At the central “Marina Roshcha” shul and Jewish Community Center of Moscow, this year’s Purim events are summed up with great satisfaction.
The events, which were held around the clock and attended by all segments of the general public in the Russian capital, began with a large and special distribution of “Kimcha De Puraya”, large food packages, to thousands of elderly and orphaned people as well as families blessed with many children. The distribution was organized by the Shaarei Tzedek Jewish Chesed Center of Moscow.
In the afternoon hours of Taanis Esther, men, women, and children began to stream toward the central shul, which was decorated and prepared to accommodate the many guests. Community ushers guided the public to their places, so that they could hear the megilla reading while maintaining order and appropriate shul decorum.
As the holiday of Purim began, the community director, Rabbi Mordechai Weisberg, welcomed the public with a welcome greeting and explained the order of events on all floors and entrances of the large building. He then invited Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, with a keynote address on the essence and meaning of this colorful holiday.
After the reading of the megilla by the master Baal Koreh, Rabbi Meir Kanelsky, the public was served light refreshments in abundance, and a specially prepared wine banquet was held for friends and supporters of the community.
During the night and the next day, the gabbaim conducted around-the-clock megillah readings, attended by Jews from all over the city. At the same time, the shluchim went out to visit the homes of the elderly, the lonely, inmates in prison, and anyone who would be uplifted with the mitzvot of the holiday.
A special event was organized by the “GoTov” organization, which unites hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews, and many new faces were seen thanks to this initiative. There were people who visited the shul for the first time and were exposed to the mitzvot and customs of the day, under the direction of Rabbi Shneur Halperin.
Towards evening, the community gathered for a Yom Tov meal, which continued with “pores mapa”, welcoming the Shabbos queen, and merging the joy of Purim and Shabbos together into such unimaginable heights the likes of which Moscow has never seen.
Photography: Levi Nazarov
