Wake Up to Torah-True Equality of the Sexes (A Purim Tale)

by Chava Green

The peak moment of Megillas Esther comes when King Achashverosh is roused from his sleep. The megillah reader raises his voice and signals to the listeners that the moment has come for the tides to turn in favor of the Jews.  Wouldn’t a positive decree or physical victory be a clearer expression of the redemption of the Jews than a sleepy King?

Why is the disturbance of the King’s sleep the ultimate turning point of the Purim story? 

To understand this we need to go to the first mention of sleep in the Torah- the sleep of Adam HaRishon, the first man.  Adam and Chava were real people of flesh and blood, just like you and I, but, at the same time, they were epic prototypes for the rest of human history.  If we look under the surface, Adam’s sleep is not just anesthesia for an operation; rather, it is a moment of diminished connection to G-d.  He wakes up to find half of his body severed from him and built into another human being.  Now his other half is distant and they have to work to return to their previous unity.

This biblical story reflects a three stage process found throughout Judaism and is present in the Megillah. 

The first stage seems to be paradise. When Adam was first created he and Chava are one being, completely connected and unified. The first story of the creation of the human says “male and female He created them”.  The commentators understand this to mean that Adam and Chava were two fully developed beings connected back to back as one. This is similar to the first Beis Hamikdash where the Jewish people felt the presence of G-d and could join with Him in complete unity. Why ruin this idyllic state? 

But then Adam goes to sleep and Chava is severed from Adam. This seems much worse than being back to back. Now they are separate and they don’t know if they will ever come back together.  In the Second Beis Hamikdash not everything was up to par and G-d’s presence was diminished.  The goal of this diminished state, however, is to reach a place even greater than the original reality.  The third stage reunites Adam and Chava as two full people becoming united in a face to face relationship. The Third Beis Hamikdash will be as great as the First but it will never be destroyed.  This is a tremendous advantage. 

What was the matter with the first stage that the third will transcend?  (Don’t worry, we will relate this back to Purim in a minute!). 

When Adam and Chava were connected back to back, Chava was completely dependent on Adam for her connection to G-d. She has nothing of her own besides what he gave her.  Thus when they were back to back Adam still felt alone because Chava was not a true partner. So why did Adam’s side have to go to sleep and not Chava’s?

Chava receives a flow of G-dly energy from Adam and then on a mystical level she creates the world. So she cannot go to “sleep” or the world would stop existing! Chava means the mother of all life.  During this sleep, they are served and painfully disconnected but now Chava receives directly from G-d for the first time. The goal is that they ultimately come to a face-to-face relationship where they are dependent upon each other, but Chava also has a full connection to G-d. Then they can finally become true partners. 

This is the story of Mordechai and Esther. 

The Jewish people were ready to leave Persia to return to Israel from exile but in order to return first things had to get worse.  They were on the precipice of redemption and then the “King” went to sleep.  Returning to the previous example, when Adam goes to sleep there is a tremendous cutting off of the flow of G-dliness, a huge lack of revelation, since the flow from Adam to Chava, to the world, is constricted.  In exile, the fact that G-d is sleeping means there is a limited G-dliness in the world. 

Haman is rooted in the source of evil, called klippah.  He is very powerful and he knows what is happening on a spiritual level.  Haman sees the darkness that has fallen over the Jews and thinks now is the time to use a goral, a lottery, to destroy them since G-d’s providence over the Jews is diminished. However, during this sleep, Chava is built up and developed. There is a small amount of energy still being given to her to sustain the world.  This energy comes from Mordechai. 

Mordechai is the tzaddik, the righteous leader of the generation. The leader of every generation channels just enough G-dly energy into the world to keep it running through exile.  Mordechai is the one who advises and supports Esther, the Queen, the feminine power running the world. So G-d is still watching and supporting the Jewish people through the leader of the generation.  

Then!

Haman meets Mordechai. 

Evil sees that G-d is still in the world and is helping the Jewish people.

So what does Haman do?

He goes to his wife. 

Haman had 360 advisors but he goes to his wife because she represents the highest feminine counterpart to evil. She says we have to hang him on the etz (the tree) with a rope, which symbolizes the tail of the nachash, the snake. If Mordechai and Esther are analogous to Adam and Chava then maybe the counterpart of the snake will also be their downfall.  Haman and his wife prepare a terrible scheme to have Mordechai be hanged from the gallows. 

At the moment of despair, when all seems to be spiraling out of control– the King’s sleep is disturbed! 

G-d increases His flow of energy into the world to give the Jews a boost. This is called an awakening from above.  In the story of the Megillah this happens when Esther is elevated to Queen and Achashverosh seeks to honor Mordechai.  Now G-d sends this revelation directly to Chava, to Esther and boom! Miracles! The feminine had only ever gotten a limited and processed G-dly revelation before, so now when it comes with such intensity some of that revelation leaks out into the world. This is alluded to in the word “Megillah” itself. Megillah comes from the root “giloy”, revelation. During the Purim story the wonders of G-d are going right into nature and that is what a miracle is. The Megillah is that revelation of the miracle. 

By the end of the Megillah, Esther has come face to face with the King and the Jewish people are redeemed.  The goal of this journey of exile the Jewish people have been on for thousands of years is for us to become full partners with G-d in making this world a holy place.  We are Chava, severed and bewildered, seeking our other half.  In the process, we invest the work to learn and grow and transform. We build ourselves while G-d “sleeps” and gives us space to become our own G-dly being.  When G-d will ultimately reveal Himself we will be able to face Him with the knowledge that we are his true partner in creation.  

The above teachings about Purim come from the Arizal.  Based on his explanation of the Megillah, I would like to suggest a deeper meaning behind a statement at the end of the Purim Story.  After Haman’s defeat and the Jew’s military victory, Achashverosh offers Esther half the kingdom.  Where else have we heard this idea of having a kingdom split? G-d originally created the sun and the moon the same size as two “kings,” so to speak. The moon came to G-d with a complaint and said you can’t have two rulers over the sky.  So G-d said, “Go, diminish yourself”.  Now, at the time of redemption, after the rise of the feminine during the King’s sleep, the moon is returning to take her half of the kingdom, but now as an equal partner.  

What is a more practical take away of these teachings for your own experience of Purim? The Arizal and his students give a clear, mystical intention to have for each of the four mitzvot of the day of Purim. It is fascinating simply to know them but you can also have it in mind when performing the mitzvot to give them more strength and meaning. 

1. We already mention that the Megillah is a reflection of the special “giloy,” revelation, that the world receives when Adam is asleep and G-d gives energy directly to Chava. This is the source of the miracles on Purim.  When listening to the Megillah, think about the fact that the reading itself is a powerful revelation of G-d in the world! 
2. Matanos L’evyonim (Giving Gifts to the Poor) is a physical parallel to the energy that G-d gifts to Chava.  The feminine is considered impoverished since she only receives from the masculine and has nothing of her own, so our tzedakah, our charidy enriches her.  Our charity sustains the Shechinah, the feminine aspect of G-d.  
3. At the Seuda, the meal, we can internalize the revelation of Purim and the lofty lights given to the feminine become part of us. The holy conversations and warm feelings of the Purim meal give us the ability to bring more goodness into the rest of our lives.
4. The Arizal’s students suggest a mystical meaning behind Mishloach Manot.  The verse it is based on includes the phrase, “Ish L’reiyhu,” a person to his friend. This is a hint to the face to face relationship that ultimately should exist between man and woman and the Jewish People and G-d. When you have two equals exchanging or giving gifts this points to the ideal, messianic relationship. 

A Freilichen Purim!