Purim 3

The story of the Megillah covers several years of the reign of King Ahasuerus, but concentrates on the single year of the plot against the Jews, and the reversal of the planned genocide. Nevertheless, it would seem like an overemphasis on a thin slice of history. But the Sages of the Talmud and Midrash saw the story in a much broader light. They ask "Where is Haman in the Torah?" That seems like a strange question, as the Purim story takes place about 800 years after Moses! But they answer with G-d's words to Adam "Hamin Ha'etz..." (Did you eat from the tree...?) The word "hamin" has the exact letters of "Haman". The Torah is here hinting that the confusion of good and evil was already inherent since the sin of Adam. The Purim story is essentially but another chapter in remedying that confusion. The Torah also tells us to remember the malevolent Amalekites; Evil incarnate. The Kings of Amalek were called Agag. Haman is often referred to as the Agagite. He is Amalek. He is Evil rearing its head yet again. "Where is Esther in the Torah?" "I will surely hide (Haster astir) my Face on that day" (Deut 31:18). A time of G-d hiding. But if He is hiding, He is not ABSENT, but simply unseen. The Purim story is then a drama of grave errors, G-d's invisibility, and G-d's ultimate action! It is the story of Man's fall, and Man's deliverance! It is not the story of a single year, but the story of world history, from beginning to end! There is a Talmudic statement that "one who reads the Megillah backwards, has not fulfilled his obligation." Who would read it backwards? On a simple level, it probably means if he has read it out of sequence. But the Baal Shem Tov is quoted as saying that "l'mafre'a" (backwards), can also mean "long ago; in the past". That is, if one sees the Megillah as a nice piece of ancient history, one has not really read it. It is a high point in a drama, but one that is ongoing. Rabbi Natan Sterenharz, the main disciple of Rabbi Nachman, commented on the fact that the Torah reading on Purim morning, which speaks of Joshua's battle with the Amalekites, only contains nine verses. There is no other Torah reading with less than ten. Rabbi Natan suggests that the Megillah is in fact the tenth verse, to show that the story is ongoing, and it is ongoing still. G-d hides as a result of Man's actions. Man seeks G-d, finds him, and all is made right. The final stage will be when the Mashiach comes, when "Thy teacher (G-d) will no longer be hidden". (Isaiah 30:20). Next time, I will deal with the mitzvot of the Megillah and Purim, and how they fit into this cosmic drama.

Purim 2

Let's put the Purim story into historical context. The Jews had been exiled to Babylon in about 586 BCE. (Rabbinic tradition maintains a later date). The Prophet Jeremiah predicted that the dominion of Babylon would only last another 70 years. In fact, at the 70 year mark, Babylon was conquered by Persia. Persian rule was quite tolerant, and allowed subjugated peoples to return to their lands, and rebuild their cities and temples, albeit with autonomy, not independence.. Cyrus the Great issued an order regarding the Jews; they may return to Judea, and rebuild the Temple with governemnt funding. Several royal reigns were to follow, during which political intrigue delayed this building, and the Jews who moved back to Judea (the majority chose to remain in exile) lived very precariously, especially from their sworn enemies, the Samaritans. The story of the Megillah takes place at this time, although there is debate as to exactly when. Persian rule encompassed the entire Middle East, and extended as far as India, until it fell to the Greeks under Alexander. Here is the story in a nutshell, for those unfamiliar. Ahasuerus became King, although, according to tradition, not by his own merit, but through marriage to the heir to the throne, Vashti. When he felt that his hold on the throne was solid, he made a huge party in celebration. The Megillah describes the huge feast, and mentions ominously that he served food "on vessels; various kinds of vessels". This is interpreted to mean that he arrogantly used the vessels of the Temple, that had been carried away to Babylon. As the Jews also partook in the feast, Divine displeasure was aroused. Forces were set in motion, leading to the near destruction of the Jewish people, and finally their deliverance. The King becomes displeased with Vashti for refusing to be put on display (various explanations of why are offered), and the King is urged to not allow her insubordination to go unpunished. She is removed (killed?), and a new Queen is sought. Finally Esther, whose real name is Hadassah, is chosen to be Queen. Her cousin (NOT her uncle, as generally assumed), Mordecai, urges her to keep her identity secret. (According to tradition, he was also her husband, and her becoming Queen was under duress). In the meanwhile, a courtier, Haman, rises in importance. He demands that everyone bow before him, but Mordecai refuses. Haman bribes the King to destroy not only Mordecai, but all the Jews. An irrevocable order is issued. Under Mordecai's urging, Esther invites the King and Haman to a wine filled feast, during which she reveals her identity, and the fact that Haman is having her and her people killed. Esther fasts . Mordecai unites the Jews in prayer and fasting. The actual events occur during Passover, but eleven months of preparation for battle occur, with the Jews organizing a defense, and Haman's supporters (he himself has already been executed), gathering to commit violence against the Jews on the thirteenth of Adar, the original date planned for our destruction. The Jews fought back, and destroy the enemy, resting from battle on the fourteenth of Adar, declaring it a perpetual holiday. In Shushan (Sousa), the royal capitol, the enemy was stronger, and another day of battle ensued, with the Jews resting and celebrating on the fifteenth of Adar. We are told that henceforth and forever, the Jews in walled cities will celebrate the fifteenth, while those in small cities and villages will celebrate the fourteenth, with joy, feasting, sending gifts of food to each other, and charity for the poor. In my next post, I will go into the larger meaning of these events, and how we celebrate.

