Ramot, also known as Ramot Alon, is a large neighborhood in north-eastern Jerusalem, one of Jerusalem’s Ring Neighborhoods. Each year, the city’s rabbis argue whether the proper time for the Jews of Ramot to hear the Purim megillah is on the 14th or the 15th of the month of Adar (this year the 24th or 25th of March). According to Jewish law, cities that were surrounded by a wall in the time of Joshua (late third millennium BCE) read megillah on the 15th, and everybody else on the 14th. The problem with Ramot is that it might not be part of the contiguous urban sprawl of Jerusalem, and different rabbis differ over when the residents should observe the commandments of the day.
This year, last week, really, there was an attempt to resolve the issue, and in order to create the necessary contiguity, they positioned a line of mobile homes (caravans) to connect Ramot with Jerusalem. There’s your urban sprawl, enjoy your holiday. The fix was good enough for the chief rabbinate, and the Chief Sephardi Rabbi, Rav Yitzhak Yosef, sent out a halakhic decision saying the problem had been resolved, and the residents of Ramot should observe the holiday together with the rest of Jerusalem’s Jews, on Friday this week.
But the fix did not satisfy Jerusalem’s chief Sephardi rabbi, Rav Shlomo Amar, who was not convinced that a temporary lineup of mobile homes an urban sprawl makes. He confessed that it hurts him to appear to be causing a dispute, but since the religious needs of the people of Jerusalem are in his domain, he must rule according to his own view, which is that the good Jews of Ramot should observe Purim on Thursday.
Rav Amar added, citing the late Rav Ovadia Yosef—father of the chief rabbi whose view he opposes—that in order to follow all the halakhic possibilities, the Ramot people should observe one day of Purim on Thursday (starting Wednesday night) with all the blessings and the addition of the Al Ha’Nisim “Gratitude for the miracles” segment during the silent prayer, and then, on Friday keep all the customs of the day again, including Al ha’Nisim, but without the blessings.
Have a joyous Purim, and if you live in Ramot, have two Purims!