Yale Daily News

Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:35 p.m.

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After Purim, a search for meaning in mayhem

Looks at Veritas
Published Monday, March 24, 2008

“Coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous,” my family’s rabbi likes to say.

The Jewish festival of Purim, which took place this past weekend, brings this proverb to life. The holiday celebrates the Jewish people’s overcoming a plot devised by Haman, a fifth century B.C.E. Persian vizier, to murder the Jews en masse. The story appears in the Book of Esther, which is chanted in synagogue on Purim. Children come to synagogue in costumes, à la Halloween. When the chanter mentions Haman, congregants shout and wave noisemakers to blot out Haman’s name. Yet amid the revelry lies a...

#1 By Appalled 1:39p.m. on March 24, 2008

This sounds too much like proselytizing.

As an atheist, I wish he'd find something else to write about.

#2 By (Anonymous) 11:24p.m. on March 24, 2008

As an open-minded and intellectually curious person, I find the topic and article quite interesting. Good read.

#3 By (Anonymous) 9:44a.m. on March 31, 2008

As an atheist, I am sick of other atheists being unable to think about any article talking about God, meaning, etc. Apparently others would rather close their eyes, cover their ears, and scream "god does not exist" repeatedly, and if someone dares question this notion, they scream "proselytizing Crusader!".

Good article.

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