By Josh Weiner, Rabbi and Jewish Educator, France
When I am at my best, I try to think about the consequences of any action that I will be taking. I follow rules and guidelines I have set for myself. This is parallel to a growing trend in both the business and non-profit world focusing on data-driven management. Rather than deciding what’s good based on whims, rumours, and ego, we have systems in place to make effective decisions.
This is what I usually do but, every so often, I throw caution to the wind and do something impulsive based on inner instinct.
These two poles are reflected in the holidays we are about to celebrate. My teacher, Rabbi Joel Levy, used to say that all the Jewish festivals are a form of madness. They are a way of pushing a part of us to its extreme, in a controlled and ritualised way. This is to learn something about our potential. For example, we could never live in Yom Kippur mode our entire lives, feeling the weight of the world’s sins. But to do this once a year is healthy and cleansing.
The same applies for our next two holidays, Purim and Pesach. Both are stories that touch on redemption and survival, but they do so in opposite ways.
Pesach is order; Purim is chaos. Pesach has a script (the ‘seder’) and is obsessed with details and crumbs. Anything improper is destroyed and removed from our lives. Purim is loud and messy, the wine flows, food is passed around, gifts are given generously. On Pesach, we tell the national story of who we are. On Purim, we wear masks.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810) was once teaching about Purim. He suddenly said, “But now…” and stopped mid-sentence. Some say that there was a secret about Purim that he didn’t want to reveal at this point. Others say that the secret of Purim is in the words “But now!”
How so? The Talmud (Megilla 14a) says that after being saved in Shushan, the Jews continued being slaves to King Achashverosh. There was no real freedom, no meaningful historic consequences, just a celebration of what happened and what they did “Now” – at that very moment.
The dichotomy between order and caution, on the one hand, and celebrating the moment and one’s immediate reaction, on the other, expresses itself in our decisions for ourselves, our families, and our organisations. Most of these need to be done in Pesach mode. They should make sense and we should think about the consequences of each action over time. They should follow rules and anything improper should be sought out and removed.
That’s usually the case. “But Now!” Sometimes the now is important, especially for Jewish organisations. Sometimes we just react. Sometimes we go against the data and common sense and take a leap of faith. Sometimes we’ll focus on the needs of one individual, at the expense of the rest of the community. Sometimes we spend our resources in a crazy way that will change the present, even if we have no idea if or how it will impact the future. Should we always live like this? Probably not. We all need to find a healthy proportion of Pesach-consciousness to Purim-consciousness.
So enjoy this month, take a break from being sensible, appreciate the moment and do something wild and crazy.