Feast Unleashed

The Jewish holiday Purim will rock the weekend at of the North Shore with a joyous celebration of fun, food, and music, culminating Sunday evening with a concert featuring the renowned rock band Soulfarm. 

The fun begins Saturday evening with a free Megillah reading, and then cranks up Sunday starting at 3 p.m. with a special Megillah reading for children, a regular reading for adults, and, starting at 4 p.m., festivities that will include a full petting zoo, face-painting, and a sports carnival, leading up to the Soulfarm concert. 

A children’s dinner will be served in the lower hall, while adults will delight in a full Italian buffet and Martini bar.   All events will be held at the Chabad Lubavitch Community Shul at 44 Burrill Street.

 “For the past three years we’ve thrown a large community celebration and concert in honor of the holiday,” explained , an organizer of the event.  “It has truly  become a community event that people look forward to all year.  This year’s concert, with Soulfarm, will be an lively, energetic time, to say the least!”

The band Soulfarm, originally from Israel that now plays out of New York, promises to shake the foundation of the ordinarily sedate and contemplative Shul. 

Soulfarm has opened for such acts as Bruce Hornsby, Shawn Colvin, the Wailers, and others, and has performed New York’s Carnegie Hall, BB King’s Blues Club, the House of Blues in Los Angeles, and has toured internationally.

Their potent sound is a blend of jam, blues, and rock and roll, with a touch of Middle Eastern melody.  It’s the kind of music that will get the crowd moving, and that’s the whole idea of Purim.  

Often characterized as “the Jewish Mardi Gras” Purim is traditionally the most cheerful holiday on the Jewish calendar.

Celebrated on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar—the twelfth month  of the Jewish calendar—the holiday commemorates the triumph over oppression and the reversal of fortune as it is told in the Megillah,  in the Biblical book of  Esther.

 David Nathan summarized the story behind all the merriment:  “Basically, Purim celebrates a miracle that took place when the Jews were living in Persia, and the King's assistant, Haman, was plotting to kill all of the Jews,” he explained. 

“Queen Esther was Jewish, and she had become the queen after winning a beauty contest.  By the way, the King held the beauty contest after killing his previous wife, and the King did not know Esther was Jewish.”      

 Clearly, the King was a bad dude.   And it becomes quickly apparent that Queen Esther is the heroine of the story.  But the King isn’t the only villain.  His malevolent advisor Hamas plotted to kill all the Jews in Persia, mostly because of his hatred for Esther's cousin Mordecai.

 Mordecai persuaded Esther to approach the King and inform him of Haman’s treachery.  When she told the King of the plot to kill her people, the King ordered Haman hanged, and the Jewish people were saved.    

 In the custom that evolved from story and the celebration of the holiday, revelers perform plays or parodies and, essentially, “eat, drink, and be merry.”  It is a time of uninhibited celebration and charity.

Chabad Lubavitch will party-on in honor of Purim.  Join 'em for the fun!  

Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for teens and younger.  For more information visit www.nsjewish.com/unleashthefeast.