The Hidden Message of Purim That Changes Everything

If you break it open. Ah, I think it's cherry. Yeah, it's cherry. Okay. So, you're probably familiar with this. This is a hintage. I just want to I don't want to be pedantic, but a lot of people get this wrong. Humashen is plural. It's a Yiddish word. Humash is singular. So, you don't say, um, can you give me that hammentashen? You could say, give me those hamashen. But if it's singular, it's a one hamach. Um, it's a porm food. We eat it to celebrate porm. And it's triangular. And some say it's because Hman, the villain or Hmon of uh the villain of the porm story, wore a triangular hat. Um there's different explanations for it, but I just want to share with you one explanation. And that is that there's a filling. And you see the filling, you can barely see the What even is that filling? Okay. But if you break it open, ah I think it's cherry. Yeah, it's cherry. Okay. And I share this with you because that's a metaphor for life that we learn from the Porm story. Porm story is a story of intrigue. There's a king. He has a Jewhating minister who tries to go him into annihilating the Jewish people. Then the king unknowingly marries a Jewish woman. She doesn't admit who she is. She hides her identity, but then she has to uh take a risk and she reveals her identity and she pleads with the king to save her people. It's a it's a very enthralling story. It's a very dramatic story. It's a it's a book of the Bible. It's called McGillis Esther, the book of Esther. It's one of the books of the Bible. And it doesn't have the name of God in it. Kind of wild. In fact, it's the only book of the Bible that doesn't have God's name in it. And the reason is that it's a story of God's hiddenness. The whole story takes place during the exile, meaning after the destruction of the first temple. The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. And then the Jewish people are brought into exile in Babylonia which then there's like this war and this turnover and then it becomes the Persian Empire. Um that was she was the the Persian king. At any rate the whole thing is taking place in exile. And exile doesn't just mean the displacement of our people. Exile means the displacement of God so to speak. And what does that mean? God is everywhere but it means that God is hidden. that when the Jewish people were in their land with the temple, God was revealed, there was prophecy and there were miracles. God was revealed. When they were exiled, then God becomes concealed. Um, I mean, a big symptom of godly concealment is just the fact you're being banished. That itself, right? Where is God? Temple's destroyed and we're being banished from our land. Where are the miracles? And uh the whole story of Porm is a story of God in hiding. In fact, the name Esther, which is the name of the heroine of the Porm story, but it's also the name of the story itself. Like I told you, the name of the the book of the Bible is Esther, the book of Esther or the scroll. Actually, McGill means a scroll. Scroll of Esther. Esther means hidden. The name Esther itself has has a meaning. It means hidden. So the whole story is about hiddenenness. Divine hiddenness. Where is God? Well, the truth is at the end of this whole crazy story. It all ends up marvelously well. [snorts] Not because there are any overt miracles. There's no suspension of the laws of the nature. There's no splitting of the sea. But it somehow all works out in some kooky way because God was in control the whole time even when it looked like God had abandoned us. And that's the lesson of Porm and the Porm story that when it looks like God is nowhere to be found, it's because he is undercover incognito working deep within the con confines of nature. Not because God himself is limited by nature. God forbid. He's infinite. He's beyond all that. But because he is choosing to operate in a mode where we will need to look for him. We need to show some initiative and find him. So that's the story of Esther. That's what we celebrate on Purim. But that's a lesson for all year long. That's a lesson for life. And when we eat these little cookies where just looks like just a bunch of dough. I don't even think there's any fruit filling in there. H. There it is. Fruit filling. That's That's just like life. You're looking for God. Where do you think he is? Out there somewhere. He's right here in the situation. In the situation. In the facts of your life. Even when it hurts, especially when it hurts, when we're going through trials and tribulations and we're looking for the God in all of it, God is right there and salvation is right around the corner. Things are going to be fine. Not because uh there necessarily have to be miracles, but you know, one day you just wake up and uh oh, the situation worked itself out. Oh, just like that. Just worked itself out. I didn't even need God. [laughter] Who do you think worked it out? You know the old joke about the guy, he's going to an important business meeting in Manhattan. He's going to make a million dollars at this meeting, but he can't find a parking space because it's Manhattan. He's driving around the block and he's nothing nothing's opening up. So, all of a sudden, he says, "God, not a religious man, but if you open up a parking spot, I will give you micer tithes from this business deal. I'm going to give $100,000 to charity if you open up a parking spot." He's driving around, driving around, no parking spots. Now, he's getting more desperate. He says, "God, I'm going to give not 10%. I'm going to give I'm going to give 20%. I'm going to give a fifth of this business deal to charity. 200 $200,000 from the the million dollars." He's driving around. He's driving around. No such luck. No spots are opening up. He says, "God, please. If I'm going to miss this deal, the whole thing is off. I'm going to get zero. I'll give you half half of the proceeds. I'm going to give $500,000 of the million. I'm going to give it to charity." All of a sudden, lo and behold, car starts backing out. Spot opens up. He says, "God, never mind. A spot just opened. >> [sighs] >> So when things start to shift in your life and they start to work out in totally natural plausible ways that did not require any miracles or any suspension of the laws of nature and uh the problem goes away or it gets better or you become tougher and know how to deal with it or whatever it is that happens. Just know that that's also a miracle. That's also divine. But it's a different type of relationship with the divine. It is the hidden divine. The hidden filling of your life. Have a happy purim and uh enjoy your hash. plural.