Purim for the Mystic

"Desire realized is sweet to the Soul."
Proverbs 13.19 [JPS Tanakh 1985]

So what about Purim? Why do we celebrate it? What mystical insight does it teach?

Let's spend a little time and see what we may find. It is well known that there are four levels of interpreting Torah that together spell PaRDS the Hebrew word for Paradise. Let's see what we can find in Paradise.

On a very simple level, Esther's story is an R-rated adult comedeo-romance that now a days would do fairly well at the box office. On another level, the story of Esther is another way of saying "They tried to kill us, they failed, Let's drink!" On still another level, it is the story of two humans that do G-d's will and save the Jews by doing nothing more than being themselves and making the effort to fulfill the moral obligations they have accepted as true and just.

But having spent many hours pouring over the text to write my country and western purim spiel song, there seems to me that there is something more within the tale.

To read a Jewish story or the Torah properly, you've got to open it and read the story lines and then read between them as well.

Who hasn't read or heard the stories of the master Jewish teachers of blessed memory and the sybolic meaning of the archtypes in their stories? In almost every story they told or used as an example, the character of "the King" is *always* another way of saying "G-d", the Melech HaOlam, Master-King of the Universe-Eternity.

So assume for a moment that the king of our story, Ahasuersus, is a representation of G-d. The story tells us he was King from India to Ethiopia. Melech HaOlam indeed! But wait a minute! What kind of King is Ahasuersus? He's a party boy. He desires to see his new Queen Vashti naked and show her off her charms that way to every one. Oh my!

But being a good girl, Vashti refuses. "Good girl!" you say. Wait! You just might be mistaken because of course there is more to the story and more to the archtypes in the story.

Think for a moment again of the stories of the Rabbis and Maggids.

How is the Soul portrayed? Who is the dark skinned princess-bride of the Song of Songs? The erotic book which Rabbi Akiba described as "the Holy of Holies" of the Kethuvim? Who was the princess-bride who said "Oh, give me the kisses of your mouth, For your love is more delightful than wine."?

It seems that the Rabbis were all agreed that women in mystical stories are symbolic of the "soul" or of the Community of Israel-- Your soul and mine. Now look back to reason for the judgement of what was decreed for Vashti as told in Esther 1.20 "...all wives will treat their husband with respect, high and low alike." Vashti's crime was failing to respect the desires of the Melekh HaOlam: She refused to reveal her true self in all its glory and thereby fulfill the desire of the King.

Okay, so what kind of soul was Esther? To the surprise of almost everyone, it seems that she wasn't a "nice" girl at all. After all she found "favor" in the eyes of her Party Boy King. When the story tells us that the King gave "The Banquet of Esther", it implies Esther was the main "dish".

Now the funny thing is she's got an uncle who really isn't her uncle but who really was her cousin but what ever her "Uncle" tells this bad girl, she will do. Confused?

I know I was but the story is telling us something about Mordechai. Mordechai's name means something like "bitter life". What is his relationship to the soul, our Queen Esther? The story tells us at one point: "When Mordechai was sitting at the palace gate..." [Esther 2.21]. Now this implies to us that Mordechai made his living as beggar, for who else would sit at the palace gates? If he were a rich man he'd be about his business or if he were a sage he'd be within the the King's palace itself [remember he *is* the Melech HaOlam] .

So how does Mordechai relate to the soul? Well the story tells us that Mordechai told Esther to do certain things and she did these things. So what kind of beggar sits before the "palace gates" of the Melech HaOlam and instructs the soul? You have it! The Yetzer HaTov -- The "Good Inclination", The Messenger of Good who sits at the gateway of the palace hoping you'll stop to listen for a moment to the words of good inclination.

So Mordechai has told Esther: "Go join the beauty pagent. You have a chance at becoming Ahasuersus' new wife but what ever you do, don't reveal to anyone you are a Jew." He does not say why but most of us know that being a Jew can make one's life hard in the face of prejudice and ignorance.

Okay, so what is this business about "revealing it all"? Esther reveals the glory of her soul to all and what is the result? She is honored and well loved by the King. "The King loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won his grace and favor more than all the virgins." [Esther 2.17]

But what really is the Soul?

The Jewish Kabbalistic Masters of the middle ages told us the soul is nothing more [and nothing less] than "sparks" of the Holy One trapped in the "shells" of existance. The Hebrew word Neshamah or soul has its roots in the word for breath. The Rabbis said our soul [neshamah] is nothing less than the breath of the One G-d that created us. "He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." [Bereshit 2.7]

Our "soul", the Queen Esther in our story, is honored above "woman or virgin" because she was open to the embrace of the devine. She was willing to reveal to the whole wide world the true beauty and grace of the divine breath within her. Unlike Vashti, Esther was willing to give, do, and obey whatever the Melech HaOlam asked of her. Remember: "We will do, We will obey"?

But now the story gets really interesting when the villain, the evil Haman, takes the stage... But we'll talk about that next time.

HaGedi