The world is filled with fear. From coronavirus to political instability – people’s lives are being turned upside down. In response, like always we look for an escape, for some sort of light beyond that will guide us.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that although in the past all beginnings began with Pesach, now they begin with Purim.
What does this mean?
When the yidden left Egypt, they were a demoralized and spiritually drained nation. The only way they would leave was with miracles injected into the Creation through light that is beyond our reasoning. There was so much light they had no choice but to follow it, nearly rendering their free choice nullified.
This sort of relationship with the Creator remained until the Babylonian exile, when something different and necessary occurred.
Purim is all about the light within. From Purim onward the redemption is continuous because it flows from the dark spaces within. All of us are intrinsically connected with the Creator. The challenge is that this world is designed to mask this connection.
We try to reach out and yet there is darkness, the light is hidden. The more we search for it, the more the darkness grows – the maze becomes more confusing.
However, G-D left us a way through the maze. The Purim story is that guide. Within the letters and words of the ancient story are the spiritual expressions of Mordechai and Esther. They are hidden within the very words of the Megillah – Scroll of Esther.
What Purim is about is finding ourselves again within the darkness of our world. Esther mean hidden. Each one of us has an Esther, a Lost Princess inside that has been hidden away within the darkness of the chaos that surrounds us.
The evil at the end is the fear that we ave lost control, but that is precisely when we have an opportunity to discover who we really are. The hidden parts of ourselves are our real selves.
What Rebbe Nachman means by all beginnings are now from Purim is that our way back is not to run away, but to now embrace the darkness we have in the world and by doing so uncover the light within.
Esther was revealed within the darkest place and from that place the Redemption came. Purim is continuous so for us she is still there, waiting to be revealed – to be rescued, but if we are to redeem her we must not fear, the darkness is only in our minds. Within is the light of the Creator waiting to be unleashed at the most darkest moments.
