A Day Like Purim

Lurianic Kabbalah and a swathe of Chasidic commentators equate Yom Kipur with Yom KiPurim – literally a day like Purim.

It’s a bold move.

Yom Kippur is about order, discipline and a sense that God will forgive our failings.

Yom Purim is about chaos, getting sloshed and a sense that wherever God is, you can’t find him in the Megillah.

 

At this time of year I’m ready for Yom Purim, I’m ready for truth and faith to be a little more complicated.

I’m ready for a Festival that demands I celebrate even when I can’t see God.

 

I had a conversation with a member this week where she threatened to leave the Synagogue because she, ‘didn’t believe in God.’ We talked. She meant she didn’t believe in the Yom Kippur God – the God who sprinkles fairy dust over transgressions and guarantees lottery health happiness and fortunes on the deserving frum.

I don’t believe in that God either.

Instead I believe – especially in this week of Yom Purim – in a fate that unfolds with the dependability of lottery – literally a pur – and a sense of holiness and decency that depends not on the laise majeste of a Divine accountant, but you and I; each of us eking out fairer, less hateful, less Amalek filled world through our own individual commitments and actions. And this, amongst the fun and games of next Thursday night and Friday morning is why it is worth celebrating Purim this year.

 

Shabbat shalom and Purim Sameach – a very merry Purim