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Thoughts On Thep s.

Purim is a pout concea ment,
movement from the covert to the overt.

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What does all this drama
Haman is the scoundrel who, like
between
revealed and concealed
Esther, is in the right place at the right
selves say to us? Of course, the
time. Like the king, he rises to power
Book of Esther could be read as a
1 without any merit. His secrets are his
midrash or interpretation on Jewish
bloated ego and his hunger for royal
life in the diaspora.
power. Haman conceals all this from
How we play hide and seek, how
the king, including his irrational
we
reveal and conceal ourselves as
hatred of Mordechai.
Jews, is very much a diaspora story.
The turn in the plot occurs when
But there is also a more personal
Mordechai is forced to choose
journey described in
I between his inner and
the
Purim story. In
I outer identities. Is he
many ways we are
a Jew or a Persian
all
Marranos, hiding
noble? If he refuses
behind our various
to bow down to
masks and robes.
I Haman, he will
What can we glean
almost certainly lose
from Esther to help us
his status among the
manage the interplay
I Persian elite. If he
between our inner
bows, he understands
and outer lives? Can
that he will lose his
Mordechai
teach us
inner Jewish self. In
something about the
this moment of reckon-
search for wholeness?
! ing, Mordechai rec-
At the end of the
ognizes himself as a
RABBI STEVEN GREENBER G
Special to
story, all the inner
Jew and refuses to
the
Jewish
News
truths come to light. As
I bow. The story isn't
the story unfolds, there
I clear as to how
seems to be a
Mordechai's secret
I redemptive quality in self-expression.
is found out. Someone tells some-
When all is revealed, Esther
1 one who tells Haman that this rude
becomes a powerful queen and
fellow is a Jew, and Haman
Mordechai
the king's most trusted
begins his plot to revenge
counselor. Even Ahasuerus seems
Mordechai and his people.
to achieve a more royal
Unmasked, Mordechai realizes that
demeanor. Each of these fuller
he must turn his secret inside out. He
identities is achieved by reconcil-
now
bear
witness
to
the
inner
truths.
must
ing the inner and outer persons.
He sits at the gate of the palace in sack
The story is also about the need to
cloth; a congruence between the man
tven Gre nberg Es a senior
protect a life apart from the public
teaching fellovv at CLAL — the
and s his clothes, a boldly public expres-
National Jewish Center for Learnin
eye.
As Esther enters the king's
1 sion of an internal state of affairs.
! and Leadership. He wrote this arti
palace, Mordechai warns her not to
Mordechai's naked protest sets in
cle for the on-line magazine Jewish
reveal her identify. Later he corn-
I motion the unmasking of Esther, then
Family & Ufa
. mands her to do so. It seems that
of Haman, and finally of Ahasuerus.
www.jewishfamily.com

here is a sustained tension
between what characters are
and what they seem to be that
moves the plot forward. It is the care-
: ful unraveling of disguises that makes
1 for salvation. The major characters
I are all Marranos disguised in cos-
tume. They all struggle to manage a
powerful public persona while hiding
I an inner secret that if revealed would
I seem to undo them. By the end,
everyone is unmasked.
King Ahasuerus, according to tradi-
tion, was not of royal blood; he had
married into Persian royalty. Vashti
was the true Persian princess and
I because she refuses to take off her
royal robes she is banished or killed.
She is the only one who refuses to
dress up (or in this case down) as
I something she is not. Ahasureus has
risen to royal power, but he is not
royal material. He is a foolish,
I pompous lush dressed in royal robes.
He is also terrified of being chat-
: lenged or used, which is exactly
what happens anyway.
• Esther and Mordechai are closet
Jews. Each is fearful of the conse-
quences of being discovered.
Mordechai warns Esther not to reveal
her identity. The people perceive
I Esther as a lovely Persian woman
1 who has become a Persian queen.
Mordechai is a statesman who is
I known in the king's court. He does
not flaunt his Jewish identity.

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I

there is a right and wrong time to
reveal the self. Perhaps the story is
about the dynamics of identity —the
tension between expression and inhi-
bition. We are who we are not only
by our self revelations, but by our
I careful nurturing of a private world.
As well, not everyone's inner lives
are equivalents. Haman uses his
disguise for singularly destructive
ends, and is ultimately destroyed by
1 his inner self. Haman falls on
Esther's couch revealing more than -
1 an urge for power. Mordechai is
revealed by his principles, Haman
by his hubris and his libido. At the
perfect moment, Esther reveals
herself as a Jew and saves the
Jewish people. Though the war
between the inner and outer
I worlds is over, there is no clear
victory of one self over another.
Instead there is a new and
diverse wholeness, an integration of
mask and man. The rabbis describe
the God of the Book of Esther as a
I hidden God, a playful God who
dances in between the revealed
I and the hidden, patient and wait-
: ing for the right moment to burst
forth: So, we too, find our journey
1 in both:inward and outward move-
! ments. Often we work behind the
scenes nurturing a life apart, a
sense of privacy and clarity. And
1 when the moment comes to stand
for one's inner truths, for principle,
1 or for one's people, then we must
I turn inside out and witness, loud
I and proud and sure. 0

3/17
2000

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