We celebrate the holiday of Purim which on one level is about fun and frivolity. Yet, a striking midrash suggests that Purim may be the most important holiday in the festival cycle. In contrast the additional reading is a silly piece of Purim Torah. The melody this week is another niggun from Nikoloyev in the Ukraine. michael (michaelstrassfeld.com; mjstrassfeld@gmail.com)
A word of Torah:
When all the other festivals will be abolished (in messianic times), Purim will remain. (Midrash Mishle 9:2).
It is surprising that of all the holidays in the Jewish year that Purim would be the one to still exist in messianic times. In response, commentators point to two verses near the end of the Book of Esther. “And these days of Purim will never cease among the Jews…the Jews affirmed and accepted upon themselves and their descendants…to observe these…days, ”(Esther 9:27-28).
The most common explanation of these verses is that they connect Sinai and Purim. The midrash (Shabbat 88a) says that God held Mt. Sinai over the Israelites and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse---either accept the obligation to fulfill My Torah or I, God, will drop the mountain on you and here will be your grave. The rabbis were troubled by this because any contract made under duress is not valid. They wondered when did the people of Israel willingly accept the covenant with God? They pointed to the verse quoted above as meaning that the Jewish people now affirmed the covenant that they had accepted (under duress) earlier at Sinai.
Last year at Purim, I wrote in the newsletter that this striking midrash acknowledges that accepting a covenant with a God who brought ten plagues and drowned the Egyptians at the sea by definition has an element of coercion. I suggested that the process of really accepting the Torah takes place over the course of the annual holiday cycle beginning with Pesah and Shavuot and ending with the last holiday in the annual cycle, Purim. No sooner do we willingly accept the Torah then the cycle begins all over again with the next Pesah.
There is another reading found in the Talmud (Megillah 7a) of these verses. It suggests that God accepted what the Jewish people had established. The last chapter of Esther sets out in detail how Mordecai and Esther and the Jews of the time established the holiday of Purim and its customs. In response, God, as it were, accepts what the Jews have done. Purim, a new holiday demonstrates that the Jews have really made the Torah theirs. It is no longer just handed down from Sinai.
God’s name is not found in the Book of Esther. In this story, salvation comes not from God, but it is up to the actions of Mordecai and especially Esther to save the Jewish people. We are neither passive as in Egypt or complainers as in the desert. We have become fully God’s partners in bringing light and joy into the world. That is why Purim will be the only holiday in messianic times. Purim is not a holiday that is aspirational of our hopes and dreams—it is a moment of fulfillment of the potential within us.
Intention/kavana for the week
Purim is a holiday about letting go and having a good time. It encourages us to laugh at our selves and to make fun of what we hold dear even the Torah. Paradoxically, it is also an example of how courageous individuals can act and successfully stop the plans of those who menace innocent people.
In this difficult time, how can we be more like Esther than Ahasuerus?
Song:
another Habad nigun from Nikoloyev
(a town in the Ukraine)
