PURIM

PURIM is popularly known as a kabbalistic version of Halloween - masquerade, treats, and drinking. But there is more to it than that. The secret of Purim is found in the writings of Rav Isaac Luria, "The Ari", whose teachings profoundly influence everything we do here at The Kabbalah Centre.

The Ari speaks of the idea of yuli. Before a physical thing becomes manifest, it goes through a spiritual level called yuli. The Ari explains that the only way to transform any negative thing in your life is by taking it back to this state. Think about this. How often do you put your 'issues' to rest, only to find them pop up again? The Ari explains that on Purim, you have the opportunity to transform your core negativity so that it ceases to plague you - forever.

During this 24 hour time period known as Purim, you can leave the world where you live 364 days of the year and go to the level of yuli. When you reach it, you can convert any darkness in your body, your mind, and in your soul.

A way to visualize this process is to consider an expensive but ugly silver necklace a friend gives you. The silver is valuable but it is an unpleasant form. You decide you want to make something nice out of it so what do you do? You melt it down - into an undifferentiated state - and then you create something beautiful out of it.

This is what you can do on Purim. Take any negativity that you have, take it all the way back to yuli, and transform your ugliness into something beautiful.

The 5 Connections of Purim

Its all about Desire!

As you learn in Power of Kabbalah - desire is everything. To reveal the most Light on Purim, you have to understand what you want to do and go for it.

Think about all the things you want to take back, the negative things you've done. All the petty arguments, the jealous thoughts, the self-doubting - whatever it is for you (and everyone's got something.) The more you focus on your 'garbage', the greater the likelihood it will be converted into 'gifts' on this amazing night.

The Zohar says that the biggest negativity, the thing that destroys lives the most, is doubt - the struggle to deal with the unknown and the uncertain. When you remove doubt, anything is achievable. Purim is your vaccination against doubt.

Connection 1 - The Whole

Megillah

Before the drinking and masquerading, you participate in a group reading of what is known as the Megillah (Book) of Esther.

Throughout the reading, you'll notice that the reader says the name Haman loudly, and then pauses. Haman is a code for any darkness you have caused in your life by acting on your negative thoughts - specifically doubt. Every time Haman is announced, you can meditate on Caf Hei Taf, the eighth Name of the 72 Names of God. This Name reveals Light into the dark corners of your life. Every time you hear Haman, meditate on these three letters and think about one core negativity that you want to eliminate from your life. Page 2 PDF created 2009-01-06 © 2008 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

Connection 2 - Masquerade Party

The Zohar says that a person needs to drink enough on Purim that he doesn't know the difference between good and bad. Yes, on this night alcohol is actually a spiritual tool used to elevate your consciousness to a point where you see everything upside down. It allows you to trick your Satan, allows you to go to the seed level of your garbage, so you can convert it into a gift.

So why not drink every night? The Zohar explains that different windows in time require various tools to connect. Simply put, this is the one night where alcohol is one of the main tools.

The masquerade is another tool to trick ourselves. Ironically, by covering ourselves up with a mask, we let our guard down, allowing our true selves to come out, which is the whole point of the evening.

The masks and alcohol remove the forms we normally pour ourselves into. We are free to be ourselves, without the polite conversation, the attitude, the fear of being honest, the compulsion to be liked. With a little alcohol, costume, and music, we get to drop the charade, to be real. And that's when things start to get interesting.

A meal is also held during the day of Purim, in which the following connection is also held.

Connection 3 - Gift Giving

Unity. The Light of Purim can't flow into our lives without unity. On the morning following the masquerade party, we gather together for a feast and afterwards to give gifts to one another (If you celebrate at a Kabbalah Centre near you, the actual gifts are provided for you.) The purpose of this exercise is to generate feeling of love amongst us, so that we can activate the unique energy available during this window in time.

Connection 4 - Charity to the Poor

The fourth connection also involves gift giving. However, this time, we are advise to give charity anonymously to the poor, or Matanot La’evyonim, which literally means "gifts to the poor" and not charity. Again, we introduce the concept of sharing without ego to establish our vessel for unity for the year to come. You can do this through your local Kabbalah Centre or student support instructor as well.

Connection 5 – Half a Shekel

On Purim, we also take part in machatzit hashkel, or raising up three silver coins. Our consciousness during this action should be to see more than ‘half,’ the picture, to see further than we usually see with our limited senses. When we really see, we understand cause and effect more clearly, we understand why things happen to us and we refrain from judging others because we can see the whole picture. While we can raise three coins on any old day, doing so with the proper consciousness on Purim activates our ability to see the big picture in a more permanent and effective way.

The Simple Story of Purim

For those unfamiliar with the simple story of Purim it is the classic Cinderella tale - with cosmic reverberations. As with everything in Kabbalah, the characters in the literal story are codes for connecting to unseen forces of positive energy permeating the universe at this time.

But first we'll start with the literal story.

There once lived a King by the name of Achashverosh, who ruled over Persia in the third century, BCE.

The story begins with a grand feast that the King was throwing at his palace. Irreconcilable differenced propelled the King to divorce and seek a new queen. In search of a new queen, the King commanded his men to travel throughout the kingdom in search of the loveliest of maidens so that he could view them and chose the most beautiful to be his wife and the new Queen.

