The holiday of Purim is relevant to the Jewish people today, because it illustrates how to combat the spiritual law that is both the cause of anti-Semitism and all the suffering in the world. While most people think of Purim as a celebration, chockfull of hamantaschen, drinking and costumes, the reason behind the celebration is often lost. Furthermore, the inner meaning of the narrative of Esther and Mordechai is hidden from traditional Jewish scripture. If the deeper meaning of the story were apparent to the Jews of the world, we would see Purim’s importance and use the story as a model for our world.In its simplest terms, Purim celebrates Mordechai’s defiance of King Achashverosh’s advisor Haman and the salvation of the Jewish people in Achashverosh’s vast empire by Mordechai’s niece, the beautiful Queen Esther. The irony of the story is that although Achaverosh was about to annihilate the Jewish people, his most beloved wife was Jewish, though she concealed this from him. When Mordecai became aware of Haman’s plan to rid the nation of the insolent Jews who looked to a greater God than the King, he begged his niece Esther who he had raised like a daughter to fight for the survival of the Jewish people, by pleading for mercy from the King. This was by no means any easy task. According to the law of the time, to meet with a King unannounced was punishable by death. This situation begs one to ask a lot of questions. If this was the case why was Esther spared and why did Achashverosh help the Jews and even hang Haman where Mordechai was supposed to be hanged? And more relevant to our time, if anti-Semitism is a fixed law, what did Mordechai and Esther do to make Achashverosh sympathize with the Jewish people? Wouldn’t he see the Jews as a pest to his empire?Like it is written in the Megillah, Haman, a trusted royal advisor, said to his King Achashverosh, there is one nation that is scattered around all the other nations, 127 nations, and because they are scattered we have an opportunity to kill them, to destroy them, to completely annihilate them. The nation he spoke of was the Jewish people and like Adolph Hitler, it seemed perfectly logical to Haman to rid the world of those who had a higher calling than the authority of their ruler. Because he felt their lack of unity, he hated them. Under the threat of imminent death, Mordechai and his ten sons were able to get all the Jews in Persia to fast and pray for three days together. Since they knew the system of the ten klipot, they were able to access the force of bestowal by unifying the Jewish people.When Mordechai convinced Esther to speak to her husband, King Achashverosh, she was armed with the power of the unity that was transferred by the great Kabbalist Mordechai to her. In Kabbalistic terms, Mordechai was the force of connection that was able to access the force of Malchut (Esther). Endowed with this force, Esther was able to connect with the upper force of Zeir Anpin (The Creator and Achashverosh). In short, the force of unity was what protected her and saved the Jewish people. The King Achashverosh, the symbol of the Creator in the story, only protected the Jews because they were united with the force of Malchut. This expresses that when the Jewish people are united they are not only spared affliction from the Creation, but are loved by all the nations of the world.The Jewish people are in just as critical a time in their history as Mordechai and Esther, but they do not recognize this is case, because they don’t have a clear Haman or a Hitler to spark a desire to unite. One sees very clearly without an immediate threat to their security the Jewish people don’t have any motivation to unite. Only when they are under attack do the Jewish people have such a necessity. In Israel last year it was very clear that when rockets were fired, the Jewish people felt a need to unite, just as the foundation of Israel was only possible after the atrocities of the Holocaust. However, we see very little effort to unite when the signs of anti-Semitism appear minor, unrelated and scattered across the world. Essentially people stay inert unless they feel an immediate threat to their security and even when that threat came, their egos held onto the belief their status and possessions could protect them. More troubling, when one looks to history, it is clear that without a direct threat to their right to exist, Jews let anti-Semitism happen until it is too late to minimize the damage.What the Jewish people need to understand is that they are special. They were endowed with a point in the heart that gives them an opportunity to restore order in an increasingly tortured world. In their DNA exists the capacity to unite, but nothing will change until they awaken the Creator with their unity. If the Jewish people wait for the next Haman, they are working in “due time,” meaning that further atrocities like those that were experienced seventy years ago are inevitable. By connecting like Mordechai, Jews have the opportunity to “hasten the times,” to prevent unnecessary tragedy. In such a state Jews will internally rise above their egoistic desires and create the framework for a better world, a place where no nations need borders and people will intuitively know how to care for each other above their own needs and evil desires.Purim is the time of the year where the Jewish people have the possibility to create such a world. Though not celebrated with the same fervor as some of the other holidays, it is written that Purim is the one holiday that will remain in a corrected world. This is because it is the one holiday that clearly explains how to attain the goal of correction. On Purim, Jews around the world get drunk. Though they may not be aware of it, Jews drink so they do not differentiate between the force of Haman—the ego—and the force of Mordechai, the small force of bestowal that is connected to the Upper Force of Creation. When Jews drink on Purim, they are able to work above their reason—when you’re drunk you lose the capacity to think—and see that there is no difference between good and evil. By recognizing this, it becomes clear to the Jewish people that only through connection can Jews work for the sake of bestowal and the correction of the entire world. If the Jews of the world want to unite and rid the world of all its problems including anti-Semitism, Purim is the ideal time to begin the work.An author, screenwriter, and blogger for Shatterproof, Jesse Bogner is a twenty-seven year old graduate of Bard College with a BA in Creative Writing. Last year he moved from New York City, where he was born and raised, to study Kabbalah in Israel under Michael Laitman. His book, The Egotist, has been translated into three languages. He was recently filmed by Larry King's crew in Israel for The Spirituality Network.Web site: jessebogner.comFacebook: The Egotist
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