Opposites Attract Questions

On Purim we are meant to reach a state of consciousness where it is impossible to discern between “Blessed is Mordechai” and “Cursed is Haman”. This concept appears to be completely absurd. Mordechai is pure goodness; a representative of God on this earth; a symbol of courage, faith and wisdom. Haman, on the other hand, is the antithesis of these ideas. Haman is Amalek – an arrogant coward committed to the annihilation of any Godliness or goodness in the world. As a people who tend to erect concrete walls between good and evil, this blurring of lines begs further investigation.

Perhaps we should first examine the nature of opposites as seen through Torah eyes. Afterall, Purim is all about opposites – “Nahafokh hu!” Everything in the Purim story turned out the exact opposite way of how it seemed it would at the beginning. We know that in the physical world, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For example, how far back we pull the slingshot determines how far forward the pebble will fly. We also know that everything that exists in this physical world is merely a physical manifestation of a deeper truth in the spiritual world. By observing the physical world around us we are able to understand not only scientific concepts, but also mystical realities.


This concept can be applied to all energies in the world, not only those that we are able to experience on a physical level. For example, there is a general rule in Judaism that in any situation where there is a potential for holiness, there is an identically powerful potential for impurity. All things that make the world go round – sex, power, money – can be used to either create, build and elevate our beautiful world, or absolutely corrupt and destroy it. There is also an idea that as we grow, so does our yetzer harah. As we strengthen our connection to Hashem and are lead more and more by our souls than our bodies, our evil desires kick it into overdrive, putting us into even more tempting situations than we've previously endured. It is almost like a spiritual thermostat, except with the opposite purpose of ensuring that we never get too comfortable!

All of these complicated ideas appear in my brain visually on an xy-axis. Picture a grid where for each point on the positive side, there is a mirror image of an equal and opposite point on the negative side, leaving us with a perfectly symmetrical graph of opposites. Well hold on a second – if points War, Hate and Disease can be obliterated by simply erasing Peace, Love and Health, is that perhaps a theoretical option to consider? Can we annihilate Evil by giving up Good?

When we erase all the points from the grid we are not left with nothing – we are left with an empty axis. The axis is the structure of the universe, the paradigm through which the world exists. Removing the points leaves us with a tremendous void. Happiness is not merely the absence of sadness. A cease-fire is not true peace. These energies are real – they all have tangible identities, powers far greater than we can begin to understand, and without them life would simply not be world living.

An empty axis is a world of unfulfilled potential. On one end, we have Hashem - hidden behind this checkered screen, dying to communicate with us, to send us messages, to teach us about the workings of the world, to actualize the purpose of creation. And on the other side you have us – begging to communicate with our creator, to understand the hidden mysteries of life here on earth, to see the world develop in the way in which we wish it would. But then there is a breakdown. Without the points, God has no way of speaking to us, and we have no data to interpret.

This understanding, however, only brings up more problems. It suggests that points Cancer, Global Warming, Depression and Poverty are all drawn by our Benevolent Artist. To explain this anomaly, we must return to our discussion of how our evil inclination grows along with our goodness. Previously, I wrote that because our yetzer harah and yetzer tov are of equal force, whenever our yetzer tov ‘wins’, our yester harah needs to become stronger as well. But if they are truly equal, how can our yetzer tov ever be triumphant in the first place? How can we ever graduate to a higher level of goodness if we are always pitted up against a twin evil? Wouldn't we be trapped in a perpetual scrappling match? A spiritual stale-mate? By recognizing that the evil isn’t really Evil, and instead using it for Good, we take from the Evil in order to feed the Good. We need to learn to stare the evil of the world straight in the eyes and say, “You do not exist. Ein od mivaldo – there is nothing in this world except for God”. When we are able to see our hardships and pain as challenges sent to us by our loving Father in heaven to help us actualize our potential, we will learn to bless the Evil, thus making it Good.

When we observe our situation in the world right now, covered with Points of Pain, it is difficult to say that all of the trials and tribulations in our personal and national lives are worthy of blessing, but Mordechai wasn’t exactly living in Gan Eden, either! At a time when the Jews were condemned to total annihilation and the world was being ruled by Evil and Corruption, Mordechai was able to see the real King and thus, he changed fate.

If you believe that you live in a chaotic world run by Chance and Evil, then you will. But if you believe that all of the perceived chaos, chance and evil are really just gifts from God to help us grow into better people and stronger Jews, then so it will be -“Nahafokh hu!”. You have the power to live in a world where the beauty and mastery of an entirely good and loving God runs the show. By seizing the evil and manipulating it for God’s will, we elevate it to a point where it forces our yetzer tov to strive to a higher level, thus evil actually creates good and darkness gives way to light. So “Cursed is Mordechai” – down with the goodness that tricks us into thinking we have reached our potential, and “Blessed is Haman” – may we rise to the challenges of the day!

Wishing all of Am Yisrael a truly happy Purim, where we can look back on our lives and say, Ein Od Mivaldo!