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February 16, 2015

Purim is the happiest festival of the year. The epic story of Esther with its happy end, the delicious Haman’s ears, costumes, and of course, mandatory over consumption of alcohol make it by far the most fun Jewish festival.

As Purim approaches this year, the story of Haman, Mordechai, and the rest of the protagonists, takes on a special meaning. It seems as though Haman has come to life, looking at us through the hate-filled stares of anti-Semitic zealots that have surfaced seemingly from nowhere.

Long ago, my teacher, Rav Baruch Ashlag, the firstborn son and successor of Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), author of the Sulam commentary on The Book of Zohar, taught me that Purim stands for much more than stuffed pastries and bad wine. He taught me that a year represents an entire circle of spiritual corrections one performs upon oneself in one’s relation to others.

The year begins at Passover, he told me, which marks one’s first connection with the upper force, the Creator of the world. This is attained by overcoming one’s self-centeredness and achieving the first degree of unity with others. The year continues through the festivals, which mark one’s ascents toward the highest spiritual degree: “love your neighbor as yourself.”

According to the wisdom Kabbalah, when a person reaches the highest degree, it is regarded as being in a state called “Purim.” In that state, our qualities are fully corrected, and we are working in complete harmony with nature and with people, implementing the greatest, most inclusive commandment: “love your neighbor as yourself.”

These days, many people feel that we are living in a special time. Human society is going through fundamental changes that unfold at a rate that is accelerating exponentially.

The traditional social structures that have held us together are crumbling before our eyes. People used to feel loyal to their families, hometowns, and countries. Now none of that remains. We have no qualms relocating to different countries; we readily move from town to town, and divorce rates are accelerating so fast that the concept of the same mother and father to all the children in a family will soon become a bygone spectacle.

The reason for this disintegration is our growing self-centeredness and alienation from each other. At the same time, the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent, and the conflict between people’s desire to keep to themselves, and their compulsory connection to others, is putting our society on the edge of a cliff.

Since we cannot disengage from one another, the only solution to humanity’s plight is to connect. However, the only way we can connect is if we start caring for each other, and we have no clue how to accomplish it. We are captive in our own alienation.
At such a time, Haman awakens and threatens to destroy the Jews. Why? How is Haman connected to the global social crisis?

The insightful words of Rabbi Azarya Figo, in his book Binah Leitim [Understanding for Occasions], answer these questions, and also how to counter his attempts to destroy us (italics are mine): The foundation of the wickedness of evil Haman … is what he had begun to argue, ‘There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed.’ He cast his filth saying that that nation deserves to be destroyed, for separation rules among them, they are all full of strife and quarrel, and their hearts are far from one another. However, [the Creator] took preventive measures … by hastening Israel to unite and cling to one another … and this is what saved them, as in the verse, ‘Go, gather together all the Jews.’”

Another great example of the paramount importance that spiritual leaders throughout the generations have attributed to unity against the awakening of Haman comes from Rabbi Yehuda Leib Altar (the ADMOR of Gur) in the book Sefat Emet (Language of Truth): “To the extent that Israel unite, Amalek falls. This is why Haman said, ‘scattered abroad and dispersed,’ as he felt that sin caused them to lose their unity. This is also why Esther said, ‘Gather all the Jews.’”

The world today is desperately in need of unity. People are looking at us, and like Haman, they feel that we are spreading disunity, and therefore triggering the disintegration of society. As a result, they blame us for causing all the wars and all the problems in the world. They are desperate, and their anger is becoming violent.

But we can offset this trajectory. Just as the Jews in Persia were triumphant through their unity, we can unite and eliminate anti-Semitism.

The difference between then and now, however, is that now our obligation is to unite not just in order to save our own lives, but first and foremost in order to save the world. Without unity, human society will collapse into a state of endless war. Since Jews have always championed, and previously implemented, unity as the solution to all problems, now all eyes are turned to us with a demand to set the path to unity.

Our current attitude toward each other is a recipe for self-destruction. We cannot stop quarreling between right and left, rich and poor, and Ashkenazim and Sephardim. By doing so we are showing the world precisely what Haman had pointed out: that we are scattered and dispersed. We are giving an example of disunity instead of unity. The solution, therefore, is to do the opposite.

We need not suppress or even play down our differences. On the contrary, the more conspicuous our disagreements, the more impressive our unity will be when we unite above them. These differences will only make us a more outstanding example of unity. Since this is what the world needs most, the hatred toward us will dissolve at once.

Our people is a people of love. We have given the world the motto, “love your neighbor as yourself,” but we are manifesting the opposite. When we decide together to start caring for each other in genuine mutual responsibility, we will truly be a “light for the nations,” and we will celebrate a worldwide Purim with all of humanity.

Happy Purim.

 

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