As we now find ourselves in the turning from Purim towards Pesach, these in between days remind us of the need to connect these two times. The halachah reflects the need for Purim to be joined with Pesach, for when there is an added month of Adar in a leap year, we celebrate Purim in the second Adar. The Gemara asks, "When it is time to do a mitzvah, don't we do it at the first chance possible? Why do we push off Purim for a whole month!?" Answers the Gemara: We need to connect the ge'ulah (redemption) of Purim and the ge'ulah of Pesach. What's striking, of course, is that Purim and Pesach seem to be such opposites. The essence of Pesach is the Seder, which means "order," and in general to prepare for and keep Pesach requires discipline, order, restriction. Bread, which is permitted all year, and connected with mitzvot such as Shabbos meals, becomes absolutely forbidden! On Purim, just the opposite, getting drunk which is forbidden all year, and connected with sins, becomes a mitzvah! Besides, whether you drink or not (and there are people and situations where it's not appropriate), the whole atmosphere of Purim is the opposite of order, a kind of (hopefully holy) chaos.
You know, on the one hand, all the mitzvot are from Hashem, and so we hope to fulfill all of them equally. At the same time, the mitzvot offer an amazing way to gain self-knowledge - by paying attention to which mitzvot come naturally, or "resonate" with us, and which grate upon our sensibilities. The truth is there are really Pesach people and Purim people, for example. Purim people look forward to Purim all year, or at least from when they've gotten over their hangover from last year's Purim. They long for the freedom and joy, the spontaneity and chaos of Purim! Pesach, and Pesach cleaning - well, that sometimes seems to a Purim person like the kind of obsessive-compulsive behavior that gives observant Jews a bad name. Pesach people, of course, love the meticulousness of preparing for Pesach, and the scrupulousness with which one must approach eating. In the detail and discipline which is involved, a person can be truly transformed, and go beyond themselves. Holy consciousness. For Pesach people, Purim is at best distasteful, or even scary. Even if stuff doesn't get broken at the Seudah, consciousness is likely to be obliterated rather than elevated, and frankly a Jewish frat party doesn't seem like the most spiritual event of the year.
Every year right around Purim, we read Parshas Ki Tissa, and hear again the story of the Golden Calf. The most famous question in the world is: how could the Jewish people, so soon after the awesome revelation of Har Sinai, fall so low so fast? Mere days before we ourselves heard G-d say "Anochi Hashem Elochecha,"- "I am Hashem your G-d"… how could we make an idol? I want to approach this almost clich?d question in a new way - and approach Purim and Pesach as well with the following introduction: According to the holy Ari, R' Isaac Luria, the beginning of creation was not as smooth as you might imagine. In fact, the Ari taught, the primordial "vessels" (sephiros) that Hashem created to contain His light were overwhelmed by the light, unable to contain it, and so they shattered. This is called "Sheviras HaKelim," the Shattering of the Vessels. This traumatic event was the foundation of the world we live in now, which is known as the world of Tikkun, or Fixing. In this world, the vessels do not break. This is where we strive to repair the damage, to gather the lost sparks amongst the shards of the broken vessels. The earlier world is called the world of Tohu, the World of Chaos.
So on the one hand, in the world of Tikkun, the vessels work well, they don't shatter, they coordinate with one another. This is a well-balanced, "healthy" world. There's just one problem - the vessels hold light alright, but it is a weak light. Not nothing, to be sure, but a pale hint of the original, great light which filled and then shattered the vessels of Tohu. So Tikkun is the place for vessels, but Tohu is the realm of the true light. And here too we can say there are Tikkun people and Tohu people, and often one person in his/her life travels between these realms. Tohu is when everything is falling apart, outside and inside, and yet - you taste a life, a truth, a closeness to G-d you've never known before. Tikkun is when you've managed to get yourself together, got all the foundations in place, and "have it all"- yet somehow there is no taste, no life, no juice to it. I'm exaggerating to make the point, of course, but I think most of us can recognize such a tricky double-bind which life seems to impose on us!
Let me return for a moment to the Golden Calf. I want to show how, based on what we've just laid out, the famous question turns out to be no question at all. We didn't make the Calf despite the Revelation of Har Sinai, but because of it - it was simply too overwhelming, too much light! Didn't we complain to Moshe we couldn't handle it? Doesn't the Midrash emphasize that we died with each word G-d spoke, were blown back several miles, and had to be revived and brought back to hear the next?! Our vessels were shattered into a million pieces! Therefore we fell, therefore we tried to cling desperately onto the solid vessel, the ultimate solid vessel, which is an idol. We needed to get it together, to regain some sense of control… The problem with idolatry, of course, is when the solid vessel becomes a limiter and ultimately a blocker of the great light, of the truth of Hashem. But we can't live on Har Sinai every moment, we weren't meant to - just as G-d didn't "miscalculate" by shattering the vessels in the Ari's teaching, it wasn't a Divine mistake - rather the mysterious process by which G-d brings about His desire…
Listen to one last teaching: Rav Kook says that the true ge'ulah, the true Redemption, will be when the light of Tohu can fill the vessels of Tikkun. This is what the Gemara means - "we need to connect the ge'ulah of Purim and the ge'ulah of Pesach," for the true Redemption is only when there is a oneness of light and vessel. This year, Hashem should bless all of us to bring together in ourselves our Purim and Pesach aspects, our great capacity for light, our ability to form true, holy vessels. And may Hashem bless us in all of our communities, and all the world, for the Light people to truly appreciate the holy work and way of the Vessel people, and the Vessel people to appreciate the holiness of the Light people, until together we are able to manifest the great soul-potential and G-dliness which will heal and sanctify the whole world, Amen!