THE CABALA OF PURIM

Purim, the Jewish holiday rooted in the Book of Esther recalls a failed Persian plot to exterminate the Jews; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu gave President Obama a copy of the Book of Esther during a visit this week in which the two discussed the tension with Iran.

The Book of Esther, a story taking place 2500-years-ago in Iran, is the only book in the Torah leaving God’s Name unmentioned anywhere in the text; the Cabala explains, The word Esther comes from Hester/Hidden – thus the custom of dressing in costumes portraying good and bad.

Purim is beyond good and bad as symbolized by the 50 foot high gallows the Wicked Haman built to hang the righteous Mordechai – the number fifty is considered, forever – a number beyond logic. What life lacks in logic, life makes up for in story – the story of life.

At the last moment the Purim story turns and instead, the wicked, Haman and his ten sons, are hung. The secret of life is hidden in the story of life; what makes the story of life holy is God’s invisible presence from birth until death – the story engages God.

Although, God is unseen and unseeable, God partakes in the story of creation through astronomical events coming from the heavens, like the massive burst of light ejected a few days ago from the sun hitting the earth today, but causing no damage – just a burst of Purim light.

Purim

The Jewish holiday of Purim is celebrated by a concluding meal that ends in drink; so much drink until, as the law proscribes, one has attain the laudable position where the blessed and the cursed appear to be the same. The world and the news look so strange from that perspective.

In Praise of Fasting

Economists at the World Bank predicted on Sunday that the global economy and the volume of global trade would both shrink this year for the first time since World War II.

There are seven fast days scattered throughout the year commemorating different events in the Jewish calendar; today is the fast of Esther just prior to the holiday Purim. As the economy shrinks and the Jewish People fast is a good time to remember the positive attributes of having less. It is not really necessary to make the economy grow, but to stabilize the economy.

The Torah commands that the Land of Israel needs to rest every seven years and the Talmud-Book of Law says the First Temple was destroyed and the Jewish People exiled to Babylon because they did not sufficiently rest the land. The seventy years of exile which ended in Persia as celebrated by reading the story of Purim from the Book of Esther.

The Midrash-Book of Metaphor says eventually the entire world will rest the land for seven years, but before we can rest the land first we must rest the economy.

Everyone should know by now, more is not better.