Lewis Grizzard once said: “Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.”
With a golden sunset on the horizon and the fresh smell of spring in the air, I peered at my notes one last time before stepping inside. My destination that evening was an audience with 45 young women from South Africa and Australia traveling the globe as part of a gap-year program in search of a better understanding of their roots and seeking to pave a more meaningful path towards their Jewish destiny.
We explored life’s purpose and demonstrated the details of how the very brilliance and planning of the creation itself testifies to the presence of the Creator. We learned that the only true path to happiness is the feeling that our Jewish neshamot exude upon perceiving that we are properly moving in the direction of our purpose in life. We determined that we can’t fill spiritual holes with material things and that the feeling of sputtering and wandering aimlessly without a purpose yields to emptiness and despair.
As we approached the finish line, a few happy tears were emotionally shed at the realization that the ultimate source of our life’s needs rests not in the vanity of the outside world, but right within our own Jewish souls.
A decade since first hearing a remarkable Purim teaching from my Rebbe, Rav Moshe Weinberger, I have lived with the knowledge that springtime marks the rebirth of the spirit, not only for the not-yet-observant, but for the religious sleepers amongst us alike (I speak only for myself!).
In several instances, the Gemara inquires regarding the status of fulfilling our halachic obligation of listen to the Megillah on Purim while in a state of a “misnamnein,” dozing off. Specifically, the Gemara states that if we hear the Megillah when we are “awake yet not awake, asleep yet not asleep,” we have nevertheless fulfilled our obligation. The Gemara further defines such a person as one who is able to answer when you call his name but is not in a state to render any deep thoughts.
Rav Weinberger describes the “dozer” as one who is a fully observant Orthodox Jew, living a life of Torah and mitzvos. Nevertheless, despite seemingly being “on the program,”such a person is on autopilot, drifting through life and Judaism without much thought or feeling. While such a person technically fulfills his obligation to hear the Megillah and generally checks the boxes of religious observance, nevertheless Rebbe Nachman and others explain that such an “avodah,” such religious observance bereft of proper thought and intention, lacks energy and struggles to give our Creator proper satisfaction.
This idea is further connected to Purim through the pasuk of “asher korcha baderech,” the idea that Amalek encountered the Jews on the road and sought to “cool them off.”
Rav Weinberger presents a beautiful teaching from the Maharal who explains that the word Purim is associated with the word perurim, crumbs. On the Yom Tov of Purim there is a koach, an energy, of Hashem crushing and crumbling our enemies. So, too, a Jew has the ability on Purim to tap into this ability to take a step back and to break down all aspects of his life and his Yiddishkeit into crumbs, into tiny pieces. Through properly analyzing every aspect of our lives and reminding ourselves of where everything in our lives ultimately comes from, we can successfully reignite our internal spark, giving rise and rebirth to our Jewish soul.
In his highly acclaimed book Worldmask, Rabbi Akiva Tatz explores an additional dimension of Purim. In analyzing the Megillah of Esther, a name which means hidden and a story representing Hashem hiding himself in the world, Rabbi Akiva Tatz poetically explains:
“Purim is the time of masks; Hashem has gone into hiding in Jewish history, He has donned a mask. But He is not distant; if one is distant he does not need a mask to avoid being identified, the distance achieves that. No, a mask is necessary when one is very close, and yet wishes to remain hidden.”
Rabbi Tatz continues: The world is his mask; nature hides his presence. But this same world, this same nature, needs only to be peeled back to reveal its Source. The ordeal is doubt; all may appear coincidental and the Amalek ideology may be found in the culture of today – nothing has absolute meaning or value, all is accident. The mask is heavy and convincing. But that should not deter us from our function, the function of revealing the Reality behind the mask.”
For the beginner and the sleeper alike, the trials and tribulations of this physical world often presents a mirage of confusion, happenstance and even a rudderless ship adrift in life’s stormy ocean. The springtime of Purim is The Creator’s miraculous gift awakening our consciousness, revealing the ultimate truth behind the mask, and reigniting our Jewish souls towards a more passionate Judaism and purpose in this world.
In the words of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l: “Religion in general, Judaism specifically, is the attempt to find meaning in the cosmos and in human life. Faith is the attempt to hear the music beneath the noise, discern the path amidst the undergrowth, to sense the destination of the long journey of which our lives are a part. Judaism is the bold attempt to address directly what Viktor Frankl called Man’s Search for Meaning.
Daniel Gibber is a longtime resident of Teaneck and is a VP of Sales at Deb El Food Products. In addition to learning as much Torah as he can, he is also privileged to speak periodically on the topic of emunah and be involved in Jewish outreach through Olami Manhattan. He can be reached at: [email protected]