My Story 51

We frantically looked for someplace to move to. Some money was still coming in, mostly from students whom I continued to teach. I was also the Jewish chaplain for a local nursing home. Sadly, the nursing home changed owners, and over the course of two years, the position disappeared. Sima got a part time job as a receptionist in a dental office. She held that for two years. Everything seemed to be fine there until one day, two years later, the dentist called, telling Sima not to come in anymore, as he had "documentation" that she was stealing toothbrushes and dental floss (!!!). Of course, there was no truth to this. We can only speculate what was behind her firing. We at first looked for an apartment in Island Park and nearby areas. Things were either prohibitively expensive, or total dumps. We realized that this was no solution. Several of my kids were looking out for rentals for us in Far Rockaway (the southeastern corner of New York City). Once a fashionable Summer resort area, it had, since the late 1960s, deteriorated into a semi-slum, but showed signs of a beginning recovery. We looked at many hole-in-the-wall basement apartments, which brought back to us our ill-fated year in Monsey. On top of that, everyone I knew who had ever lived in Far Rockaway had horror stories of landlords from Hell. A few days before our month was up in Island Park, one of my daughters-in-law saw an online ad for a small, reasonably priced (by New York standards) apartment. Within ten minutes of the ad having been placed, she went and told the landlord that her in-laws would probably want it, and would be by the next morning. It was tiny by comparison with the house we were leaving, but since we were now "just the two of us", it would be adequate. This turned out to be a major blessing. First, the landlord, who put on a tough image, was, and is, one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met. Now, eleven years later, he is constantly showering us with gifts; sometimes even cash. Prices for rentals have gone up considerably in the area, but he has never raised the rent. Secondly, the entire area was hit half a year later by Superstorm Sandy. Island Park sustained the worst damage, taking a direct hit. Long Beach was without drinking water for weeks. The basement apartments we had looked at were totally underwater. Many homes are still uninhabitable. There were fatalities in Island Park. Far Rockaway was also badly hit. Many houses were severely damaged. The flood came exactly up to the beginning of the lawn of the house we now live in, no further. We were safe, and our possessions were miraculously intact. Our old synagogue had been hit badly, only a month after a flood caused by a burst water pipe on the eve of the High Holidays had caused extensive damage. (Services were held at Fr Tutone's church). I have been told that some speculated that this was Divine Retribution for the way I had been treated. We now had an apartment. We could see the hand of G-d in the midst of all this disaster.We were being protected. Still, I felt frustrated that I was, essentially useless. I offered to teach Torah online. Many expressed interest, but only one couple, who were considering conversion, actually followed through. Although they expressed gratitude to me, I am grateful to them, as this gave me a sense of doing some good in the world. The challenges, however, were still not over. The following year, 2013, family and friends raised money to enable Sima and me to make the Rosh HaShana pilgrimage to Uman. Sima had been there twice before, but never for Rosh HaShana, when some 80,000 people come from all over the world; mostly from Israel. Sima went a week early, helping one of our kids and his wife take care of their children. I was scheduled to leave a few days later, needing to do a program at the nursing home. The day she left, I woke up with a fever, a rash on my right leg, and difficulty breathing. I told her to go anyway, and I would see a doctor. The doctor called 911, and put me in the hospital. The local hospital was really bad. I had three doctors taking care of me, none of whom could speak a decent English. One was Russian, one Indian, and one Pakistani. I expected hostilities to break out at any moment. The Indian, and especially the Pakistani were really nasty as well. I was misdiagnosed several times. I was to spend Rosh HaShana in the hospital. For Shabbat and the two days of Rosh HaShana, two of my daughters and their husbands very generously took turns staying with me, so that I would not be alone. After two weeks, although the fever was gone, the rash, which had badly blistered, was still there. But the insurance had run out, and I was sent home. I saw my primary care physician, who took one look, and told me the leg needed to be amputated. One of my daughters-in-law urged me to go to a much better hospital, where her cousin was the chief of surgery. He ordered his wound specialist to see me immediately. The wound specialist said that he was too busy. The surgeon told him that if he didn't see me, he was out of a job. He suddenly changed his mind. (For once "protekzia" was working FOR me!) One of my sons drove me to the hospital, as I was mentally, emotionally, and spiritually preparing myself for the amputation. The specialist met me at the door, took a look at my leg, and told me that I had been grossly misdiagnosed, and needed nothing more than special stockings. The nightmare was over, except for a mysterious, severe joint pain, which had begun my second day in the hospital, and showed no signs of easing. Just getting in and out of bed gave me excruciating pain.I could only walk a few feet, and that only with a walker. No one knew what it was from, or how to treat it. Pain killers were next to useless. Later, it was later discovered that this was a side effect of one of the antibiotics I had been given. In some people, it attacked muscle. Several people had died. In fact, I was lucky to be alive. I was essentially bedridden for the next six months. Ironically, this proved to be a great blessing. More on that next time.

