True direction of growth

Every year when shaking the arba minim, I find myself confused about which way up to hold the etrog. There are two ends, the pitom and the oketz, (stem). You are supposed to start off with it in in the wrong direction and then for the blessing turn it upside down to the correct direction. But which way is which?

This year, I discovered a way to remember it. According to the halacha, all the minim are supposed to be held in the direction of their growth. Thus, the myrtles must be held upright, for example. The etrog's growth is deemed to be upright too, and hence the correct direction is with the stem (oketz) facing down. In other words, we start off with the stem up, make the blessing, and then turn it around with stem down to shake it.

The problem is though, that if you look at a fruit tree, fruit do not grow upright! They hang down from the tree. The Mishnah Brurah (651:17) has an answer to this seeming contradiction to the laws of nature - its true direction of growth is, in fact, upright, but the fruit makes it heavy and that is why it hangs down.

And I think that this is an apt metaphor for our lives: our true direction of growth is upwards. Things do make us heavy and droopy but that's not who we really are...

The Two Towers and Carlebach

There is a musical refrain appearing throughout Peter Jackson's film "The Two Towers" (the second in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) that is extremely similar to a melody by R Shlomo Carlebach.  Compare the melody that appears in the film at 1 hr 32 mins, with

http://www.mostlymusic.com/in-the-palace-of-the-king.html (click mikdash melech, at 14 seconds).

Oddly enough, the Two Towers tells of kings who rise "mitoch hahafecha" to fight evil. I find the Lord of the Rings full of inspiring moral motifs, such as the need to stop fleeing and join to fight evil, the nature of true nobility and the importance of the courage of one small individual.

Mikdash melech is a verse from Lecha Dodi, one of the most beautiful Jewish liturgical pieces ever composed. I find Lecha Dodi, too, replete with noble and mythic elements and images, of blessing, kingdom, Messiah, awakening, rebuilding. The lines   

קומי צאי מתוך ההפכה

רב לך שבת בעמק הבכה

and

לבשי בגדי תפארתך עמי

have reflected my own feelings about my personal and the national situation on many an occasion when things were low.  What a privilege and joy to sing it every week, and even at times to the Carlebach tune (when I daven at Yakar).

And Frodo's lonely journey into Mordor, has inspired me whenever I feel as if life is one, long, huge mountain to climb...

For Holocaust Day

A thought I had on Holocaust day:

If we were to truly glimpse the infinite beauty of just one butterfly, perhaps then we would understand the necessity of placing a vast ugliness and evil in the world, without which free choice would be impossible.

Can I come to the King in the Inner Court?

This year I was reading the following verse from Esther 4:

11. All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is a law; to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live; but I have not been called to come to the king these thirty days.

The woman sitting next to me at the megilla reading had what looked like a children's megilla full of midrashim, and it cited a midrash that Achashverosh was indeed furious to see Esther there unbeckoned, but then he suddenly saw her and remembered how much he loved her, and could not be angry any more.

It's a well-known idea that although G-d's name is not mentioned explicitly in Megillat Esther, we can take (some of?) the references to the king as referring not, or not only, to Achashverosh but also to the King of Kings.

On a daily basis, or perhaps more powerfully on Rosh Hashanah, we feel "How can I go into the King? I am not desired. I am not in relationship. We have not communicated for many days. I have not heard Him call me." So we hesitate to enter. But know - once you enter, G-d will not be able to help Him (Her) self, but instantly fall in love with our beautiful souls.

(ADDITION: Supporting this idea, I later heard in the name of the Tur that the word "Uvechen", a recurring word from the Rosh Hashanah prayer meaning "And thus", is taken from the megillah, from the exact verse where Esther takes upon herself to go to the king though she may be killed for it [4:16]).

A new festival bursts forth from the darkness

Chiddush heard from Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden: Why did the date of the decree to destroy the Jewish people fall on 13th Adar? Because that's the day furthest away from Pesach. The next day, 14th Adar, we already begin to plan towards the next Pesach as it says in the Shulchan Aruch, 30 days before the festival we begin to plan.

This tremendous idea got me thinking. From the very darkest place, where the light of redemption was the dimmest, a brand new festival broke through, an entire marvelous new festival of redemption (with yet more eating, of course!). From within the darkness the most amazing things are born.

Such born things may differ from their source in unexpected ways. The Purim energy is not by any means identical to the Pesach energy. The latter seems clean, clear and straight, while the former seems dark, concealed, twisting and turning.  I would go so far as to suggest that this world is divided into Purim people and Pesach people. (I know which one I am... which one are you?)

In any event it's good we have both. So thank you Haman - couldn't have done it without you.