WHY ARE THERE TWO PURIMS (Book of Esther) in 2024?

Queen Esther
"For such a time as this."

I know most of you don't like getting in the weeds, but sometimes it is necessary to sort things out.

I just have to say that this 2 Purim's in 2024 has stuck with me as somehow prophetically significant to us. This is me searching for what it might be.

Last week, Feb 22-23 was a holiday on the Hebrew calendar called Purim Katan, or Minor Purim. A friend in Canada pointed it out and explained it as a "leap year" type of adjustment that is made to the lunar calendar that are how the Hebrew calendar is counted by. As Canadian friend Peter Robertson noted, "It is an ancient adaptation, attested in ancient literature and necessity requires it in a lunar calendar that has less than 365 days."

Why? "It is necessary to have an extra month or all the feasts, including Passover would creep earlier and earlier into the year, like Ramadan does in the Islamic, 12 month lunar calendar. Because Passover was a barley harvest festival and Shavuot a wheat harvest festival and Sukkot a fruit festival."

The normal Purim festival will be the one most Jews will celebrate on March 24th. Looking into the Little Purim a little deeper, I discovered that in 1612 a tradition grew up in Frankfurt, Germany to celebrate how Jews had been expelled from that city in an uprising only to be returned two years later. The following is a report I found in a religious Jewish source from a German rabbi.

There were "spasms of antisemitism" that plagued Europe over centuries. But in 1612 a protest grew against "the lead up to the election and coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias, the citizens of Frankfurt." It's leader "resented both the authorities and the Jews. As his gang’s list of demands grew, one remained relatively constant: expel the Jewish community from the city." They attacked the Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, looting and expelling the Jews.  He was arrested "and two years later executed, his home destroyed, his allies banished. On the same day, the Jews were permitted to return to Frankfurt, their rights and citizenship restored."

"On the surface, nothing seems too peculiar about this persecution. Antisemitism in Germany in the Middle Ages probably surprises no one. But the sudden reversal and homecoming was. When the uprising was over, the Jews began the process of commemorating the experience....Every year, the Jews observe a day of fasting followed by a day of feasting in memory of the events of 1614. The tradition continued in the Frankfurt Jewish community for 200 years. . . .Declaring a Second Purim (also known as Purim Katan, “Little Purim”) was once a common practice in Jewish communities that had experienced threats of extermination that were suddenly — in true Purim spirit — turned upside-down."

Purim Katan 2024 is not about a historical event, but the current moment in the Jewish calendar. 

I am reminded by "Little Purim" how the Islamists have referred to Israel as the "Little Satan" and the United States as the "Great Satan." In the Spirit that is upside down, the U.S. spiritually is the "Little" enemy and Israel is the "Great" enemy of Satan. 

If I was going to take a prophetic message out of the Little Purim of 2024, I would say the attack against IHOPKC is related to that. And I do believe the attack there is going to be overturned, as the many incidents in Jewish history that were "turned upside-down" - that so will this attack on IHOP, "threatened with extermination" suddenly "in true Purim spirit" to be restored.

The Great Purim is the prophetic foreshadowing of the days Israel has already entered into of being the target of attempts to banish them from the Land of Israel. But as it is written, Zechariah 12:2-3 

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling like-drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured."

Taking a line from Israeli prophetic minister, Jennifer Guetta of Plant Hope Israel: "Purim is a time of exposing evil, turning tables and revealing the Hidden Messiah."