Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Purim: Are we the Masks that we put on?
11:59 AM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
As Purim has finally arrived, we have to utilize it to the best of our ability. It is a crazy day of running around, giving our friends mishloach manos (gifts of food), giving charity and tapping into our spiritual reservoir during our festive Purim meal.
We sometimes get carried away with the craziness of the day and miss a golden opportunity to pray for whatever we need. We use the physical world and its attributes to delve closer into the spiritual.
The real test of a person is to see how they use this world for spiritual things. This is why Purim is compared to Yom Kippur even though they seem like polar opposites. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, soul searching and wanting to change while Purim is a day of feasting, drinking and merry making!
If that is the case, how can we even compare the two? Purim in essence can be like Yom Kippur if we use the day properly. Even though we feast and have fun, the essence of the holiday is to remember the almost destruction that befell the Jewish people and how G-d saved us.
Even though G-d's name is not mentioned in the entire megillah, we see time and again as the story unfolds how G-d has orchestrated everything! Esther "somehow" gets picked to be the queen, Haman rushes to see the king to have Mordechai killed and has to parade him around for saving the king's life.which ultimately leads to his downfall...and many other things as well.
Each one is integral to Haman's downfall and he even dies by his own motto. Amalek, who Haman is an offshoot of, does not believe in the supernatural and when he is pinned down by angels on Esther's bed, the king could not believe that he would try and conquer his wife right in front of him.
What could Haman say? He was pinned down by angels and couldn't move? Achashverosh would have laughed at him because Amalek doesn't believe in angels!! So we see that Haman cannot even save himself!
Another thing we have to keep in mind is all the goodness that G-d has bestowed upon this. This is the reason on this day we give more money to charity than food gifts. Although there is an obligation to give these food gifts to our friends, we should spend more money on giving to the poor and help make them happy.
This accomplished two things. One is that we help another person and second is that we realize how much G-d has given us and appreciate things even more! This allows to have gratitude to the one above while at the same time helping others.
During the day as the music blasts, we watch others including ourselves act in a way which we normally wouldn't during the year. This allows us to put on masks, disguise ourselves but really truly see our inner selves as who we really are.
When a person drinks, he has less inhibitions and the essence of a person comes out. If what comes out are truly inspiring words of Torah and wanting to draw close to G-d, then that person has successfully integrated what he learns into their everyday life.
Have a happy and meaningful Purim!!!!!!!!!!!
We sometimes get carried away with the craziness of the day and miss a golden opportunity to pray for whatever we need. We use the physical world and its attributes to delve closer into the spiritual.
The real test of a person is to see how they use this world for spiritual things. This is why Purim is compared to Yom Kippur even though they seem like polar opposites. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, soul searching and wanting to change while Purim is a day of feasting, drinking and merry making!
If that is the case, how can we even compare the two? Purim in essence can be like Yom Kippur if we use the day properly. Even though we feast and have fun, the essence of the holiday is to remember the almost destruction that befell the Jewish people and how G-d saved us.
Even though G-d's name is not mentioned in the entire megillah, we see time and again as the story unfolds how G-d has orchestrated everything! Esther "somehow" gets picked to be the queen, Haman rushes to see the king to have Mordechai killed and has to parade him around for saving the king's life.which ultimately leads to his downfall...and many other things as well.
Each one is integral to Haman's downfall and he even dies by his own motto. Amalek, who Haman is an offshoot of, does not believe in the supernatural and when he is pinned down by angels on Esther's bed, the king could not believe that he would try and conquer his wife right in front of him.
What could Haman say? He was pinned down by angels and couldn't move? Achashverosh would have laughed at him because Amalek doesn't believe in angels!! So we see that Haman cannot even save himself!
Another thing we have to keep in mind is all the goodness that G-d has bestowed upon this. This is the reason on this day we give more money to charity than food gifts. Although there is an obligation to give these food gifts to our friends, we should spend more money on giving to the poor and help make them happy.
This accomplished two things. One is that we help another person and second is that we realize how much G-d has given us and appreciate things even more! This allows to have gratitude to the one above while at the same time helping others.
During the day as the music blasts, we watch others including ourselves act in a way which we normally wouldn't during the year. This allows us to put on masks, disguise ourselves but really truly see our inner selves as who we really are.
When a person drinks, he has less inhibitions and the essence of a person comes out. If what comes out are truly inspiring words of Torah and wanting to draw close to G-d, then that person has successfully integrated what he learns into their everyday life.
Have a happy and meaningful Purim!!!!!!!!!!!
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