TETZAVEH 1982

Pretty soon the holiday of Purim will be here.  Purim is a happy, carefree, frolicking kind of holiday.  We wear costumes.  We make noise.  We drink a little bit too much.  It has a carnival atmosphere to it.  It seems to be a minor little holiday.  However, the Rabbis tell us that this is not so, that Purim is really an important holiday.  They even go so far as to say that in the time of the Messiah all other holidays will cease to exist but Purim will not.  It will still be celebrated.  They also say that Yam Kippur, which is known as Yom Kippurim, gains its significance from Purim.  In Hebrew the word Yom means day and Ki means like.  In other words, Yom Kippur is a day like Purim.  How can this be?  We do not eat chomentashin on Yom Kippur.  We fast.  Yom Kippur is a solemn day.  Purim is a happy, frolicking, spoofing day.  How can Purim be compared to Yom Kippur?  But the Rabbis tell us that this is so.  Purim is the day which teaches us all that things are not like they seem.  That's why we have masks and costumes.  Reality is not always what it appears to be.  We must look very carefully to find out what is real and what is not.  It also teaches us that all of us are vulnerable.  The very name for Purim means lots and one of the central motifs of Yom Kippur was the casting of lots to see which goat would go to the altar and which would go into the wilderness.  You cannot always tell who is strong and who is weak.  On Yom Kippur we are urged to tear away the masks of indolence and bad habits from ourselves.  We do not have to do bad things.  Each of us has potential.  We can do great things.  On Purim, too, we are urged to look at what's real in the world.  It's not always physical strength, weapons, wealth which are the true reality.  If anyone would have said in 1906 that there would be a State of Israel no one would believe you.  The great author, Proust, was himself Jewish and equated in his novels the word Zionist with fool.  To be a Zionist was to be a fool, but he believed that there would never be another war, that world peace was assured.  Even Winston Churchill got up in the English Parliament in the same year and said there would never be another war.  After all, the ruling families were intermarried, the Christian countries controlled the world.  It would be impossible but we know that turned out not to be reality.  None of us should ever despair.  True strength comes from leading moral decent lives following the teachings of the Torah.

Throughout the whole Megillah G‑d's name is not mentioned once, but G‑d acts in the world without even seeming to do so.  The word for world in Hebrew, Olom, comes from the same word as to be hidden.  The world is full of hidden potentiality, of hidden promise.  It is our job to make it come alive.  We Jews should never give up hope.  We should never despair.  It is true we are vulnerable but G‑d has promised we will always exist.  In the Torah portion, Tetzaveh, we learn that Moshe was commanded to tell the Jewish people to bring to him pure olive oil.  Pure olive oil is the symbol of the teachings of the Torah.  Aaron and his sons would be in charge of the services in the Tabernacle, but Moshe was really given a bigger gift.  He was given the ability to teach the people.  The Temple might be destroyed, but the Jewish people would be eternal as long as they followed the teachings of the Torah.  Moshe's job was to teach them.  Its up to us to see the real reality, to take away the mask of the world.  We are supposed to make manifest the hidden potentialities of the world.  Things are not always what they seem.

The story about the woman who came to a lawyer and said that she wanted to get a divorce.  The lawyer asked her if she had any grounds.  She said, "Yes,    of an acre".  He then asked her if she had a grudge.  She said, no, but she had a very good carport.  He then asked her if her husband beat her up.  She said, no, she gets up an hour before he does every morning.  He then asked her why she wanted a divorce and she said, "Because I cannot carry on an intelligent conversation with my husband".  Things are not always the way they seem.  Let none of us ever despair.