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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.
