Shabbat Mishpatim: From Egypt to…Purim?

מִמִּצְרָ֑יִם וְלֹא־יֵרָא֥וּ פָנַ֖י רֵיקָֽם

From Egypt none shall appear before Me empty-handed (Ex 23.15) 

The initial letters of Mimitzrayim Velo Yera’u Panai Rekam, “from Egypt none shall appear before Me empty-handed” spell פורים – Purim. 

Today is Rosh Hodesh Adar I, the first day of Adar I, so called because this is a leap year, in which the calendar which our ancestors devised adds an extra month (yes!) to our lunar- counted year. In this way we have always kept our harvest holy days, which of course are responsive to sun, in sync with actual Levantine harvest times.

Of all the months of the year that we could add, the Jews added a second month of Adar, the month of late winter in which we are taught that משנכנס אדר מרבים שמחה, mishenikhnas Adar marbim simkha, “from the beginning of Adar, joy increases.” In a regular year, Purim occurs at mid month; in a year with two Adars, we celebrate Purim in Adar II – which gives you a bit more time to work on your Purim costume.

The Rabbis of the Talmud speculated that when all the other holy days will fall into abeyance at the end of days, Purim will still be celebrated. Clearly there’s more to the day than what it seems on the surface: it is, after all, related to all those ancient rituals that seek the evoking of spring through human effort to connect to its energy, the energy of rebirth, which seems dead and buried all winter.

Who has the energy to be joyful? How in the name of all that’s holy are we to conjure up joy, on the 126th day of the holding of Israeli hostages by Hamas, and nearly three months of the bombardment of Gaza? Not to mention all that stresses us closer to home…

And yet! “True salvation,” teaches Rabbi Nahman of Bratislav, “actually begins with Purim.” Before we can come together as a community and harvest our resources together, something else has to happen first – something, perhaps, that can lead us toward the simkha that is meant to appear at this time in our Jewish year. 

Rebbe Nahman sees the answer in this verse from our parashah for this week, parashat Shoftim. This parashah is full of halakhot of a particular kind, adding up to the regulation of society. What kind of rules epitomize ancient Israelite – and modern Jewish – society? Beyond the expected take care of each other sort of law, such as don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t lie, we have laws that push our sense of who is included in this society:

וְגֵ֥ר לֹא־תוֹנֶ֖ה וְלֹ֣א תִלְחָצֶ֑נּוּ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ 

Now a sojourner you are not to maltreat, you are not to oppress him, for sojourners were you in the land of Egypt.  (Ex. 22.20)

כִּ֣י תִפְגַּ֞ע שׁ֧וֹר אֹֽיִבְךָ֛ א֥וֹ חֲמֹר֖וֹ תֹּעֶ֑ה הָשֵׁ֥ב תְּשִׁיבֶ֖נּוּ לֽוֹ׃          

When you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey straying, return it, return it to him. (Ex. 23.4)

Our society includes not only those who are our friends and family, but also those who are visitors, and even those who we would name enemy. The word in Hebrew is אויב, oyev. The term is classically used to indicate a foe, but can also refer in mystical terms to the yetzer hara’, that which is our personal inner enemy as we struggle to become more whole, more our best selves.

Purim is about the overcoming of Amalek, not only an external Enemy of the Jews (which certainly does exist) but also the internal obstacles to our ability to fulfill mitzvot, such as the obligation to experience joy. Joy is as real as pain, and it too exists if we look for it and give it space.

When we appear before HaShem we are not to show up empty-handed. Where leaving Egypt may seem to be leaving everything behind in order to become, we do not have to arrive at a harvest in order to be able to fill our hands with the offering most needed at this time. Joy is not some disconnected state apart from our day to day; perhaps: perhaps, it is more like the step by step, mitzvah by mitzvah awareness that something worthwhile is happening in every moment of our lives, and that we can rise to meet it.

On this Shabbat, consider your Amalek, whether it be another person, or a situation, or a feeling that is entirely your inner reality. Can you discover another approach to that obstacle? And can that movement help you start to feel the way your hands, and heart, can begin to fill with joy, yes, even you, yes – even now?