Month: February 2026

In the year 586 BCE, the First Temple was destroyed, and the Israelites were put into their first exile. While Jews remained behind in the Land of Israel without the Temple, a large number found themselves in Babylon (modern day Iraq) and other places. It was at this time the Jewish people began to undergo many changes, including adopting Aramaic as our spoken language. In ancient times, wars were the norm and lands changed hands on a regular basis so it should not be amazing or odd that in 539 BCE the Babylonians were defeated by another empire, the Persians, and all of their lands and peoples became subjects of the expanded Persian Empire. This is how the Jewish people became subjects of the Persian King. This is the background to our story of פורים/Purim.

When the Jewish people first found themselves “under new management”, the person in charge became Cyrus the Great. His vision of his conquered people was autonomy and preservation of their practices. When he found himself in charge of the exiled Jewish community, along with the community that had remained behind in Israel, he liberated them and gave them permission to rebuild and restart their lives. While many Jews returned to Israel, many did not and that meant the Diaspora community began to grow and became an established community side by side with the Land of Israel. It was then we developed into two communities, which still exist today.

It’s not a secret that the nation of Iran is the descendent of the ancient Persian Empire. The language spoken there is Farsi (Persian) and their ethnic/cultural identity is called Persian as well. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the story of פורים began then and continues even today. The Persian Jews enjoyed safety and security and were loyal to their nation for numerous generations, and many in exile today still long to return to their land in the future. That would have been the time of Cyrus, but it was also the time of Haman, that’s the other side of this complicated relationship. The greatest threat posed to Jews today stems from Iran and their many proxies. The מגילה/Megillah says it best in a few places:

“But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone; having been told who Mordecai’s people were, Haman plotted to do away with all the Jews, Mordecai’s people, throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Haman then said to King Ahasuerus, ‘There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them.  If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury’”. (3:6, 8-9)

That day, Haman went out happy and lighthearted. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the palace gate, and Mordecai did not rise or even stir on his account, Haman was filled with rage at him.  Nevertheless, Haman controlled himself and went home. He sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh, and Haman told them about his great wealth and his many sons, and all about how the king had promoted him and advanced him above the officials and the king’s courtiers.  “What is more,” said Haman, “Queen Esther gave a feast, and besides the king she did not have anyone but me. And tomorrow too I am invited by her along with the king.  Yet all this means nothing to me every time I see that Jew Mordecai sitting in the palace gate.” Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a stake be put up, fifty cubits high, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then you can go gaily with the king to the feast.” The proposal pleased Haman, and he had the stake put up. (5:9 – 14)

These two sections identify in clear language the continued obsession Haman had then, and the Mullahs of Iran have today. We are different… we do not bend to their will… We refuse to be defeated… We stand up for ourselves… Brokenness in them drives them to hate and seek to destroy. They cannot be built up from within and so they turn their lacking to destroy others.

I just returned from an incredible AIPAC conference in Washington DC. For three days I was able to learn about Israel and the Jewish world. For three days I was able to advocate for our people and our nation state. While we were there, it was impossible to ignore the current geopolitical realities of Iran and its stated goal of destroying Israel and wiping the Jewish people off the map. The war that began on October 7^th should not be understood as the battle between Israel and Hamas or Gaza, but as the Iran Israel War. Every part of this war has been caused by the Mullahs in Iran and their inability to accept us. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Assaad’s regime, the Shia militias in Iraq, Iran… all of it stems from Iran.

When we met with our representatives and our senators, we brought with us a request: stand with the Iranian people who are hungry to rid themselves of this oppressive regime and stand with us as we continue to fight against that regime hellbent on our destruction. Any negotiation must include zero nuclear program with no sunset clause. Any negotiation must end all Iranian support for their proxies around the world. Any negotiation must end any Iranian ballistic missile program. Any deal that does not address these three fundamentals must be rejected. As we learn from the פורים story, we will still be here after this is over. The Jewish People are eternal and are on the right side of history. As we learn from the פורים story, those who seek destruction will not succeed because the world will always recognize we’re here to build and create and not to tear the world apart.

חג שמח/Chag Sameach/Happy Purim

I am providing you with three videos from the conference to see. The first one is Yuval Raphael, Israel’s contestant for Eurovision, singing her song from this year’s contest. Yuval was a survivor of the Nova Festival, and she had never sung in public before auditioning. Her performance was stunning and pierced the heart.

https://youtu.be/8FvhOr5W1pE

The next two videos go together. Alon Ohel was abducted from the Nova Festival and was held for over two years before he was released on October 13. It was well known that he was an incredible piano player and his mother, Idit, placed a yellow piano in Hostage Square to build awareness of his plight hoping that he would one day play it. She was unrelenting in her advocacy for her son and all the hostages. She had an old picture of Alon dressed as superman and as such she connected with John Ondrasik, Five For Fighting, and got him to use his voice to advocate for Alon and all the hostages. One of Five For Fighting’s best-known songs is Superman. In these videos, you’ll see Idit, John and Alon and the power of the human spirit.

https://youtu.be/8Hd2AqFsTYI

https://youtu.be/-LiDPFuNUcc

I look forward to talking more with you about the importance of staying engaged in advocacy through organizations like AIPAC.

