Ruth Askren - Purim Masks

Purim Masks

March 15, 1008

Ruth Askren

Today I would like to explore the tradition of wearing masks at Purim time. Let me start with a story from years ago.

When my kids were very young, they would ask me to explain to them all sorts of things that were unexplainable. Why is the sky blue. Where does God live. What’s on the other side of the stars. I would fumble along and do my best to give early-childhood answers to the questions of the millennia. And for one of those questions, I hit on an answer that I often think of at Purim time. The child sees someone walking down the street-. And the question would come, “Mommy, who is that?” And the invention I came up with that satisfied the child was, “That, is Somebody That We Don’t Know.” Somebody That We Don’t Know became our name for all strangers.

Even the young child recognizes the attraction in the Stranger. We don’t know who they are, yet here they walk among us. We don’t recognize their face: who could that be inside of them? Their anonymity itself makes one curious about them. What if for a moment, I could be some one else too, thinks the child. Could I understand or unravel the secrets of human destiny? Or by wearing a disguise, could I go from Clark Kent to Superman and save the innocent like Esther did? Then we begin to think of all the heroes and villains we would like to understand if we could only be them for an evening. On Purim, we put on a mask and acknowledge the essential hiddenness of all, all that we can’t know, and especially of the Other, the Stranger.

Masquerading at Purim time began in Renaissance Italy when the Jews there watched the Catholic Carnival festivities. Masks seem like a natural companion to the other traditions of Purim merrymaking. Loud noisy cheering and booing, parading, drinking, and poking silly fun at our most sacred institutions, all serve to highlight the absurdity of the Purim story. Amidst the noise and laughter, from behind the mask, we can face the frightening idea that the fate of the Jewish people for a moment rested on the whims of a dedicated destroyer, and that our salvation came from someone who carefully concealed her identity - a secret spy-woman. But we also were saved because Esther allied herself with a non-Jew: a stranger. She put her disguise above her own identity in order to accomplish something important- to be a hero.

The playful use of Talmudic logic methods of to reach absurd conclusions began In the time of Babylonian Talmud. Here we find the early model for what came to be called “Purim-Torah”. Punning, parody and silly riddles populate this text. In tractate Megillah we have the sage Rava telling us to drink enough on Purim that we can no longer distinguish –ad lo yada- between two of the most important characters in the story, between “Cursed is Haman” and “Blessed is Mordechai”. And by the way, I discovered in my research that the mitzvah of Adloyadah is incumbent upon all Jews, unless such drinking endangers their health, in which case poppyseed hamentashen may be substituted. To achieve the equivalent effect of 8 oz. of 100 proof Shlivovitz, it is recommended to consume 500 poppyseed hamentashen. Any less and you have not fulfilled the mitzvah. Some authorities in the Conservative Movement permit the use of prune hamentashen, but most prohibit it for fear of violating the principles of shalom bayit . Orthodox authorities do not allow any exemptions from the primary mitzvah of Adloyadah except for children under three. Nursing infants, while under the age of three, are not exempt, because they receive the benefit of their mothers' observance of the mitzvah, proving that nursing women are also not exempt. There is a makhloket among Orthodox authorities as to whether non-nursing women are exempt from observing this most important mitzvah. Therefore, to resolve any doubts, the Ashkenazic authorities have issued a p'sak din that all women must nurse babies on Purim. If they don't have a baby of their own to nurse, they may borrow one from a nursing mother. Since this will require all mothers with nursing infants to loan their babies to other women, nursing women are thus rendered exempt from the mitzvah.

It’s not a stretch to see how we get from there to masquerade.

In the name Esther, we find the Hebrew word seter, secret.†But while Esther will tell her secret, proclaim her Jewishness, and save us from Haman, we never get to see the face of God. Perhaps God also has a good reason for hiding his face, just like Esther.

And God is truly hidden in the Purim story. Search the Megillah from beginning to end, but you find no mention of His name. This is strange for a biblical book, and here’s an interesting contrast to the story of Pesach. In the Hagaddah, we are reminded that it was specifically God who took us out of Egypt, and no man is given credit for that. Mordecai says to Esther that redemption for the Jews will come from makom aher, "another place." Is this Makom the same as HaMakom, meaning God? Or does it mean, another place as in, not from the Jews? For while Esther was the needed insider, it took King Ahashverosh (not a Jew) to stop the wicked Haman from his plan. This dualistic hide/reveal message of Purim is as a finger pointing directly to the unknowableness of God. I see God’s hiddenness as an unsolvable problem. The masquerade is an imitation of this physical invisibility.

On the other hand, what if we could see God? Would things be any different then they are now?

But perhaps the most convincing reason for masquerade on Purim comes from Megilat Esther, at the end of Ch. 8, when Ahashverosh gives Haman;’s estate to Esther and reverses the Jews’ death sentence,. Then he gives permission for the Jews to arm, organize, and defend themselves against any attacker. And then we read: “…when the decree was reached the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a holiday. Moreover, many from among the people of the land professed themselves to be Jews…” They were masquerading to be US!

So let’s let our masks illustrate our aspirations and emotions, showing who we are or might be, given the chance to emerge from our "shells." Princess and superhero, or clown and entertainer? Floozy, pirate, baroque decoration, cruel villain, wild animal? Be anything you want today. For tomorrow you will just be yourself again.