Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Funny Purim story about the Kotzker (?)


This pictures comes from the Juedisches Museum.

My rebbe tells an interesting story about the Kotzker (I believe it's the Kotzker; if I'm getting the attribution wrong, please let me know).

The Kotzer noticed that there was one Jew in town who didn’t only get drunk on Purim, but the whole month of Adar. Year after year this went on until the Kotzker decided to finally ask him:

“Mi monafshoch: If you’re a shikur, then why don’t you get drunk throughout the whole year? And if you’re not a shikur, then why don’t you just get drunk on Purim? Why the whole month?”

This Jew answered him like this: “Haman knew that he could never destroy the whole Jewish people on one day, the 13th of Adar. He knew he really needed a whole month to do it. But he figured that if Hashem did foil his plans, he didn’t want the Jews to have a Yuntif for the whole month that he intended to destroy them. Therefore, he decreed only one day to destroy the Jews, so that if he lost, they would have only one day to celebrate. But why should I let Haman take away a whole month that we would have had for Purim?! Therefore, I drink the whole month of Adar, just to show Haman that even that part of his plan was foiled.”

The Kotzker seemed to get hano’oh from the man’s answer.

-Dixie Yid

2 comments:

yitz said...

there's a typo: "And if you’re not a shikur, then why don’t you just get drunk on Purim? Why the whole year?"

it should be "Why the whole month?" at the end.

DixieYid (يهودي جنوبي) said...

Thanks for your keen eye! I changed it.

-Dixie Yid