KA CC Archive Feb 2023

I love fish.  Not to eat, but to look at, to watch how they glide so beautifully through the water, live amongst so many different species, to think about how they survive.  Also, I’m a Pisces, the zodiac symbol represented by two fish.  I was also born in the Hebrew month of Adar, also represented in the Hebrew mazalot (meaning constellations) as Dagim (fish).  

There are many ways we can link both the month of Adar and Purim to fish, and this is why you will see many graphics for Adar that include fish.  Just as fish live under the sea, often concealed from humans and sometimes hidden from the sun, Adar can be a month (in colder climates) when there is darkness and cold and wind. We are hidden in our homes, and  the light is only beginning to grow brighter.  And just as the fish can easily swim away from the surface and blend into the shimmering water, they are still there, just as God is hidden in our Purim story, but is still present in the lives of Esther, Mordechai, and the Jews of Persia.

In a Midrash on the Book of Esther, as Haman is drawing lots (purim), one pur fell on Adar.  Haman was pleased with this and said,  "Adar has no merit and its Zodiac sign has no merit. Not only that, but Moses their teacher died in Adar."  What Haman didn’t know was that Moses was also born in Adar (on the same day, in fact!)  The midrash continues, Haman said, “Just as fish swallow, so, I will swallow them.”  But God explained that although fish could be swallowed, there are always larger fish that could swallow them up.  And God added, “Now, this man will be swallowed by the swallowers.”  Rabbi Hanan added that this is why it was written in Megillat Esther, “It was reversed, so that it was the Jews who ruled over their enemies.”

So we recognize Pisces and take lessons from the fish. One of those lessons: Fish cannot live without water. They need to be connected to their source of life all the time. The Torah, Judaism, is like water, and we Jews swim in these waters to sustain us.

 Throughout Jewish history, people tried to convince us that getting out of the water would help us overcome all the hatred against us, saying that if we weren’t surrounded by the ridiculous ways of Judaism, we would live better lives.  It isn’t the water that harms us though.It is those waters, the waters of Torah that sustain us, that keeps us alive.  

To celebrate the fish of Adar, it is popular around the world to have fish dishes (sushi, anyone?) at one’s Seudah (festive meal). In Uganda, there is a custom to give baskets of fish in mishloach manot (I’ll stick to the gummy fish-shaped candies).  

The sign of the Dagim, however, is two fish swimming in the opposite direction. We can learn from the Purim story that one can swim towards evil, like Haman, or towards righteousness, like Mordechai.  However you choose to celebrate, Happy Adar and Purim Sameach!