Thread by @rabbisacks

Tonight and tomorrow is the Jewish festival of #Purim which marks the first attempt in history to destroy the Jewish people. One might think it should be a day of mourning, but the Jewish response to trauma is counterintuitive and extraordinary.

You defeat fear by joy. You conquer terror by collective celebration. You prepare a festive meal, invite guests, give gifts to friends.

While the megilla is being read and the story is being told, you make a rumbustious noise as if not only to blot out the memory of Amalek, but to make a joke out of the whole episode. You wear masks. You drink a little too much.

You make a Purim spiel (ICYMI, see mine with the comedian @AshleyBlaker here: bit.ly/2F4poOj).

@AshleyBlaker Precisely because the threat was so serious, you refuse to be serious – and in that refusal you are doing something very serious indeed. You are denying your enemies a victory.
Humour is the Jewish way of defeating hate.

@AshleyBlaker What you can laugh at, you cannot be held captive by.
That is what we do on Purim.

@AshleyBlaker The joy, the merrymaking, the food, the drink, the whole carnival atmosphere, are there to allow us to live with the risks of being a Jew – in the past, and tragically in the present also – without being terrified, traumatised or intimidated.

@AshleyBlaker It is the most counter-intuitive response to terror, and the most effective. Terrorists aim to terrify. To be a Jew is to refuse to be terrified.

@AshleyBlaker Yes, we as Jews must fight antisemitism, the demonization of Israel, the intimidation of Jewish students on campus, or challenges to our traditional way of life.

@AshleyBlaker But we must never let ourselves be intimidated – and the Jewish way to avoid this is 'marbim be-simcha', to increase our joy. The people that can know the full darkness of history and yet rejoice is a people whose spirit no power on earth can ever break. Purim sameach!