PURIM: Todo es Luz

All is Light, and Light is all.

Purim is a day that will be for all of eternity, for we learn in the Bible that following the Final Redemption, when we are escorted by God into the world of unconditional love, there is but one day that shall remain, and that day is Purim.

The spiritual concept of certainty is one that we speak of often in our studies at The Kabbalah Centre. Certainty is the knowledge that the Light is in everything and everyone; that there is no situation or person who is without good. Everything is from the Light and of the Light and, as such, everything is to the benefit of our individual and global evolution. We live in a world of chaos, where it is so easy to lose this certainty. Sure, we may have it when the chips are up and life is going according to our plans, but what happens when life throws us the unexpected? Do we say, “Wait a minute, this isn’t right!” or do we embrace that it must be right, that all situations the Creator places before us are meant to teach us something, and that by learning its lessons we can be brought into a better way of life.

"Certainty is the knowledge that the Light is in everything and everyone."

One might say certainty is the understanding that even in the darkness there is Light. But I think it goes much deeper than that. The most profound certainty is knowing that there is no darkness at all. This is the power of Purim. It is said that on this day, we should achieve a level of consciousness where Haman, who represents the evil inclination, and Mordechay, who is representative of the Light, are indistinguishable. What this means for each of us is that for these 24 hours, there is an energy available in the universe that can help us tune our consciousness to the Light. It is often said that angels have no free will—but, in fact, they do. They have the same freedom we do, yet angels see the totality of the Light of the Creator with no veils creating an illusion of darkness. This means that all they see is Light. If we could tell what is light and what is darkness with totally clarity, who would choose darkness? To give us the ability to choose the Light of our own free will, the Creator concealed it. It is also said that Moses achieved a level of angel, letting us know that Moses reached a state of consciousness where he saw everything as Light.

This is called the Tree of Life consciousness. Unlike the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Moses no longer viewed life as good and evil. This is the gift of Purim.

"May the energy we receive on Purim sustain us with the ability to see through God’s eyes."

Not even Yom Kippur, one of the highest of the Holy Days, is as powerful as the Light of Purim, for Yom Kippurim means: A day likePurim! Yom Kippur is like Purim, but it is not Purim. On Yom Kippur, we ask forgiveness for the multitude of things we have done in the past year that were not so spiritually correct. On Purim, these restrictions are not necessary. We are granted the forgiveness freely from the Creator. Why is this? Because in the Creator’s eyes, there is nothing to seek forgiveness for. From where the Creator abides, we are already in our perfected state.

The process for us to get there only exists in the level of Malchut or Kingdom— this physical world. At the time of the Final Redemption, we will see how even the times we have made mistakes or spiritually fallen were all part of a Divinely constructed plan to bring us closer to the Creator. When we fall, we see the moment in which there is darkness. But from the perspective of the Infinite, there is no darkness as each moment is meant to inch us ever closer to the Light. This is certainty.

May the energy we receive on Purim sustain us with the ability to see through God’s eyes. May we look upon every person as perfect, every circumstance as good, and every living being as holy—including ourselves. May we understand— nay, may we know—with every fiber of our being that all is Light, and Light is all.

Perhaps if we can make this our consciousness for these 24 hours, then we can see every day become Purim in our lifetime.