I had a great opportunity this week to visit Ayelet at school and learn with her. Once a week, students in high school at AJA have the opportunity to learn Jewish text for an extra hour in their “night seder” and this one week of the year parents were invited to participate. We sat together in the בית מדרש/Beit Midrash/Study Hall and learned sources in relation to the holiday of פורים/Purim. One of the sources forced us to examine the מגילה/Megillah with new eyes in a way I hadn’t thought of in the past.

וְכׇל־עַבְדֵ֨י הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ אֲשֶׁר־בְּשַׁ֣עַר הַמֶּ֗לֶךְ כֹּרְעִ֤ים וּמִֽשְׁתַּחֲוִים֙ לְהָמָ֔ן כִּי־כֵ֖ן צִוָּה־ל֣וֹ הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וּמׇ֨רְדֳּכַ֔י לֹ֥א יִכְרַ֖ע וְלֹ֥א יִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶֽה׃

“All the king’s courtiers in the palace gate knelt and bowed low to Haman, for such was the king’s order concerning him; but Mordecai would not kneel or bow low. (אסתר ג:ב)”

These words have always been read as heroic. מרדכי/Mordecai was standing up (literally) for our people and not willing to bend (again literally) to the will of any person. But the text doesn’t need to be read as מרדכי’s heroism. One can ask the question of what good he did by his refusal? המן/Haman was evil and maniacal and yet his demand of obedience did not “need” to be refused. מרדכי had a choice to bow or not bow. His argument was given two verses later in response to the other people asking why he wouldn’t bow:

וַיְהִ֗י (באמרם) [כְּאׇמְרָ֤ם] אֵלָיו֙ י֣וֹם וָי֔וֹם וְלֹ֥א שָׁמַ֖ע אֲלֵיהֶ֑ם וַיַּגִּ֣ידוּ לְהָמָ֗ן לִרְאוֹת֙ הֲיַֽעַמְדוּ֙ דִּבְרֵ֣י מׇרְדֳּכַ֔י כִּֽי־הִגִּ֥יד לָהֶ֖ם אֲשֶׁר־ה֥וּא יְהוּדִֽי׃

“When they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s resolve would prevail; for he had explained to them that he was a Jew.” (אסתר ג:ד)

It is understood that מרדכי knew that המן was an Aggagite and thus a descendent of the evil Amalek with whom we were engaged in an eternal war and as thus he could not bow to him. There is another reason given by the rabbis in the מדרש/Midrash that we’re more aware of. המן had embroidered a pagan god’s image on his clothing and thus מרדכי could not bow because that would mean bowing to a false god. (אסתר רבה ז:ה) This understanding is implied but not stated because God is not explicitly found in the מגילה but is implicitly present through parts like this. מרדכי’s refusal was linked to his faith in God and not in disobedience to המן and the kingdom.

This line of thinking is how we’ve always seen מרדכי – the hero standing up for the Jewish people.  Now, for a moment, let us flip this upside down and ask the question; did מרדכי need to do what he did? His actions led to the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people of the world. His inability to recognize the petty and narcissistic eccentricities of המן didn’t need to be elevated and made into a confrontation that led him to create a conflict where one did not exist. His prominence in Shushan and role in the Jewish community meant that he was responsible for his actions, not just to himself, but to all of us as well. The greater folly was not that he didn’t bow but that he explained his refusal by hanging it on the Jewish people and Jewish tradition and our way of life.

I don’t actually agree with this new way of seeing מרדכי because the punishment was unimaginable and didn’t fit the crime, or perceived crime. I don’t subscribe to this view because מרדכי was declaring himself unified with the Jewish people even when it was hardest. In fact, what’s even more incredible is that because of מרדכי’s independent act of defiance, the entirety of the Jewish people were lumped together and condemned to death.

The Jewish people have always been a distinct group in the world that’s seen as “other” by the non-Jewish world. This antisemitic trope is ancient and can be traced back to this story, and the one of the Exodus as well, and we still experience this today. It doesn’t matter that we see ourselves as being diverse and that Jews are a collection of many different people, the world has always seen us as one singular people. We need to work hard to see ourselves the way others do… as a united singular people. Our actions have an impact on all of us. Our strengths belong to all of us, as do our weaknesses. When Jews do great things for the world, we should rejoice because those are our collective accomplishments. The opposite is also true when Jews do shameful things. We need to see that those actions have soiled the name of our people, because in good and bad we are one people. Our unity needs to be a cause we all fight for. We need to be a Jewish people that sees our people as one giant, albeit at times dysfunctional, family that sees the world differently but is nevertheless unified.

I’m honored to be writing to you as the new Executive Director of Congregation Or VeShalom. My hope is to serve this holy community with warmth, clarity, and care, and to help strengthen the beauty that already lives here. As we move toward Purim, I wanted to share a short reflection that has been on my heart.

  

Not the Title, Not the Costume: Remembering the Real Self

We are surrounded by the world of externals, the physical, the noise. The world constantly tells us: be the brand, wear the right thing, curate the image, earn the title, hold the position. But we are not what we wear. We are not our clothes, our labels, our “brand positioning”, or even our titles.

