Second Purim
'Minor Purim'),[1][2][3] is a celebratory day uniquely observed by a Jewish community or individual family to commemorate the anniversary of its deliverance from destruction, catastrophe, or an antisemitic ruler or threat.
(Sefer Chayei Adam, Hilkhot Megillah 155, ¶41)[4]The date of a Second Purim marked the anniversary of the day the community or individual was rescued from destruction, catastrophe, or an antisemitic ruler or threat.
[5][6] Although days of celebration are typically not held during periods of mourning on the Jewish calendar, Second Purims were established during those times to commemorate the exact date of the salvation.
[1] These observances included some or all of the following: The Jewish community of Ancona, Italy, was noted for having four different communal Purims commemorating their salvation from potential disasters in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The piyut, "Mi Kamokha" (Hebrew: מי כמוך, "Who is like You"), composed by Rabbi Abraham Khalfon, was read in the synagogue on the Shabbat preceding Purim Burghul.
[9][10] In 1524 the governor of Egypt, Aḥmed Shaiṭan Pasha, arrested twelve of the Jewish leaders of Cairo, including Chief Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, and demanded an exorbitant ransom.
Christian residents rioted in the Jewish quarter and stole the entire library belonging to Rabbi Meir ben Isaac.
[5] In 1840 Greeks who were in competition with Jews in the sponge trade on the island of Rhodes accused the Jewish community of murdering a child for ritual purposes.
Purim Saragossa was celebrated by the descendants of the original Jewish community in synagogues in Constantinople, Magnesia, Smyrna, Salonica, and Jerusalem.
[5][16] The Jews of Tiberias established communal Purims on two dates in 1743 after Suleiman Pasha, governor of Damascus, laid siege to the city for 83 days.
[5][8] This communal Purim commemorates the persecution and expulsion of the Jewish population of the Frankfurter Judengasse during the Fettmilch Uprising in 1614 and their restoration to their homes on the order of the German emperor in 1616.
Several months later, the German emperor ordered that Fettmilch be executed for the injustice; his beheaded and quartered corpse was hung on the gates of the city.
[6] The family of Rabbi Avraham Danzig (the Chayei Adam) established their own Second Purim after an explosion of magnesium in a military camp near their home in Vilnius destroyed many houses and killed 31 residents in 1803.
On 4 Shevat, the daughter of a Christian bookbinder purchased from Brandeis povidl (plum jam) which made her family ill; her father died a few days after eating it.
The burgomaster of the city ordered the closure of Brandeis' store and imprisoned him, his wife, and son for selling poisonous food to Christians.
Brandeis wrote a scroll which he called Shir HaMa'alot l'David ("A Song of Ascents to David"), to be read on 10 Adar, accompanied by a festive meal.
[7] Followers of Sabbatai Zvi established a Second Purim on 15 Kislev, honoring the day in 1648 that their leader declared himself the Jewish Messiah.
