Rabbi Avremel Blesofsky said Megillah, or the story of Queen Esther, is significant because it is the only book of the Torah in which the name of God does not appear.
"But we know that God, although his name is not mentioned in Megillah, was in fact behind all that had transpired, just as he is behind all that happens in the world," the teacher of Chabad, a University of Iowa Jewish group, said.
Tuesday night marked the end of Purim, the Jewish festival that marked the triumph of the Jewish Queen Esther of Persia and her uncle, Mordechai, over the evil Haman and his plans to kill the king of Persia and annihilate the Jews living in the Persian kingdom. A group of about 10 gathered at Chabad, 420 E. Jefferson St., to celebrate with a reading of the story of Esther, a meal and the giving of gifts to one another and alms to the poor.
Blesofsky said the holiday is a celebration of God's work in everyone's lives even if they do not know it.
"It's more of a concealed holiday in that everything seemed to happen in secret," he said. "We get to appreciate the miracle of life."
Blesofsky and the other members of Chabad marked the festivities with food, song and costumes. Following a Hawaiian theme, Blesofsky said the group picks a different country to celebrate.
"We get to dress up," he said. "For children, it's a very fun holiday. (But) this has a deep spiritual lesson."
Blesofsky also read the story of Esther in Hebrew, with the listeners chiming in with their own readings of blessings from the story. The listeners also booed and made noise by stomping their feet and banging on the chairs when the name of the villainous Haman was mentioned.
The home reading was a first for Marilyn Krachmer.
"This is new to me," she said. "It's wonderful and reaffirming to go back to the foundation."
Krachmer, a native of Houston now living in Iowa City, said she remembered as a child having contests as to who had the best Queen Esther costume. She also remembered homentaschen, a triangular cookie that traditionally is filled with prunes or poppy seeds to represent Haman's ears.
Others at the celebration looked at Purim as a way to mark the end of winter.
Charles Vernoff, a religion professor at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, said the holiday follows the theme of reversal in the saving of the Jews in the story and the reversal from winter into summer.
"The celebration is because the prominence of light is inevitable," he said. "It's about God's providence."
Iowa City resident Rebecca Rosenbaum said Judaism in itself is "in phase with nature."
"It's very organic," she said. "It's very logical for people in the northern hemisphere."
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