One Year to the Day: Purim and Hester Panim
Weekly message · Rabbi Yossi Lipsker
The name of G-d is conspicuously absent from the Megilla. This "Hiddenness," or "HESTER PANIM" in Hebrew, is alluded to in the linguistic closeness to the name Esther.
What a difference a year can make. Exactly one year ago tonight we gathered to read Megilla. No one could have guessed the scope of the looming pandemic. We had no "heads up from the gods" so to speak. The contrast between the magical breastplate - the "Urim Vetumim" that Aaron the high priest donned, giving him a crystal ball to peer through; and the Megillah of "concealment," read ironically during the same week, could not be more stark.
The universal lack of preparedness to address the destruction that was unfolding was arguably the single most humbling moment for humankind since the advent of the industrial revolution.
If we are asked to define our lifetimes on the timeline of history represented by the two Jewish eras that coincide this week on the Jewish calendar—the beginning of Biblical revelation symbolized by the open presence of G-d in the Temple, or...the winding down of Revelation at the opposite end (the Megilla is the final book that Judaism classifies as "Scripture")—we are obviously in the latter, post-revelation bracket.
I'm not going to lie to you, but a little divine heads up, assistance from on high kind of thing, beforehand would have been welcomed... it wouldn't suck at all if we had Aaron the high priest able to look down at the breastplate and say to his executive staff, "Guys, you need to take a look at this," etc.
Alas, that's not a thing today. But there is a silver lining in the scaling back of Divine intervention in history, and the way it set the stage for the flourishing of human ingenuity.
On a Jewish religious/spiritual scale, the scaling back of "Written Torah" sets the stage for the unbounded rush and flow of Rabbinic creativity and wisdom that forms the basis of all we know today about being Jewish.
On the wider universal stage let's just encapsulate all that into the advent of technology/science/steam-powered ships and trains, etc.
The downside of The MEGILLA ERA is obvious on the spiritual side. With no "open miracles" per se, faith and personal effort alone determine the quality of one's spirituality. The upside comes with all the benefits of "owning" that process.
The Achilles heel of human progress is arrogance and complacency. The complete absence of faith was never the intention. Faith need not impede human progress; to the contrary, it should be its greatest cheerleader, but when in its absence we become drunk with our own power, we are primed for the bitter wake-up calls that remind us of our limits.
The upside, the "oh so marvelous upside" seen this past year more clearly than ever, was the fast-tracked route from helplessness to vaccination, during this tumultuous time period.
The only thing more gripping than the deadly virus itself is the astounding trajectory of the rebound, and vaccine development. The sheer brilliance, dedication, stubborn persistence and scientific strides made in this tiny window will go down as one of the most inspiring stories of our time.
We didn't get the kind of relief package that Moses would have wrangled from G-d; but if we can muster the strength: and we must, and we shall...and manage to take this pre-Purim moment to direct our gaze beyond the destruction and the carnage; we can make out the faint silhouette of a G-d who has remained on duty, just beyond ... just beyond it all... but not too distant, fluttering, just over the edge of perception... the ripples of the waves signal the Ruach Elo - him: "the spirit of G-d hovering upon the face of the water."