Around this time there lived a gorgeous woman named Esther. She lived in a small province with her uncle Mordechai. She knew that being the Queen of Persia would be good for her people. And as she was strikingly beautiful, she prepared herself to be brought before the King.

Once the King saw Esther he stopped looking and she became the new Queen of Persia.

One day while passing by the palace gates, Mordechai overheard two guards plotting a revolution with the intent to kill King Achashverosh. Mordechai informed Esther, and the militants were captured and executed. Mordechai saved the King's life.

The King had an advisor named Haman. This advisor was power hungry and conniving. Haman disliked the Israelites, especially Mordechai. When Haman would travel throughout the towns, he expected the people to bow down to him as he was second in command to the King. Mordechai refused to bow.

In order to gain favor with the King and rid himself of Mordechai and his people, Haman devised a plan to kill them all. Haman used his sharp tongue and twisted the thoughts of Achashverosh, alleging that Mordechai's people would cause a problem for the King and that the King should lend his seal to a petition to have them destroyed. The King authorized the genocide and letters were written and sent to all the provinces of Persia bearing the Kings seal.

Haman drew lots to pick the date upon which the genocide would begin. The thirteenth of Adar (the month of Pisces) was the selected day for the mass extermination of the people. Remember this date.

When Mordechai caught word of this, he tore his clothes in mourning, dressed in a sackcloth and cried before the King's gate.

When Esther was told about her Uncle's behavior she sent him new clothes, but he refused them. He sent her a message telling her to go to the King and plead for the lives of her people.

 

The law in Persia at that time was exacting, no one was to approach the King unless they were summoned. This offense was punishable by death. Esther sent word back to her uncle that the townspeople should fast for three days, she would do the same, and after the three days she would approach the King.

After three days Esther went to the King who was so pleased to see her that he held out his scepter and asked her if he could grant her a request. Esther asked the King and Haman to join her in her quarters for a banquet that she would prepare on the following day.

As Haman left the Palace that evening he saw Mordechai. So full with hatred was he for Mordechai, that he resolved the next morning he would ask the King's permission to hang Mordechai for public spectacle on gallows fifty feet high.

That same night the King could not sleep and he asked to hear the daily chronicles which recorded the daily events of the palace. There the King learned that Mordechai informed the King about a scheme to over throw the kingdom and kill the King. Mordechai saved the King's life and was not rewarded for his loyalty.

When Haman arrived in the morning, the King asked Haman's advice as to the appropriate manner to honor a person that has found great favor with the King. Haman, assuming that it was he who was to be honored, said that the man should be allowed to wear the King's crown, the King’s clothes and should be led through town on the King's horse, proclaiming that this man is favored by the King.

King Achashverosh accepted the idea and told Haman to give this honor to Mordechai. Enraged Haman followed the King's orders.

That night was the banquet that Queen Esther had prepared for the King and Haman. The King was so pleased with her, that again he asked Esther if he could grant her a request. This time Queen Esther asked her husband to save her life, the life of her people and her Uncle Mordechai, who the king had honored that day. The King was horrified that the life of his queen and his devoted Mordechai were threatened and demanded to know who was responsible for this. Esther replied that it was Haman.

Haman fell to his knees before the King and pleaded for his life, but the King ordered that Haman be hung on the very gallows that he had intended for Mordechai. Mordechai was then made the new advisor to the King.

However, the order of genocide could not simply be revoked, but the King ordered that the Israelites be informed and armed to fight in their defense. Due to their awareness of the kabbalistic tools of unity, the 72 Names of God, and their understanding of the cosmic cycles of the kabbalistic calendar, the Israelites of Persia triumphed over the Persian Army. They awakened the power of miracles available in the month of Adar/Pisces. And moreover, they were able to alter their destiny.

Esther inscribed this story on scroll. This is known as the Megilah of Esther, which is read the world over on Purim. However, the wisdom of Kabbalah sheds an interesting "Light" on this fairytale story:

 

Haman was the tenth generation descendant of Agag, the last King of the nation of Amalek, often mentioned throughout the Bible. According to Kabbalistic wisdom the nation of Amalek represents doubt. The whole story of Purim therefore is really the story of the battle and defeat of our own greatest enemy: doubt.

Esther told Mordechai that she could not affect a change in the 1%, to cancel the decree, unless there was a change in the cause, the 99% realm (Zeir Anpin). She knew that the only way to change destiny is to create unity and immense sharing in our 1% world (Malchut).

So Esther told Mordechai to gather the people together and have them fast for 72 hours (three days), have them give charity and share with each other. The purpose of the fast was to shut down the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone and the acts of giving charity and sharing were to awaken the energy of mercy and unity.

Mordechai gathered the people and showed them how to use the 72 Names to connect to the Light. And each person gave a lot of charity to the poor and they gave many gifts to each other to activate a frequency of spiritual energy known as the Light of mercy. The actions performed by the people were powerful enough to connect the 1% (Malchut) to the 99% realm (Zeir Anpin) and create a miracle.

The sages of Kabbalah explain that every year on the 14th and 15th of Adar the same energy that was revealed on Purim appears as it did for Mordechai and Esther, as it has since the moment of Creation on these very same days. In order for us to connect to that power, we follow the formula, the Megillah, the charity and the gifts, the half a shekel, the feast, the drinking and masquerading. But most important, is our desire to remove doubt from our way of thinking, and to constantly inject certainty in its place.

 

© 2008 Kabbalah Centre International.