Each year, the holiday of Purim comes around the Jewish Calendar to celebrate the amazing Scroll of Esther. It is today. It is by far the most impactful holiday of the year for me. It is on this holiday that we wear costumes and become intoxicated so much that we can’t distinguish between the hero and the villain. My teacher of blessed memory, Gerald Epstein, MD taught me that we should interpret this seemingly difficult command to mean that we should become intoxicated with the Divine.
But what does intoxicated with the Divine look like? It conjures up images in my mind of holy saints in altered states of consciousness or even Sufi whirling dervishes. Yet, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, gave an even better definition in discussing this holiday from a Chassidic perspective He said we should be “joyous beyond reason. ” When we push ourselves beyond reason and decide on being joyous, we become intoxicated with the Divine.
When I first heard this, I was taken aback : Be joyous even though you have no reason to be! Absurd! Yet, if we let our rationale minds take a back seat and look at it from a physiological perspective, it makes sense. Our body becomes healthier when we are joyful, this has been studied extensively. Let’s face it, our aim here on Earth is to bring more life, more positive energy, more and more, to take things and evolve them to another level, this is our purpose, to elevate the world.
Let not the haze of negativity or depression stall you from finding joy. The message of this holiday is that you do not need a reason to feel joy!! You have a spark of the Divine in you. Joy is your birthright, we don’t need external circumstances to allow us to feel joy.
It is said that when the messianic era comes around, Purim will be the only holiday that we will continue to celebrate. At that time, when everything is clear, and we can see the Divine in everything, joy will be our default, because we will see the Divine in everything. Right now, it might be hard to, so on this day where we get a taste of a future time of unbound joy, let’s all work together to break through the haze of negativity and be joyous! Your body, your spirit, and your loved ones are waiting – it’s your natural state as a miraculous Divine creation!
Photo by neroo2010 on Flickr
CARP'S BLOG 