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COLUMN OF RABBI ADIN STEINSALTZ
 

Life is a Masquerade
 

 

Photo: Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Photo credit: Erik Tischler.

 

 

The holiday of Purim is unusual in many ways, even strange.   

 

It is the only time of the year when we are not only allowed, but expected, to get drunk.  We look at the Megillah and see people doing things that don’t make sense for them, as if they were drunk or, perhaps, insane:  Vashti refuses to appear at the King’s party, and is killed for it.  The two guards conspiring to kill the King allow their plans to become known, and are executed.  Haman’s grandiose plans for being honored are turned around, as he is forced to honor Mordechai, and then the gallows he built for Mordechai are used, instead, for him.

 

It is also the only holiday when we have the custom to masquerade – men dressing as women, women dressing as men – which, at any other time, would not even be permitted.  Again, this seems to come straight from the Megillah, where so many people are acting and, in some way, wearing a mask:  Achashverosh is the King, but he doesn’t act like a king; every time he has to make a decision, he has to ask others to help him.  The guards are supposed to be protecting Achashverosh, but they are actually plotting to kill him.  Haman is promoted to a position of power, but he is still just a poor little anti-Semitic wretch.  And Esther hides her Jewish identity for four years. 

 

Even God seems to be wearing a mask, hiding His face, so to speak and allowing the Jews to believe that He is so angry at us that He will allow us to be destroyed.  In fact, He is so hidden that He is not mentioned in the Megillah at all.  The Talmud (Chullin 139b) even identifies the source for Esther as the verse “V’anochi haster astir panai (Deuteronomy 31:18) – I will hide My face. 

 

God’s Name is absent in the Megillah that records the story of Purim and God’s power seems to be absent, too.  We refer to Purim as miraculous, but where are the miracles? On the surface, everything seems to makes sense, everything seems to be explained.

 

The fact that we seem to understand everything doesn’t mean that it is less of a miracle. 

 

In the miracles of the first period of Jewish history, the ones that we celebrate as our major holidays – Pesach, Shavuot, Succot – Divine providence was obvious.  When the Red Sea was divided, the face of God was apparent.  In the events on Mount Sinai, the face of God was apparent.  These and other supernatural miracles – miracles of the first order – are clear, sane, and intentional.

 

 

But in the post-Biblical world, clarity and direction are often lost.  Purim happens during this very different time in our history.  When we say that God is “hiding His face” in the Purim story, it is not just a play on words; it is a basic notion.  Part of the miracle of Purim is that everyone is masquerading, acting drunk, and thinking that they are doing things for their own benefit, but it is because God is acting “off stage” that it comes together for a good ending.

 

This may be why the Jerusalem Talmud says that the other holidays – the Biblical ones marked by obvious miracles – will eventually be forgotten, but Chanukah and Purim will continue forever.  The miracles of Chanukah and Purim are part of the second phase of our life as a people.  Almost by definition, they must be obscure, hidden, disguised. 

 

When we celebrate Purim, we are celebrating a time in which nothing is revealed.  Some is masked, and some is crazy.  God is speaking to us in a different language, and the only way of understanding this language is by letting go of ourselves and the conceit that we control our lives through rational, well-thought-out plans.  He is telling us that there are things that we will never understand, certainly not when we are completely sane and coherent.  There are things that we may begin to understand only when we lose our self-consciousness.

 

Purim is the miraculous story that takes place in the apparent absence of God or miracles.  Purim is the holiday that we celebrate by behaving as though we don’t know what we are doing and aren’t even sure about who we are.  On Purim we abandon the illusion that we control, or even understand, our world.  We don’t know quite where we are going or where it will end.

 

Perhaps, we will only understand this Megillah – or the “megillah” of our own lives – after it is written.  For now, we continue to live in a time when our very existence is threatened, and when miracles masquerade as everyday occurrences.  Because we are sober, sane, and rational, we think the events that we witness are the result of human endeavor.  If we are to see and appreciate God’s role, we may have to let go a little as we celebrate the miracle of Purim.

 

 

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Publisher's note: Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is a prolific author, scholar, and social critic best known for his monumental translation and commentary on the Talmud.  He is also the founder of a worldwide network of Jewish educational institutions that are supported by the Aleph Society.  His latest book is Learning From the Tanya: Volume Two in the Definitive Commentary on the Moral and Mystical Teachings of a Classic Work of Kabbalah (Jossey-Bass, 2005).  Read more about "LEARNING FROM THE TANYA" by visiting: Jewish books, authors

 

 

 

Teshuvah: Making Yesterday's Heaven Today's Earth
 

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How can we know, when we stand before God time after time to do teshuvah, whether we are truly "returning" to God, or if we are merely deluding ourselves? Teshuvah is how the soul, our spiritual aspect that remains cloaked in our earthly bodies, can repair or deepen its connection to its Source, which is God.

