The Many Purims Throughout the Ages
by Talia Beyidna
The Chayei Adam[1] teaches, “If one has had a miracle performed to save him, and even more so, if a city has had a miracle that saved it, they have the right to institutionalize a Purim for that city and to authorize a festive meal that would become a mitzva, in order to memorialize the wonders of Hashem.”[2] In fact, the author himself decreed on his family a day of prayer and celebration after the Vilna fort’s gunpowder magazine exploded in 1803.[3] A significant part of the neighborhood (and his house) was leveled, and yet, with Hashem’s kindness, his entire family pulled through and survived. This has become known as the Gunpowder Purim.
The Jews of Egypt commemorated an event in 1524, when the governor of Egypt threatened to massacre them because they refused to join him in a revolt against the Sultan of Turkey, who at that time ruled Egypt. On the day he vowed to murder all the Jews in Cairo right after he had finished taking his bath, he was stabbed to death in the bathhouse by one of his junior officers, and the massacre was averted. A megilla was written to tell the story and is read in Egyptian synagogues on what is known as Purim Cairo on the 28th of Adar.