* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
To all those with kids wearing costumes to school, here’s something for you from Rabbi Yoni Lavi:
“You hold the hand of your daughter, dressed up as a little princess, and together you go to her kindergarten class. A multi-colored river of knights and brides floods the street, yet a troubling question keeps rattling your brain: ‘What kind of strange custom is this?’
You separate from your princess with a hug and a kiss while other costumed kids pass by and you start to think: Perhaps dressing up is not just a once-a-year phenomenon but an everyday reality? Perhaps Purim only comes to reveal the secret that we live in a world of make believe and masks, that everything is just for show, that behind the fakery and the makeup, the photoshop and the permanent smile, exists the potential for a different, more authentic reality.
You cross the street quickly when opposite you a cute dinosaur holds the hand of his sister, dressed up as a squaw. Or perhaps Purim comes to tell us that there is no limit to our imaginations? That if we only believe everything is still possible, it can be? Perhaps this holiday comes to reveal that if we thought until today that “this is who I am and I can’t do anything about it,” suddenly we understand that it’s possible to change everything and to be someone completely different.
You get in your car and drive home in the usual traffic jam, ready for another day of work, and continue to wonder: Does life have to look like this? Has a decree been handed down that my destiny is immune to change? Or perhaps just as in a child’s world, when one clear morning has the capacity to change everything and paint the world in brilliant new colors, the hope for adults to change is never lost.
Perhaps the secret of Purim, that everything can be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, is not meant for one day a year, but contains within it an invitation to adopt an altogether different perspective on life. If we accept this invitation with an open heart, it can illuminate our lives with a different light — not only on Purim, but in every moment that we choose to remove our masks and connect anew to God, when he is seemingly hidden behind the mask of reality, and discover the wonder of reinventing and renewing ourselves through our connection to Him.
Perhaps this is the true essence of Purim — that God acts even when He is hidden, that reality is more flexible than it seems, and that the power to change the story of our lives is within our grasp and can happen any day we choose.
Happy Purim!”
