OurPurim

Esther is referred to by a name that’s hinted at in Torah. Our Sages ask, “Where is her name hinted at in Torah?” and it’s a verse where G-d is saying, “I will hide my face on that day.”

This verse tells us that Esther is coming from a place of hiddenness, which is also hinted in her name of Esther, which comes from the word “lahastir,” meaning “to hide.” So, she’s coming from this place of hiddenness.

But on the holiday of Purim when she’s the heroine of the day, we read the scroll, the megilla of Esther. The word “megilla” means “reveal” in Hebrew. The whole point of Esther is to reveal G-d’s hiddenness. That’s who Esther really is, a channel for revealing G-d’s hiddenness.

The culmination of the most important event in Esther’s life is when she was asked by Mordecai, the hero of the Purim story, to go and plead the king of the Persians to remove the holocaust decree on the Jews. She replied, “If I do that, not only will I lose my place in this world, but I am likely to lose my place in the World To Come, because I’m offering my sexuality to him as well, if I approach him.”

In other words, her willingness to jeopardize her place in both worlds, her courage to live out, “if I lose, I lose,” referred to her portion in this world and the next world. Her willingness, her self-sacrifice in the situation is what drew down the incredible miracles we saw, and we still draw down every year, to this day on Purim.

Esther was protected upon entering the palace of the King. She was covered in a special, spiritual garb, which meant she didn’t have direct relations, in a normal sense. This covering resulted in sort of a green skin color, and some describe it as a shaid, or a type of non-human entity. This was her garb, allowing her to not only succeed in saving the Jewish people, but also to have relations in a safe way, since it was only a garment of her, not really her.

That garment of Esther, together with the King, gave birth to the next king of Persia, from that night of conception. His name was Sirus, and he’s the one who helped to rebuild the second Temple in Jerusalem.

So, there was great significance to Esther’s act on behalf of her people. Some spiritual sources say she went to the King wearing the spiritual garment of Eve, the wife of Adam. She’s also mentioned as being a personification of the Shechina, by going into the King and saving the Jewish people at that time.

That’s a little bit about Esther, now here’s a little bit about Mordecai…

The redemptive power that saved the Jewish people on Purim is called the Emanation of Mordacai. It’s a spiritual emanation, based on the human being named Mordecai, one of the righteous scholars of the entire generation. That’s the emanation we draw down into our lives on Purim each year, setting the stage for the extraordinary energies we draw down into our lives.

Mordecai was said to have been one of the incarnations of Yaakov, our forefather Jacob, and Mordecai refused to bow down to Hamen, certainly a manifestation of Amalek, the arch enemy of the Jewish people.

But, Mordecai is also said to be a reincarnation of Esau, another member of the same family. Esau was the nemesis of Jacob, and in their previous meeting Jacob bowed down to Esau, in an attempt to diplomatically prevent a confrontation. And both of them came back into this life so that Jacob could rectify that situation when Mordecai refused to bow down to Hamen, formerly Esau.

Rather than Mordecai calling Hamen his master, as in their previous relationship in a previous lifetime, Mordecai was Hamen’s master. In other words, Hamen was his slave in the Purim story.