Pur Is the Lot

Pur Is the Lot

“Where is Esther alluded to in the Torah? As it says: ‘And I will surely hide (haster astir) My face’” – the Talmud states. The Book of Esther presents us with the struggle with a spiritual reality of the hiding of God’s face, and this struggle is in fact the special character of Purim. The hiding of the Face is rooted in the primordial sin of the Tree of Knowledge: “Where is Haman alluded to in the Torah? As it says: ‘Is it from the tree (hamin ha’etz)…’” (ibid.).

The victory over Haman is understood as part of the ongoing historical process of erasing Amalek, an erasure that completes God’s glory: “The Name is not complete and the Throne is not complete until the memory of Amalek is erased.” In Hasidut, Amalek was interpreted as the shaper of human consciousness, which reached its peak in modern consciousness – the consciousness that splits body and soul, inside and outside, object and subject. This split opens an abyss between the inner certainty of faith and critical, skeptical reflection, and in effect blocks the path to faith. This consciousness is considered the source of modern heresy and doubt.

The sermons in this booklet try to touch the spiritual questions arising from the content of the festival and the Megillah, using both modern and Hasidic tools of interpretation: the meaning of life, the will to power versus submissive religiosity, certainty and doubts of faith, and more. These modern questions clothe the festival in new garments and so allow us to touch its reality anew. This reality shines new lights in us again and again, illuminating our deepest problems, on both the human and the religious plane.