Dear Friends:
“The early hassidim would wait one hour and then pray in order that they might direct their hearts to their Father in Heaven …..”i
We are bombarded by constant distraction. This, I believe, is a tactic of our Yetzer Ha Ra, the Evil Inclination, who tries to take us away from a clear view of reality by assailing our minds with a constant fine spray of distraction from every angle, much of it in the guise of “important things to deal with.”
Sometimes it seems that the Ten Plagues are being visited upon us and that our world is crumbling, just as in the world of ancient Egypt. I think that the Plague of Lice can be compared to our contemporary plague of Mental Distraction. Like lice, these distractions seem to be everywhere, each one making you feel as if you are going bananas! You can’t concentrate; you can’t focus on what is real and important in life. And, sometimes, your entire life seems to fly by while you are dealing with the lice. And then, all of a sudden, you realize that a lifetime has passed by and you have missed everything. The distractions have become your entire life!
“Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokainu, Hashem Echad!”
We say those words at least twice a day. Let’s try to focus here. “Hashem Echad.” What are we saying? G-d is One.
Perhaps that means THERE IS NOTHING ELSE!
Perhaps that means all the distractions are of NO IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER.
Perhaps I should focus completely on G-d and believe that, if I do, He will solve all my problems, that everything will be arranged for me if I understand that He is my King and that His will runs every detail of my life as well as the life of the universe He created and maintains.
“Melech, Ozair, Umoshia Umogain … King, Helper, Savior and Shield.”
He is everything!
We are approaching Purim. I want to be very clear-headed about this, because I feel that in our current tinder-box world everything I do has to be very focused and meaningful. One feels these days that one’s life may depend on being focused on reality, on not being thrown by the distractions.
Why is Purim so close to Pesach?
Isn’t it redundant? The two holidays seem to focus on a variation of the same story. In each case, Am Yisroel is totally surrounded by mortal enemies intent on destroying us, G-d forbid. In each case, we do teshuva and Hashem saves us from what would otherwise be total annihilation. So why do we need both Purim and Pesach? Didn’t we already learn this from Purim? And then we have Pesach a month later?
Then it hit me!
I am asking the question all wrong!
Purim didn’t come before Pesach. The events of Pesach occurred hundreds of years before the events of Purim. The question is: didn’t we learn our lesson in Biblical Egypt? Why did we need to repeat this scenario again hundreds of years later in the days of Mordechai and Esther?
WE DON’T LEARN!!!
The same scenario keeps repeating itself!
We don’t learn!
That’s why history is filled with Pharoahs and Amalaks and Hamans and Tituses and Crusaders and Czelminikis and Inquisitors and Hitlers and Arafats and Bin Ladens and… right up to the present!
Hashem keeps saving us and then we make the same mistake all over again! And so He saves us again! When will we learn? When will we realize that Hashem is Everything and that the lice of this world are … simply lice! Do we have to wait until we are once again on the point of annihilation? But maybe this time Hashem will be tired of us, G-d forbid! Can we assume He will save us again?
My dear friends, it is time to understand that the Ultimate Days are upon us! It is time to return forever to Our Father in Heaven. It is time to stop confusing distraction with Reality! We have become corrupted by the materialism that surrounds us. We have become so cynical that we don’t believe we can do teshuva. We think we are just flesh and blood and desires and cars and salaries and computers and television and news and ….
NO!
We are the Children of the Almighty G-d, “a treasure … from among all the peoples … a Kingdom of Kohanim and a Holy Nation.”ii We may be distracted by the lice crawling all over us, but if we desire G-d to help us, He will pull us out of slavery and bring us up to the Holy City of Jerusalem to witness the coming of Moshiach ben Dovid and the Rebuilding of the Eternal Temple.
“Then I said, ‘Woe is me for I shall die, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.’ One of the Seraphim flew to me and in his hand was a coal, which he took with tongs from atop the Altar. He touched it to my mouth and said, ‘Behold! This has touched your lips; your iniquity is removed and your sin shall be atoned.’”iii
If we but ask Him, G-d will remove our iniquity. If we cry out to Him as our ancestors did in Egypt and in Shushan ha Bira, He will save us. If we cry out to Him TODAY, we will find that the Gates of Tears are never closed.iv
Then we will never again be threatened! The Hamans, Hitlers and Haters will disappear forever and “the world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as the water fills the ocean bed.”v
And we will be there, living with song on our lips in the glow of the Bais Hamikdosh and the reign of the Holy King Moshiach ben Dovid.
Am Yisroel chai! The Children of Israel live!
May this Purim usher in the Final Redemption!
Roy S. Neuberger