My Story 55

Back in 1987, when I was working for a Jerusalem Tefillin store, three of my coworkers conspired to frame the owner, in order to put him out of business and take over the store. They were backed by a prominent rabbi, who appeared to be in on the plot, although it turned out that he wasn't, but had believed their lies. (In the heat of the dispute,  I said some really bad things to him, for which I later apologized. He said "No apology necessary. The way it looked, you were right to have said those things"). They attempted to include me in the conspiracy, but I refused. I was perplexed. Here were three religious men, at least one a scholar, who were perpetrating character and professional assassination against the man who had been their benefactor. At that time, I had been following Rabbi Kiwak for two years. I ran to his apartment in pain and confusion. He listened to the story, looked at me and smiled. "Reb Yaakov (my Hebrew name), how old are you?" "Thirty seven. Why?" "Oh, I thought you were twelve. This is the reality of the world and people. For money, power, or honor, they will do anything. It is the rare individual who does not operate like that! We must make every effort to be one of the rare individuals".I think this story is the best summation for this series. Rabbi Nachman had taught that the inner reality of the world is joy, holiness and happiness. But these are surrounded by layers of illusion. Every ideology is part of that illusion, except Torah. But even Torah can be turned and twisted until it is really an anti-Torah. But one can find Truth, ignore the machinations of scoundrels, charlatans, and politicians, and live a truly happy and productive life in accordance with absolute Truth. I have seen abuse, falsehood, and every kind of corruption over the course of my life. I have been hurt and betrayed by people I trusted and admired. But I have also been helped by strangers, who had nothing to gain by coming to my aid. Rabbi Nachman said "even from me will come false leaders". Indeed, I have encountered three prominent Breslovers who turned out to be sexual predators. I'm sure there are more. I have encountered people steeped in illusion, but convinced that they are on the right track. My job...and yours, is to recognize the illusion, give a laugh, and go forward to reality...which is only G-d. I have met people whose entire reality was G-d, and would guide all seekers, and disparage their own importance. At times of crisis, I would often temporarily forget, these truths. That is when the pain comes. Only when I, at last, remembered them, did I return to joy. Rabbi Kiwak also stressed to me that many of the people I had become disillusioned with, were not bad people, but were "broken". A lifetime of dashed hopes and shattered dreams had worn them down, to the point where they didn't really care anymore. Our job is not to judge them, but to find G-d, and put everything into that perspective.  I originally wrote this series eight years ago, because of a controversy concerning a prominent charlatan. People began hurling cries of "lashon hara" at me and at others who protested. Herein lies the worst problem, to my mind, facing Orthodoxy today. The Chafetz Chaim, writing at the turn of the twentieth century, saw a Jewish world filled with gossip, character assassination, and slander. He wrote many books on the prohibitions related to the tongue. But he greatly exaggerated many points, seeing lashon hara as so very destructive that it needs to be completely negated. To be sure, he included the times when we may, or even must, expose dangerous individuals. But these laws almost disappear in his extensive exhortations against lashon hara. People began to be afraid to say ANYTHING! In RAMBAM's Code, lashon hara takes up part of one chapter, consisting of eight brief paragraphs. The great emphasis on not speaking lashon hara, has, in my opinion, made the Orthodox community the ideal refuge for predators, thieves, and scoundrels of every kind, and occasionally murderers. They are shielded by a community that sees not talking as an ideal. That is an anti-Torah if I have ever seen one. Rabbi Kiwak once said to me "the greatest sins result from the fear of speaking lashon hara". It does not need to be that way! My final words in this series are from the theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, words that I often include in my own prayers: "G-d grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".

