Baruch Hashem, many Jews in Eretz Yisrael dislike the inherently secular State, and continually find new ways of non-violently banishing its evil influence. And yes, monopolies are bad, including the IDF and so on. Not to mention, well, facts and history… And They got worse (a lot worse!), so we should absolutely up the ante. But does it follow that observant Jews should forbid cop/soldier costumes on Purim?

If child psychologists say children (boys?) have a deep-seated need to play with guns as cops and robbers etc., to feel more powerful than they are (“power-play to process feelings of vulnerability”, blah blah), who are we to disagree with the experts? Isn’t going against basic human nature in the false belief that human nature is “infinitely malleable” (nothing to lose but our socially created chains) a Leftist delusion?!

The only proof I saw adduced to this sudden war against children’s martial and constablery costumes on Purim is the Koztker Rebbe, quoted as saying the Cantonist decree started when Jews went to watch Napoleon’s parades and sang the songs.

But that was adults, not children! And it sounds a lot like מפני ששמחים ביום אידם. Also, enjoying war per se is problematic. Sefer Shmuel (I 17:28):

ויחר אף אליאב בדוד ויאמר למה זה ירדת… אני ידעתי את זדנך ואת רע לבבך כי למען ראות המלחמה ירדת

Mystically speaking, perhaps the opposite can be argued, like how Chassidic Purim shpiels try to use sympathetic magic against the regime…

Has anyone ever opposed such Purim children’s costumes traditionally?! What happened to the Jewish knack for inversion?

So while I appreciate the [somewhat browbeaten] change in children’s costumes, I suggest permitting fatigues and police uniforms for children, but let’s have the insignia read “Pinkerton” (hmmm)/Etzel/David Hamelech/נוער הגבעות instead of the American and Israeli State symbols and flags.

Venahafoch hu! The problem isn’t the weapons and uniforms; it’s who wields them, why, in whose service; Who, Whom.

ביום אשר שברו איבי היהודים לשלוט בהם ונהפוך הוא אשר ישלטו היהודים המה בשנאיהם!

I Fly to Israel for My Mother’s 84th Birthday

by Lori Levy

We celebrate in the hills. My sisters spread blankets
on a grassy slope in the Forest of Angels,
Ya’ar Hamalakhim, and there, under pines and oaks—
our parents on beach chairs that seem to float away
in a sea of wildflowers—we feast on the lunch they’ve laid out
on a table in the clearing: lasagna and quiche,
schnitzel, potatoes, salads, fresh peppers.
No balloons at this party, but we have bright red
anemones, clusters of pink columbine, white-pink asphodel,
tangles of mustard weed, yellow and green,
and down below, in the valley, the woolly backs of sheep
that a Bedouin has brought to graze on the tall grass,
their maaing and baaing blending with the Arabic music
blaring from a radio nearby, where a group of men,
hands on each other’s shoulders, bodies linked,
kick their legs, slide this way and that way,
marking the beat that echoes through the trees—
while we chatter and laugh, our parents surrounded
by their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren,
and I think: this is what I want, too,
a birthday party outdoors when I’m 84,
no walls around me, just a spot with a view,
sun warming my wrinkled cheek
while I gaze with pleasure at the family we’ve produced,
my husband at my side, details beginning to blur perhaps—
but what will that matter if I can have a moment
of lasagna in the woods, cake and wildflowers and a birthday song
filled with the moaning of sheep and squeals of revelry
and, clear and emphatic and ever-present, my mother’s voice,
reminding me once again that it’s important to laugh,
at ourselves, our lives.

From What Do You Mean When You Say Green? And Other Poems of Color (Kelsay Books, 2023).
Used here with permission.

From Your Daily Poem, here.

Read the rest by Josh Wander here…