Masks and Purim

Masks & Purim

Recognize anybody from among the hundreds of Columbia and Barnard students protesting for Hamas as well as the destruction of Israel  in the aftermath of the October 7^th massacre? Hardly likely. The proud Ivy Leaguers proclaiming ethical justification for murder, burning and beheading of infants and children, the rape of young and old women – all under the slogan of barbarism for a cause “By Any Means” – make sure their evil will escape consequences. Concealment betrays their cowardice. Freely parading the campuses without concern for violence and destruction every one of these courageous “defenders of the oppressed” makes certain not to forget to don the mask that will hide their identity. Masks, as Oscar Wilde so perceptively put it, “tell us more than a face.”

And so a new generation resurrects all the hatred of the holocaust responsible for the horrors of the past century – while at the very same time acknowledging their effort to deny any culpability by way of “masking” their satanic identity.

These are the educated products of our pre-eminent universities. And surely they know William Golding’s prominent quote about the mask in his classic Lord of the Flies: “The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness”.

Yet, as a Rabbi, I cannot but be struck by an incredible irony. Today’s story of anti-Semitism finds a remarkable parallel in the holiday celebrated by Jews round the world. Purim is a reminder to us that in every generation, for thousands of years, there were Hamans – antecedents of Hitler – who sought to destroy us, as the Bible puts it “from the young to the old, infants and women.” For millennia  we were somehow selected for victimhood – spared only by divine intervention and miracles. Our stories of survival continue to be celebrated, each with its singular traditions which remind us of the details.

Most of us know the meaning of Passover Matzah – the haste of our exodus from Egypt that left us no time to even finish baking our bread. Sukkot has us sit in temporary huts, just as we wandered in the desert for forty years from Egypt to the Promised Land. But what a strange custom to celebrate Purim: On Purim Jews masquerade! And we laugh at the obvious attempt to conceal our identity.

The name of the Purim heroine was Esther. She was the Queen, chosen in a beauty contest by King Achashverosh to become his wife – and because she subsequently revealed her true identity when her fellow Jews were threatened with genocide she was able to save her people.

Esther in Hebrew is related to the word hester – hidden. Her real name was Hadassah – today the famous hospital in Israel is named in her honor. Megillah, the name of the biblical scroll that tells us her story, means “revealing, uncovering.” Purim is the story of history reminding us that masking our identity is not simply laughable – it is self-destructive.