Purim 1

It is perhaps one of the great tragedies of Judaism that in popular consciousness Purim is seen as a children's holiday. It is in many ways the most profound of our celebrations. The Talmud contains an entire tractate on Purim, besides having one of the twenty-four Biblical books dedicated to it. This is in contrast to Hanukkah's half-page in the Talmud. The Talmud even goes so far as to proclaim: "In the future, all holidays will be nullified, except for Purim".(Not that they will no longer exist and be celebrated, but that they will pale in comparison) The Zohar boldly reinterprets Yom Kippur, called Yom Kippurim in the Torah (Day of Atonement), as "Yom K'Purim" (A Day Like Purm; close but no cigar). Although Biblical critics love to dismiss all Jewish observances, they have a field day with the Book of Esther. When I was in college, I was taught that Purim and the Book of Esther represent a wholesale appropriation of a pagan Babylonian legend. The main gods of Babylon, Marduk and Ishtar, were trying to protect Babylon from an evil demon named Human. This is still taught in non-Orthodox seminaries and day schools. However, no such legend has ever been found, nor any reference to a demon by that name. This was merely the speculation of nineteenth-century Bible critics. Even the King of Persia in the story, Ahasuerus (Ahashverosh) was believed to be fictional, until a cuneiform tablet mentioning his name was discovered in 2015. Then again, Purim has its haters. In 1966, I met Ernst Simon, a noted scholar and peace activist. I was surprised to learn that every year on Purim he would go out of his way to be in Jerusalem for the first day, and Tel Aviv for the second day, in order to avoid having to celebrate it (the first day is celebrated in most cities other than Jerusalem, with the second day celebrated in Jerusalem.) He explained that the Megillah (Book of Esther) was simply too violent. It is true, though, that Purim is a very strange holiday. The Book of Esther does not mention G-d even once; the only book of the Bible to omit Him completely, with the possible exception of Song of Songs, which contains one word that MAY mean G-d. The mitzvot of Purim involve the reading of this book (Twice! Once in the evening and once in the morning), gifts of food, money, eating and drinking. Especially drinking. In fact, the Talmud specifically says to drink on Purim until one is unable to distinguish between "Cursed is Haman, and Blessed is Mordecai". Many reinterpret this to mean "a little more than usual", while many others (including yours truly) interpret it quite literally. (Note: Those with medical issues are excused). All of the laws of Purim apply equally to both men and women, a most unusual situation. How does any of this make sense for a religious celebration? That is just the point! The Megillah doesn't mention G-d outright, but He is between the lines on every page! Whereas the other festivals celebrate open intervention by G-d, the Megillah shows how G-d works through history; through ordinary men and women. Whereas on Yom Kippur we approach G-d by stepping out of our routine in the extreme, on Purim, we find Him in the everyday, even in events that seem tragic! Hence, no distinction between Mordecai, the Blessing, and Haman, the Curse! This is the very idea of the Messianic Era; G-d being seen within the world (the knowledge of G-d filling the Earth as the waters fill the seas). Therefore, we are informed of the survival of Purim into the Days of the Messiah! In fact, the name Esther is interpreted as "Hester" (hiding). We pull off the mask from the observable world, and find G-d!. Many interpret the custom in some places of wearing costumes and masks as representing this idea. Other communities wear Shabbat garb, although it is completely a weekday in terms of labors. Kabbalistically, work is permissible on Purim NOT because it isn't as holy as other holidays, but rather it is so holy that it cannot be defiled! Distinctions fall by the wayside. Good and Evil, even gender distinctions, simply do not exist. Although cross-dressing is Biblically forbidden, many Ashkenazim permit it for Purim! What is done and why? To be continued.