is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to help save the Jewish people, she announces dramatically: “And if I will be killed, so be it.”) Or, “Vayavo Haman,” the seemingly unremarkable line that signals the beginning of the end for our nemesis Haman. (Haman comes to King Achashverosh in the middle of the night, ready to present Operation Hang Mordechai, and instead gets wrangled into parading the very same Mordechai through the streets of Shushan. On the king’s horse, no less. It’s all downhill for Haman after that.)

It’s fun! Who doesn’t love getting a religiously sanctioned day to let loose? “Boo”-ing the Hamans (making noise during services is not only okay—it’s encouraged!), seeing otherwise buttoned-up adults wandering the streets in clown wigs, sampling the various hamantashen, getting together with good friends and family to enjoy a delicious meal, the euphoria of celebration that pervades the day…Purim is, frankly, awesome.

One Wish
There are four mitzvot that must be performed on Purim, all starting with an “m”: Mishloach manot (food gifts to friends), mishteh (the festive meal), megillah (once at night, once in the morning) and matanot l’evyonim (charity to the poor.)

And I have found, over the years, that I do not invest in that last one—charity—as much as I invest in the other three. Considerable time, effort and expense goes into mishloach manot goody bags for our friends, Purim costumes and our seudah. The charity portion of the day happens quickly, usually involving no more effort than putting some money in the tzedakah box at shul. My one-thing-I-would-do-differently is to find a way to put at least as much thought and effort into matanot l’evyonim as we do for costumes and mishloach manot. Maybe we’ll package mishlaoch manot for Israeli soldiers, or deliver seudah fixings to families in need. Opportunities for tzedakah abound—I just need to grab one.

How do you incorporate the mitzvah of matanot l’evyonim into your Purim day?