Being a sinner is tantamount to being cut off from God. Of course nothing, physical or spiritual, can be a barrier before the Almighty.  "Do I not fill heaven and earth!" (Jeremiah 23:24). There is no free space into which something else could interpose. God is not stopped by any kind of a barrier. Barrier suggests an entity that is "other" - and what could be other than God? Whatever exists comes from Him, is filled with Him. Yet as the prophet says: "Your iniquities interpose between you and God." (Isaiah 59:2).  A single exception is capable of separating God and man: transgressing the will of God. Every transgression is in a sense suicidal, severing the life flow between the soul and its Source. 

There are innumerable accounts of individuals who throughout their lives were utterly apathetic, regarding Torah and commandments as irrelevant; but when the moment of truth arrived, they sacrificed their lives to sanctify God's Name. Every Jew, even the simplest and most oblivious to the love and awe of God, is still a "lover of Your Name." True, his love of God is concealed, invisible during his lifetime. But when the ultimate test presents itself, he will forfeit his earthly existence rather than be separated from his Source.

 

 

 

This leads to the question: Why, then - if every Jew, even the most unworthy, is prepared to sacrifice his life rather than go against His will and be separated from God - with all this, why does an individual transgress? The Talmud explains (Sotah 3a): "A man does not sin unless a spirit of folly enters into him." This is not the foolishness relating to any particular transgression that results in embarrassment and astonishment at oneself: How could I ever do such a thing? Rather, it is that touch of madness, the lunacy of self-deception on which people build their lives. One goes about his life doing whatever his heart desires while assuming with complete confidence that he is still a good Jew. The starting point of a transgression is never an unspoken wish to discard everything and abandon Judaism, to sever oneself from God. The starting point is always the foolish notion that one can transgress, and still remain a good Jew. Or as one often hears: "In my heart, I'm a good Jew."



Photo: Rabbi Steinsaltz responding to questions from ATID Fellows and Faculty at a dinner reception before his presentation.

Because every Jew has the innate ability and desire to attach himself to God, he possesses the strength, as well, not to transgress, not to cut himself off from God - with the exception of one foolish enough to think that, despite his actions, he is still connected to God.   The foolish person imagines that there is a distinction between a major transgression and a minor one.  But every transgression is a separation; there is no small separation or large separation - there is only separation.

 

 

 

 

 



Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi's purpose in writing the Tanya was, to a large extent, to assist us in taking an accurate measure of where we stand; not to imagine that we have reached some lofty height or that our connection to God is strong and sound when it is not. This awareness enables us to instruct our souls - and ultimately to repair our very beings.

The Tanya relates how Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev was unable to lead the prayer service one Yom Kippur.  His Hasidim pleaded with him but to no avail. "Last year," he told them, "I promised God I would do complete teshuvah.  And look, the year passed by and I still haven't repented.  How can I possibly lead the prayers again?"  Finally his son said to him, "Father, last year it wasn't true, but this time it will be!"  Upon hearing those words, the Rabbi took heart and began the prayers. Cultivating the self-awareness necessary for teshuvah is an incremental process. Part of this process is acknowledging that we may not have lived up to our goals or promises from last year - or if we have indeed made progress, that last year's teshuvah does not suffice from our new vantage point.  Who we are now is different from who we were when we repented last year.  If I did not fulfill last year's promise, that does not contradict my ability now to promise sincerely. What is important is not what has happened - or did not happen - in the past, but whether or not a person is prepared to accept it, learn from it, and to go forward.  If we are not prepared to accept our past, including our sins and our suffering, it will come back repeatedly.  The Baal Shem Tov said that the penitent has the possibility of repentance when he is on a higher level of consciousness than he was at the time of the sin.  The sign of real development, then, is that one's previous level no longer holds true for him. When one genuinely grows, his personal truth now must surpass all his previous truths so that, by comparison, they are not true at all. Teshuvah demands that one pursue his individual truth at all times.

Rav SteinsaltzYesterday's heavens should be today's earth, and we must know: there is a Truth still higher than this.  Our goal is to always aim for greater heights, to be constantly struggling and striving to do better and to be closer to God.  It is not enough to just be.


Publisher's Note: Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is a prolific author, scholar, and social critic best known for his monumental translation and commentary on the Talmud.  He is also the founder of a worldwide network of Jewish educational institutions that are supported by the Aleph Society.  This essay is based on concepts found in his most recent book, Learning From the Tanya: Volume Two in the Definitive Commentary on the Moral and Mystical Teachings of a Classic Work of Kabbalah (Jossey-Bass, 2005).  To learn more about the work of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, visit www.steinsaltz.org.


 

 

 
 

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