Yes, I hold the title of Executive Director. But I don’t see it as mine. I see it as coming from Hashem, as a responsibility, a placement, a piece of holy work. God gives each of us a purpose, and places us exactly where we are meant to be, where He knows we can use what He gave us to light up a corner of the world that only we can light, in the specific way God wants to work through us.

Purpose isn’t one big moment. It’s a way of moving through the world so that whatever you touch leaves a little more light than it found. It isn’t only what you do – It’s who you choose to become, again and again, with God at the center.

We often believe we are in control of our lives, our spouses, our careers, even who we “choose” to marry. But what God has shown me over the past 30 years is that He is in control. And honestly… I love that. Because then our job becomes simpler: get a little quiet, soften the grip, and listen for His voice leading us where we need to go.

And here is what I learned: I’ve tried searching “out there”, but the real work is always inward, removing what covers our light, our true essence and returning to God. Not becoming someone else but remembering who we already are. And this is exactly why Purim preparation begins before Purim.

As Jews, we don’t wait for the moment to arrive. The fast of Esther is the spiritual doorway into Purim. Before the costumes, we remove a layer. Esther asked the Jews to fast and pray before she entered the palace because the salvation wasn’t going to come from human effort alone. It would come when we turned back to Hashem. For a few hours we step back from the external world and let our heart speak, so Purim can meet us more deeply.

On Purim, we dress up to reveal who we really are.  When a child wakes up on Purim morning, the excitement is contagious. A crown is placed just right. A cape is tied. A wand is proudly held in one hand and a bag of treats in the other. But of course, it’s still the same child. Same eyes. Same soul. Same essence, just covered in costume.

That’s the secret Purim comes to teach us. The costume is a gentle, playful way to teach a very serious truth: you are not what you wear, what you do, or what people expect of you. You are your Neshama/Soul, the Divine spark within. Purim makes external vs. internal impossible to ignore. When you see someone dressed as a king, you instantly know that crown isn’t the person. Purim uses that same clarity to remind us that our roles and titles are also outer garments. Beneath them is the real you.

And this mirrors the Megillah itself. God’s Name isn’t openly written, yet His Presence is everywhere, hidden and still guiding. In the same way, our true self can be covered by personality and habit, but it remains there beneath it all, quietly yearning to return.

So as we move toward Purim, let’s prepare in a meaningful way. Choose one small practice that helps the soul lead: one bracha/blessing with intention, one act of quiet tzedakah/charity, one extra moment of tefillah/prayer, and even one honest conversation with Hashem in your own words, exactly as you are. Tell Him what you’re carrying. Ask for help. Say Thank You. These are the steps that help the mask fall away.

May we merit to enter Purim with open hearts, clear eyes, and the joy that comes from closeness to God.

Mia Rose Goldglanz
Executive Director

We’re officially a month past the secular New Year—January 1^st – a time when so many people feel the urge to start over.

New year, new me. New goals. New habits. A fresh page.

And yet… by early February, the energy fades. Life returns. The momentum slips.

Judaism, in its wisdom, seems to say:

One new year isn’t enough.

In fact, the Mishnah teaches something surprising:

“There are four new years’…” (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1)

Not one. Not even two. FOUR.

Why?

Because Judaism understands something deeply human: We don’t only need one moment a year to reset. We need multiple chances to begin again.

1. Rosh Hashanah – The New Year of the Soul:

Reflection, accountability, and renewal. It’s the moment we ask: Who am I becoming? What kind of person do I want to be?

2. Nisan – The New Year of Freedom:

The month of Passover, the Torah calls Nisan the first month, not Tishrei (the month of Rosh Hashana). Because Jewish time does NOT begin with creation. But with liberation. Passover reminds us: We can break out of what confines us, more than once.

3. Tu B’Shvat – The Birthday of Trees, the New Year of Growth:

Mid-winter, the peak time of dormancy, Judaism celebrates growth happening underground. Tu B’Shvat teaches, just because we cannot see the change yet, doesn’t mean it is not happening.

4. Elul – The New Year of Small Steps

Finally, the New Year for animals, a reminder of daily counting and gradual progress. Not every new year comes with fireworks. Some beginnings are quiet. Some renewals happen through small, consistent steps. It’s the new year of the ordinary.

 

The message; WE ARE NEVER TOO LATE! Judaism provides us with four new beginnings set in the calendar, but even then, every Shabbat, every new month, every morning is our chance to begin again. We are not defined by the version of ourselves from last year, last month, last week, or yesterday. We are not stuck in the story we’ve been living in.

In Hebrew, the word for repentance is teshuvah – which doesn’t mean guilt. It means return.

Return to ourselves.

Return to our purpose.

Return to God.

So, if the secular New Year has already passed. If your resolutions have already slipped. Judaism smiles and speaks

“The calendar will hand you another beginning soon.”

And again. And again. And again.

Because in Jewish time, fresh starts are not once a year. They are built into the rhythm of life.

That being said;

Shabbat Shalom, and Shana Tova.