Sparks of Joy

Then and Now

I got an email yesterday that started with “in these unprecedented times.” That opening sent me back to the early days of the pandemic *shudder*. At what point do times just become precedented again?

We humans have a tendency to think that the time we’re living in is the worst possible time. Admittedly, things are rough but probably not the roughest ever. The context of this email was related to the growing number of acts of antisemitism across the globe, which obviously aren’t great. Given the events plaguing the Jewish people currently, as we started discussing last week, Purim, the holiday so closely linked with joy feels incongruous this year.

I thought back to other times in which Purim might have felt at odds with the moment. My mind immediately went to Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, known as the Esh Kodesh for the book that he penned while serving as the de facto Rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1939, certainly not a good year for the Jews, right before the siege on Warsaw, he reflected on the difficult nature of celebrating this holiday:

…So too with the joy of Purim, it is not only if a person is joyful on his own, or at the very least is able to bring himself to joy, that he must rejoice. Rather, even if he is low and his heart is broken, his mind and all of his spirit trampled, it is a statute that he must, at the very least, bring a spark of happiness to his heart.

And likewise is it from above to below: Just as on Yom Kippur, the essence of the day atones, such that even if one did not complete all of his repentance, Rabbi (R. Yehudah HaNasi) says that the day atones for him (Yoma 88); so too is it on Purim: Even if the Jew was not as joyful as he should be, so that it follows that all of his duty on Purim was not carried out; the salvation and joy of Purim [itself] nevertheless has impact upon the Jewish people even then, and acts [upon it].

The Esh Kodesh notes how Purim and Yom Kippur are similar. By name, Yom Kippurim can be understood as Yom K’Purim with that “K” sound standing in for the Hebrew phrase as or like. So Yom Kippurim is a day that is like Purim.

Going beyond that though, the Esh Kodesh notes that on that holy day, whether or not we want it, we are consumed by the notions of self-affliction and repentance. Similarly with Purim, whether or not we want it, the joy will come. Our job is not to match it wholeheartedly but to just bring a little spark.

Not just that thankfully, but even when we struggle to muster that little bit, the power of the day can cover us. That is the beauty of the day of Purim. When we conceal and mask ourselves we may actually reveal a hidden joy.

I don’t offer this to say we shouldn’t feel sad. I don’t mean to discount anyone’s feelings of not quite being in the spirit this year. But I do think it benefits us to think of the Esh Kodesh’s words this Purim.

The task is hard but not insurmountable. Just bring a little bit of a joy to the day. Even when that seems like a struggle, have faith that the day itself can bring it out in you. Maybe the times we’re living in are actually kind of precedented, but it’s our ability to find the joy within them that’s unprecedented.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim!