The holiday of Purim, in the Jewish calendar is quickly approaching. Purim is based on the narrative of the Scroll of Esther from the Bible. It is essentially a fairytale where nothing really is at it seems. At Purim we engage in carnival-like activities and dress up in costume, to emphasize that the way things are, are not the way they need to be.
There is a story in Talmud (the orally transmitted Torah), about the son of Joshua ben Levi who has a near-death experience. When Ben Levi’s son returns to life, his father, an important Sage and mystic, asks him what he saw in the world to come. He tells his father that he saw an inverted or upside-down world, one where people who are seemingly unimportant, or weak and marginal in this world, are the leaders and people of authority in the world to come (interpreted as Heaven or the Afterlife) His father, Joshua ben Levi, tells his son that in fact what he saw was not an upside down world but rather a clear vision of how the world should be: that it is we in fact who live in an upside down world.
We currently have the potential to generate abundance for all beings on earth. We have methods for communication that hold the possibility for sharing ideas and information at speeds that are remarkable. But instead of fostering understanding and collaboration, social media has brought humanity greater isolation, fear and rage. The health of our planet is in peril, autocratic and despotic leaders gain traction and power, war and famine increase, and it seems there is a lack of compassion for others. How much of the pain and challenges humanity currently faces are in essence self-inflicted wounds? From the climate crisis to the eruptions of war and violence—how much of this is our own doing? We have fed ourselves and our children a narrative that focuses on lack and on competition to ensure that as individuals and as separate communities we will procure what we believe are our needs or our entitlements. We forget that we all share the same essence and that the only way to flip our world right-side-up is through collaboration and cooperation. To be a person of faith is to believe that this world in its upside-down state is anathema to our amazing potential as humans. If like me you believe that together we can be agents for positive change and live in a world filled with peace and compassion, than you are a person of faith.
At the end of the Talmudic story, Rabbi Joshua ben Levi asks his son what are they doing in the “upside down “ world? His son tells him that as we are in this world, we are also in the other world, doing acts of righteousness and caring for others. This is the time for us to act like our world has already flipped. It is a time for us to be pursuers of shalom, peace and wholeness. The way to start pursuing shalom is for each of us to be the first person to extend peace and compassion to others. To have faith that together we can generate abundance. That together we can build a world of lovingkindness. It may be the only way for us to heal our collective wounds and trauma.
Rabbi Harry Brechner is Rabbi of Congregation of Emanu-El in Victoria, B.C.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog Spiritually Speaking, at https://www.timescolonist.com/blogs/spiritually-speaking
* This article was published in the Times Colonist print editon on Saturday, March 16th 2024
