The Deepest Purim

Lately, we are learning a lot about Purim. Here are some of my thoughts that are inspired by teaching from Reb Shlomo, from Rabbi Avraham Sutton and his book "Purim Light," from Sara Idit Sneider's book "Purim Bursts" and from other teachers and teachings as well. One thing that the Purim story teaches us is that Hashem is truly everywhere and in everything, in the good, in Mordechai the tzaddik, and even in the sitra achra, the evil, that which pretends an identity that could be other than hashem, Haman, even there Hashem is present, and not just present, but really that is all there is, so of course we have to love each other, love every thing, and everyone as ourself, because we are all one. Not only that, but in the Likutei Mohoran we also learn that even if someone is evil, there is some small space in them where they did something good, even if it was only once. An example is that maybe there is a thief, but maybe just once when he was a boy his father gave him money to buy a carton of milk. And maybe that one time, he used the money to do as his father asked instead of getting candy with it. So if we see that good part of them, no matter how big or small it is, we place them in a positive space, and it is like magic how they become that part of them that is good, even if it is small. You know the scales of justice? Well when you place someone in your mind in a positive space, you are really placing them on the positive scale. We can change the world with our perception!


Shema Yisroel, if only we could really hear, for just a moment, as we did at Sinai, SHEMA please people of the house of Israel, hear it in your heart that Hashem, the everything, the only, the infinite whose presence is concealed in this world, so concealed that often times it is easy to think that he is not real or is not here, our Gd, that was before creation, during, and will be after and forever, it is all one, oneness. One. If only we would know this, then we would know that it is all an illusion-- Sitra Achra is  'other' or evil. Evil means something that suggests that it can be other than Hashem (from Sara Idit Sneider's 'Purim Blast'). This is Haman. This is Amalek. This is everything that is evil in this world. But if we would only know for a moment, all of us, on a collective level, that there can be nothing other, than the evil would hang itself in the same way that Haman built the very gallow on which he was hung!!!!

What does it mean to be holy? What is holiness? Holiness means to be whole. It does not mean to be physical, but it does not mean to be spiritual. It means to be both in a balanced way-- individually and collectively. We must strive for wholiness.

So look at this: Esther is the Shechina. She is the divine soul, the Gdly presence as it is in this world, and that part of Hashem that we can connect to because it is the part that resides in our world, and that will finally find a comfortable home in our world in the days of Meshiach, which is so soon. So soon you can feel it. If only we can raise everyone's consciousness: wake up and Shema! The Schechina will no longer be trapped in Ahashverosh's castle. Ester and the Shechina, like the Princess from the song of songs, will be freed. That is Ester.
Mordecai is the righteous tzaddik. Haman is his mirror image, his opposite that is also a part of himself. Haman is Amalek, doubt, Sitra Achra, evil, or 'otherness,' the opposite of Kedusha. Haman is the part of himself that Mordechai must face in order that Ester/ the Shechina can reunite with the King, Ha Melech with a big K. When the magila refers to the KING, we can also read that as talking about God because God is so concealed in our world and in the Purim story that his name is not actually mentioned, not even once.

But what does it means that Haman and the King, basically Hashem and evil, are in this together? Haman told the king to destroy the Jewish people and the king agrees so easily? No, it can't be. So what is going on? The answer is multifaceted, but there are a few things to look at here.

While this played out historically with the real Esther and Mordechai, it could also have just as easily been a drama going on in Mordechai's head/imagination, and therefore it is also repeating in our minds as well. Take a look:

In order for Mordechai to initially face Esther, he must first have experienced this situation with Haman. In the allegory, ir order for the tzaddik to meet the higher levels of his soul or the schechina that dwells within himself, he has to go through many trials in order to reach a state where he can access those parts of himself. The trial is embodied by Haman, but it is essential to realize that, since Hashem is one, and everything is therefore of Hashem, Haman could not even exist without some spark of holiness in him. Therefore, the separation between Mordechai and Haman is only an illusion-- an illusion that has a harsh reality and severe consequences, but an illusion nonetheless. The idea that anything can be purely other than hashem cannot be true, and therefore, the idea that Haman or evil is separate is, at it's core, in our heads. If Mordechai, if you, if I, could truely believe in the pure oneness of Hashem, and if we could understand that not only intllectually, but fully, fully with all our being, than the Haman and all evil would simply melt away and hang itself on the very gallows it built, as happened to Haman. In order for Mordechai to beat Haman, or evil, he must go through Esther. That is to say, he must first connect with the higher parts of his soul. He must then entreat those higher levels of his soul to communicate with Hashem and he must pray to be able to break the illusion and defeat Haman. 

So Mordechai is the physical body and tzaddik (righteous person)
Esther is the hidden and higher levels of the soul that can be accessed from this physical plane
And Haman is the yetzer harah/ evil, but really still apart of the oneness.

To reiterate and explain it a little more:
Mordechai is the physical tzaddik or the nefesh. There is evil in the world that he has to overcome (Haman/ Amalek). So, Mordechai must connect with Esther, thehigher levels of his soul or the schechina, and Esther or those higher levels of the soul, must go even higher and plead to God to nullify the evil. By the time Mordechai would have arrived at the state where his soul would be face to face with Hashem, (which corresponds to Esther facing the King and touching the golden scepter), his soul wouldh ave already gone through the process of understanding the true oneness. Before Ester faces the King, she fasts for three days and really prays and prays. Then, before reaching him, she must walk through a long hallway full of statues of the Persian Idols. So, as the Schechina is almost to the king, she must first get by al the idols. The idols represent all the doubt that Esther has. The statues are the evil in the world that say to her, what's the point? You won't save your people. Who do you think you are? You might as well give up! But Esther overcomes these thoughts. So, by he time Mordechai understands all of this in his head, meaning by the time he understands Hashem's true oneness and by the time the higher levels of his soul over come any remaining doubt, evil has ready melted away and hanged itself-- Haman is done for.

Evil exists for many reasons and maybe we cannot understand them, but we can learn from these ideas that one reason evil exists in order for us to pray and ask for it to go away. What is the point of that? We must see how it is necessary that we go through this entire process. For example, if Haman never existed, Mordechai would never have gone through the process of connecting with his higher self (Esther) and with Hashem (The King).  When we pray and ask for this elimination of evil, we go through the process of understanding that the things we want to disappear do not hold a true existence of their own anyway. In order to ask God to do away with evil, we must go throw the process of realizing that Hashem is one and those things do not hold any true power or force of their own. Once we understand the true oneness of Hashem, evil will have no power over us any longer. 


Happy Purim!!!!!!!!!!!