Weekly Sermon

SHABBAT ZACHOR 5784

SHABBAT ZACHOR 5784

We Need to Be Purim

Question: Tonight is Purim—arguably the most fun of all our holidays. Take a moment now and think aout the Jewish holidays. Which one you would say is the holiest and which one the least holy? Most Jews, I suppose would say Yom Kippur is the holiest—no question. We act like angels. We pray all night and day. We don’t eat.

What would be the least holy of the holidays for you? Probably Purim. Purim feels like recess at school. It’s like Gd saying, “You worked really hard on Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah and Passover, you know what? Take a break, a recess. So on for Purim, eat, drink and be merry.” It doesn’t sound very Jewish, but we can have a day like that too. Right? We eat; we drink; we have a festive meal with others. It’s like we’re partying. It doesn’t seem so holy.

The Holy Arizal—Rabbi Yitzchak Luria 16th century Kabbalist—says something amazing. He teaches that Purim is, in fact, potentially the most holy holiday! In fact, he says Purim is holier than Yom Kippur! Don’t believe him? There’s a hint of this in the name Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur in the Torah is Yom Kippurim. The Sages say it’s short for Yom K’ Purim, literally, “A day like Purim.” In other words, Yom Kippur strives to be like Purim. But we fast and pray all day on Yom Kippur while we party all day on Purim? What’s so holy about Purim?   

To understand the holiness of Purim, we need to get into its historical context. It took place in the Persian Empire 5th century BCE. For us the story seems “normal” because it’s the story of the diaspora experience and we have been living in the diaspora outside of Israel for 2,000 years. We don’t expect our king or president or prime minister to be a Jew. We don’t expect our neighbors to be keeping Jewish holidays. We expect to be the minority. The 1st time this ever happened was in the Purim story.

Not long before Purim, the Jews all lived in the land of Israel from the time of Joshua. They had a Holy Temple that was miraculous; they had Jewish kings; they had Jewish prophets. They lived with Gd. Gd was poofing miracles all the time. And then Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia, showed up in 586 BCE, destroyed their Holy Temple and sent them into exile. Cyrus the Great of Persia soon absorbed Babylon into his realm and the Jews found themselves in a new empire called Persia—soon to be ruled by Achashverosh. They became very Persian—adopting Persian names like Esther and Mordecai.

All of a sudden Haman shows up and gets the king to consent to a decree to kill all the Jews. What do you think the Jews thought would happen? Based on our history, they probably thought, “We’re good. Gd will see to it. Gd will stretch out His arm as he did in Egypt and protect us. Gd’s got plenty of tricks to help us. He’ll send some locusts or blood or split the sea. When we’re down and out, Gd always shows up saying to our adversaries, “Hey, those are My people. Leave them be.”

The Jews of Persia then waited. They waited and waited, expecting a miracle, but nothing happened. When Esther then pleaded before the king to save her people, by law, the king could only allow the Jews to defend themselves, so they went to war. Gd didn’t show up with bolts of lightning to wage war for us, still we won!

The Purim victory was like most other nation’ victories—fought with swords and spears. Yes, we were at war, but we’ve been to war before and we’ve been to war since. This story probably played out 100 times since the Purim story. So why is it so special?

Because Purim was the 1st time in our history where we were in a dangerous situation and Gd didn’t put on His Superman cape and save the day. The Purim story is Gd in the shadows pulling the strings. How did the Jews respond? They did something so special that—according to the commentators—it was even holier than when they accepted the Torah. For the 1st time they accepted Gd with great love. They looked at what happened and chose to see that it was not circumstance, but Gd who saved them.

They could have said it was just a coincidence. Come on, Esther was so beautiful, that’s why she became queen. Mordecai just happened to overhear a plot to kill the king—the king who would later help save the Jews. Haman is hanged on the same gallows he constructed for Mordecai. Coincidence happens; we got lucky.

In the 6-Day War, the Israeli Air Force destroyed aircraft at one Egyptian airstrip after another—yet the Egyptians didn’t radio ahead to let their forces know about the imminent air attacks. One Egyptian tank commander later explained that he surrendered to a far smaller number of Jewish tanks because he saw a desert mirage that made him “see hundreds of Israeli tanks” that weren’t there. But come on, if it was Gd helping us, He would have blown the place up. And that would not have just been a coincidence.

Purim was the 1st time Gd changed the playbook. He told us, “I’ll never abandon you, but if you want to see Me, if you want to get close to Me, you’ll have to work a little harder, because you’re in exile now and I don’t operate the way I used to operate when all the Jews were in Israel. I can’t because in our relationship when most Jews are in exile, you need to find Me.” On Purim, the Jews looked and found Gd. They saw that every coincidence was really a puzzle orchestrated by Gd.

Do you know what holiness is? Holiness in Hebrew is K’dusha, which means, “to be designated.” When you marry it’s called Kidushin. What the groom is saying when he puts the ring on his bride’s finger is, “I’m designating you. I have eyes only for you.” Shabbat is holy and when Shabbat begins, we make Kiddush, saying in effect, “Yes, we’re part of the world, we work 6 days a week, but on Shabbat, GD, it’s just You.” Your choice adds K’dusha (holiness).

Tell me what’s more holy, Gd poofing miracles and us going, “There’s Gd” … or Gd’s staying in the shadows pulling the strings and us going, “Wow, there’s Gd.” That’s Purim! That’s what the Arizal means when he says that Purim is the holiest holiday. Purim teaches us that holiness is seeing Gd in the shadows.  

My friends, we need to be Purim. We need to live our lives with our Purim glasses on—looking back at the important events in our lives and saying: “Things didn’t just happen. Gd was there pulling the strings all along. That’s how I ended up here and this is why this and that happened.” With those Purim glasses on, you can tap into the highest levels of holiness and connect to the love of Gd every day of your life. That’s the power of Purim.

But there’s a unique challenge for us this year: How do we see Gd and celebrate Purim during such a challenging time for our our people—especially our brothers and sisters in Israel? Not a day goes by without our thinking about the ongoing nightmare of the hostages and their families, the fallen and wounded soldiers and civilians and their families, the tens of thousands of people who remain displaced from their homes, and the trauma affecting all Jews.

However, we must not give the Hamans of our world the victory of dampening our holidays—especially Purim, the holiest! So yes, have fun and enjoy Purim. But on this holy Purim, take it a step further. Amidst all the chaos and trauma of Gaza and Israel, let’s not ignore the miraculous stories of how so many Jews were saved on October 7th, or how Jews all over the world are now coming together.

And my friends, most of all, let’s open our eyes wide to notice how Gd will be with us as we seek to fulfill the Torah commandment (Deut. 25:19) we read on this special Shabbat Zachor before Purim, Timcheh et zeycher Amaleyk mitachat haShamayim, you shall wipe out Amalek, you shall wipe out the Hamans of this world, and you shall wipe out Hamas of our world from under Heaven. May it happen soon. Amen!

 
 

 

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