What is the significance of the rabbinical precept to drink on the holiday of Purim?
"Wine enters, secrets emerge." (Eiruvin 65a) In our lives, we very much need the secrets to come out and be revealed. Through their revelation, we can perceive what is hidden in our souls and recognize our true selves.
When we reach the level of intoxication "so that one does not know" ("ad d'lo yada"), we free ourselves - at least temporarily - from all of the 'knowledge' that deludes us. We shake off all of the accepted certainties that conceal the hidden truth from us.
We are drunk with superficial illusions. We think that we have come this far, establishing a foothold in our homeland and launching the very beginning of the dawn of our redemption, by virtue of our wisdom and intelligence. We forget that without the hand of the "Warrior who sows justice and produces triumphs," all of our actions would be for naught. We forget the secret Hand that is behind all our achievements.
We are drunk from deceptive inebriation. We live unaware of the calculated plans of the greater world, the world ruled by the Master of the universe, with Whom we have a sworn pact guarding over the eternal spirit of the Jewish people. This covenant is ingrained in our very essence. No evasion or alienation can break it. Even if one should sink down to the bottommost level - he cannot change his skin, his body, his soul. He will certainly suffer greatly, until he returns to the camp to which he is integrally connected. "His heart will understand, and he will return and will be healed." (Isaiah 6:10)
In the days of Mordechai and Esther, we willingly accepted upon ourselves to keep the Torah. (Shabbat 85) Now too, the call to "Go, gather all of the Jews" should ring in our ears, so that our inner consciousness will break forth from its hiding place. The spirit's inner conscience, secluded deep in the soul of every Jew, resists the impudent insolence and clever pride of the misleading knowledge that manipulates us.
Let us reveal this epistle of Purim in all of its wonders, set above and beyond all of our petty knowledge and inconsequential facts. Let us announce the power of a united Israel, bringing together all sectors of God's people. That is the hidden secret of eternal Judaism. Through the strength of our unity, we will overcome all of the obstacles blocking the path towards our national rebirth.
[Based on Moadei Ri'iah, pp. 266-267, from a 1935 article in HaYesod that Rabbi Kook wrote on his last Purim.]
"Wine enters, secrets emerge." (Eiruvin 65a) In our lives, we very much need the secrets to come out and be revealed. Through their revelation, we can perceive what is hidden in our souls and recognize our true selves.
When we reach the level of intoxication "so that one does not know" ("ad d'lo yada"), we free ourselves - at least temporarily - from all of the 'knowledge' that deludes us. We shake off all of the accepted certainties that conceal the hidden truth from us.
We are drunk with superficial illusions. We think that we have come this far, establishing a foothold in our homeland and launching the very beginning of the dawn of our redemption, by virtue of our wisdom and intelligence. We forget that without the hand of the "Warrior who sows justice and produces triumphs," all of our actions would be for naught. We forget the secret Hand that is behind all our achievements.
We are drunk from deceptive inebriation. We live unaware of the calculated plans of the greater world, the world ruled by the Master of the universe, with Whom we have a sworn pact guarding over the eternal spirit of the Jewish people. This covenant is ingrained in our very essence. No evasion or alienation can break it. Even if one should sink down to the bottommost level - he cannot change his skin, his body, his soul. He will certainly suffer greatly, until he returns to the camp to which he is integrally connected. "His heart will understand, and he will return and will be healed." (Isaiah 6:10)
In the days of Mordechai and Esther, we willingly accepted upon ourselves to keep the Torah. (Shabbat 85) Now too, the call to "Go, gather all of the Jews" should ring in our ears, so that our inner consciousness will break forth from its hiding place. The spirit's inner conscience, secluded deep in the soul of every Jew, resists the impudent insolence and clever pride of the misleading knowledge that manipulates us.
Let us reveal this epistle of Purim in all of its wonders, set above and beyond all of our petty knowledge and inconsequential facts. Let us announce the power of a united Israel, bringing together all sectors of God's people. That is the hidden secret of eternal Judaism. Through the strength of our unity, we will overcome all of the obstacles blocking the path towards our national rebirth.
[Based on Moadei Ri'iah, pp. 266-267, from a 1935 article in HaYesod that Rabbi Kook wrote on his last Purim.]