They experimented with tradition!
The Chabad of Bay Ridge celebrated Purim with a festive traditional celebration and a spellbinding science show by Mad Science’s Johnny Argon on March 24. Purim celebrates when two brave and resourceful Jews — Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai — saved the Jewish people from genocide more than 2,000 years ago. It is traditional to celebrate “natural” forces like science during the holiday as recognition that God worked through “ordinary” events — as opposed to supernatural intervention such as in the story of Passover, the Chabad’s rabbi said. But the party was so out-of-the-ordinary it drew folks who don’t even live in the neighborhood, one reveller said.
“I moved out of the neighborhood and I still go back,” said Israel Flexer. “I go out of my way to go there, because they have a lot of good things for kids and everyone. They’re very engaged.”
Argon’s dazzling experiments with fire and dry ice, aptly called the “fire and ice” show, wowed the crowd. Argon invited kids up to blow dry ice bubbles with the “bubble-o-tron” and passed around solid carbon dioxide for everyone to feel and even taste.
Before Argon’s show, the three-dozen or so Purim revelers listened to a reading of the Purim story and had a dinner, including tasty Hamantaschen — a traditional triangular, jelly-filled baked treat that references holiday bad guy Haman (boooo!).
And of course, folks dressed in costumes for the celebration as well — another tradition that celebrates God’s hidden hand in “natural life,” Chabad of Bay Ridge Rabbi Tzvi Stroh explained.
