• The name of the festival brings us to its cultural background.
• The word "Purim" is a Hebrew plural of a Babylonian word "puru", meaning "lot" - goral in Hebrew: wehipil pur hu haggoral (he had cast pur, that is, the lot [Est 9-24]).
  We are obliged to reject the theory in a book produced by the above department, whereby connection is posited between the word "pur" and the root "PRR", with the meaning of "break", and the origin of the word was a piece of broken stone, because the word "puru" in the Babylonian language was always written with one "R". "Puru or purru" in the Babylonian language does exist with the meaning of a piece of flatstone, but it is actually a Sumeric loan word, and in that language root manipulations, which are common to Semitic languages like Hebrew and Babylonian, are impossible.

• The Babylonians had a very complicated method of transcribing their language and used Sumeric notations to write syllables in the Babylonian language. Sometimes they even adopted Sumeric words as a complete word, as well as to write down the sound. Thus the Sumeric word "a" (with the meaning of "water")* was always used for syllable "a" in Babylonian: for example a-wi-lum (a man), and also to express "water", but this ideogram was pronounced "mu" ("water" in the Babylonian language) and later this same sign could also be used to denote the sound "mu" as a syllable.
  The Babylonian language had more than 500 cuneiform charcters and most of these had more than one mode of expression, so they were able to write a double "R" if the root demanded it; thus "pararu" (break) was written with the syllables pa-ra-ru but the intensive verb stem from the same root "parraru", with a doubled second root consonant, was written with the syllables par-ra-ru or pa-ar-ra-ru.
  If the Babylonian word "puru" - pu-ru and "pararu" - pa-ra-ru were from the same root, it would have been written pur-ru or pu-ur-ru, which did not happen; thus there is no connection between the word and the root .

* Compare the loan word in Hebrew "agam" (lake), a compound of the Sumeric words "a" (water) and "gam" (reed). Together they meant "swamp"; in this case the compound of Sumeric ideograms was adopted in Babylonian pronunciation "agam" and its meaning - it may be that Semitic hordes invading the Sumeric land of Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago from the Arabian desert did not have a word for "swamp".

• Although the author of the (megilla) was well acquainted with the rules and regulations of the Persian court and may have been a Persian Jew, the entire story of (purim) has some common features with the original Sumeric Babylonian Akitu feast, i.e. the Babylonian new year feast.
• We may therefore treat the story as a literary work with many varied cultural elements, rather than as an historical report.
• The Babylonian Akitu feast also has some features in common with the Jewish New Year - the Days of Penitence and the Day of Atonement, including the issue of the lot for the next year.
• The Akitu feast fell on 1 - 10 Nisan in Babylon, and there are reports that, for a period, in some towns the feast took place twice in a year, in the autumn and in the spring, and not always in the same month.
• Not all the details of the Akitu feast are known, but from ritual texts from Ur and Lagash we can reveal some facts:
  • On the 2nd of the month Nisan, the high priest (urigallu) entered the most holy place in the temple Esagila, and recited a prayer of praise for the god of gods, Marduk; he then opened the doors of the temple and the other priests entered and the crown of the king was placed before Anu (Anu was the Lord of the gods and ruler of heaven, but he himself did not care for mankind). On that day again prayers for Marduk were recited.
  • The 3th day of Nisan began the same way as the 2nd day, but now craftsmen made a sculpture from wood decorated with gold, precious stones and clothing.
  • The 4th day of Nisan began as the preceding days, and the high priest recited the whole epos of the creation of the earth, the "Enuma Elish".
  • On the 5th day of Nisan, which began with the same morning ceremony, the chapel of Marduk, his wife and his son, Nebo, was cleaned by a special priest of magic; a sheep was then slaughtered and with its blood the most holy place was annointed; the other parts of the sheep were thrown into the river, and the magician and the slaughterer went into the desert being impure, until Nebo left the town for his own temple.
  • When Nebo arrived by ship from his own town Borsipa, the king entered the temple of Esagila with the high priest, and there a major atonement ceremony began. All symbols of kingship were removed from him; the high priest slapped him on both cheeks, and the king bowed down, and recited atonement prayers. The high priest summoned the king to perform all his duties to the people and to save them from injustice. After that, the king received his symbols back, and the high priest again slapped the king's face until tears appeared in his eyes, which was proof that the Lord had accepted the atonement of the king, and both the king and the high priest recited a prayer to the god of fire.
  • On 8th of Nisan, Marduk determined the lots (puru) of all the people for the next year.
  • From 9-10th of Nisan a procession was held in the town, when the sculpture of Marduk was taken on an animal through the town and all the sculptures of the other gods left the town. The king took part in this procession on horseback. The procession terminated when Marduk returned to the temple of Esagila.

A relief in Malthaja (northern of Musul) from the time of Sanherib of Assur depicting a procesion of gods on their own holy animals.

• Because the king's function in this entire ceremony was difficult, not to say undignified, the king would nominate one of his nobles to fulfil his functions during these days, and there are even records that palace revolts took place at this time of year.
• The story of Megillat Esther bears some resemblance to this Babylonian new year feast: the name "Purim"; the name of one of the heroes "Marduk" (Mordecai); and the procession of the idols through the town, with one of the nobles fulfilling the function of the king.
  We are not saying that is the same feast as adopted by the Jews, but mention only some similarities between the story of and the Akitu feast.
• The feast is mentioned in the Book of Maccabees II as "The Day of Mordecai" (Macc II 15-36).
• Because the Book of Maccabees II was written around the year 100 B.C.in Cyrenea, the Purim feast was already observed by Diaspora Jews before that time.
• Even the Qumran sect - the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls - celebrated , and a fragment of a Purim prayer was found; this fact was maybe unknown to Sid Z. Leiman when he wrote: "Some Jewish sectarian groups, such as the Qumran sect, may have rejected the Scroll in its entirety (and the Purim festival with it), (The Canonization of the Hebrew Scripture, Connecticut 1976 p. 171).
• We do not know much about the celebration of the feast of in ancient times, except what is written in the ; thus general celebration, sending choice portions to one another, and gifts to poor people.
• Recitation of the in synagogue and maybe already in the Temle (see the page on "Megillat Esther").
• Hints of dissipation and drinking wine until drunkenness can be found in the Talmud (): (Megilla 7, page b) "a person shall drink on the day of Purim until he can not differentiate between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordecai".
• The custom of dressing up and using masks began in the early Middle Ages in Italy, doubtless under the influence of the Christian Carnival feast at the end of Lent.

  ---

  Please back to the Purim page

The Department for Jewish Zionist Education
The Pedagogic Center
Web Site Manager: Esther Carciente