AN EXPRESSION OF THE UNEXPECTED

YEHUDIS SCHONFELD

4 | We were sitting at the Purim seuda in my parents’ home, when the door was suddenly flung open and in walked a huge, hairy, black gorilla. He walked between us with a confident, easy stride, as if he knew exactly where he was going and what he wanted. We shrieked. Who could it be, hiding behind the mask? What did he want from us? “Who are you?!?” we yelled, half with amusement and half with fright. Then, the gorilla (now facing us at the head of the table) pulled the mask off his head – our brother! Our brother had surprised us and drove in to Brooklyn from Montreal! He stood there, smiling and smirking at the gaping crowd.

What is it about Purim and masks? Think about it if Purim is a day of miracles, why do we parade with masks on our faces? Masks connote concealment and miracles connote revelation. Shouldn’t we all be walking around without masks, the day Hashem peeled back his mask, so to speak?

Hashem is One. And He is everywhere. However, in times of confusion and hardship, Hashem wears masks כביכול ,and conducts the world in a way that His Presence seems hidden. He wears all sorts of masks, such as nature, politics, financial stability…

On Purim we drink. And just like a drunkard loses his ability to differentiate, we lose the ability to differentiate between Hashem’s revelation and concealment. We see Him everywhere. Even in the masks. Even in the pain. We notice that He never, ever left us alone. Not even for a moment.

On Purim, a day of miracles, we dance with our masks. The masks in our lives, we realize were an expression of His Goodness. And we dance and sing and laugh…

Laughter, they say, is the human reaction to the unexpected. Perhaps, when we realize that the masks in our lives are not really masks, perhaps that is why we laugh and laugh and laugh…

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