An Amish boy and his father were visiting a big fancy American mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again [we call them elevators.] The boy asked his father, "What is this, Father?" The father responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is."
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24 year old woman stepped out.
The father said to his son, "Go get your Mother.”
Transformation. Can it happen? This Friday, we celebrate Purim Katan , one month prior to the BIG Purim. Where is there a hint in the Torah ( five books of Moses)to the famous Mordechai, the hero of Purim?
It is found in this week’s portion Ki Tisa: "Take for yourself spices of the finest sort, Mor Deror… - musk ", translated in Aramaic as "Meira dachya." When these two words are combined, they make up the name of Mor-dechai.
Here, emerges a fascinating lesson for our lives. One of the highlights of the daily service in the Temple was the burning of the incense. Every morning, eleven spices , including the musk were placed atop burning coals on the altar, generating a great smoke and a delightful aroma. This black musk, ironically, is derived from a non- kosher animal, yet was transformed into a completely new substance, deeming it worthy to be used in the Holy Temple.
The lineage of the hero of the Purim story, Mordechai is traced in the book of Esther . “His name was Mordechai, the son of Yair, the grand son of Shimi, from the tribe of Benjamin.”
Once again we find a paradox of sorts, Who was Shimi the grandfather of Mordechai? The Book of Samuel 2 tells us about this man:
When King David was fleeing for his life from his rebel son Absalom, (imagine, the mighty king of Israel hunted by his own son ), Shimi appears. He hurls stones and mud at King David and curses him viciously, When one of David’s men wanted to kill Shimi, King David did not allow him and declared. “Let him curse,” for he felt that G-d was communicating a message and Shimi was a messenger.
Now, when the Megillah wants to describe where Mordechai came from it tells us that his grandfather was none other than… Shimi!!, Why does the Megillah feel the need to tell us who Mordechai’s “nasty” grandfather was?
Herein lies a profound lesson-Mordechai, like musk may have originated from a very un-kosher source. However, its transformation was so complete, that it became the “leader” of all the other incenses used in the Holy Temple. Mordechai, too, possessed this power of self-transformation, and become the spiritual leader of his generation.
A husband and wife came to the Rabbi at 2 AM in the morning, the night before the Brit of their new born, because they couldn’t agree on the name. Each wanted Moshe but she wanted it to be after her father whose name was Moshe, and he wanted the name after his father whose name was Moshe.
You see, his father Moshe was a low life, an addict, a manipulator, he was scummy and deceitful. Her father, on the other hand, was known for his nobility and piety. So she said, no way will he be named Moshe after your father…
The Rabbi meditated for a few minutes and then he ruled that the name which should be given is Moshe. After whom? Well, for that, the Rabbi said, we will wait till the boy grows up. If he is a low life, then the name is after his father’s father; if he is a good person, it’s after his mother’s father.
All of us may carry baggage from our childhood, from our upbringing, but it does not give us an excuse of keeping the status quo. Make a change, turn the page for asdifficult as it is, we can reinvent ourselves.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim Katan,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky