From the Rabbi

I remember being asked at my very first rabbinic interview – “Rabbi, what costume do you think you will wear on Purim?” I was surprised and caught a little off guard; I believe I came up with some kind of answer, but I cannot remember what it was. Truth be told, with Purim approaching soon, many of us might be thinking about what costume we will wear on Purim. Costumes and masks play an important role in Purim, to be sure. Costumes play a key role in this week’s Torah reading, Ki Tisa. The Israelites had sinned with the Golden Calf and God was justifiably angry. In fact, God was angry enough to destroy the entire Jewish People right then and there. Moshe managed to talk God out of doing that by invoking the promise of a land and a future that was made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by God Himself. God relents, but then tells Moshe that in exchange for proffering forgiveness, God would take a step back from actively leading the people and instead would appoint an angel who would go before them and lead them. This is an example of hester panim, where God “hides His face” and shrinks His presence for one reason or another. This was developed more fully in sefer Devarim and became the hallmark theology of the Purim story as told in Megillat Esther. Moshe is horrified and tells God, essentially, that hiding behind a mask, even the mask of an angel, would not do at this particular moment. The Jewish People need God more than ever and this is not the time to put on a mask and become more “difficult to find.” Luckily for the Israelites, God listened to Moshe’s prayers. The Shechina – God’s mysterious but palpable presence, remained in place as the Israelites began the work to repair the damaged relationship with God. That said, ever since the Purim story, we sense that we are indeed living at a time of hester panim. We struggle mightily to sense God’s presence in the world and in our lives. I wonder if part of the difficulty is not only the mask that God might wear, but the masks that each of us wear. We ALL wear masks and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, I imagine the possibility that at least sometimes, they just get in the way of our reaching out to God. Something to think about this week. Shabbat shalom!