The Divine Spark in Every Villain
What My Dad's Revelation Taught Me About Purim
In Jewish tradition, few customs raise as many eyebrows as a Talmudic teaching regarding Purim.
It is the commandment to drink so much alcohol that you cannot distinguish between the hero Mordecai and villain Haman!
At first glance, this instruction contradicts the measured approach of Jewish practice.
Jewish law generally discourages excessive drinking and emphasizes maintaining control over one's faculties.
Why would we want to blur the line between good and evil, even momentarily?
What spiritual benefit could possibly come from such confusion?
✨ HIDDUSH: When New Insight Transforms Ancient Wisdom
To understand this paradox, we turn to hiddush—a Hebrew term meaning "something new" that refers to novel interpretations of traditional texts.
A hiddush can emerge from unexpected sources, offering fresh perspectives on age-old wisdom.
Sometimes, the most profound insights come not from scholarly rabbis but from everyday observers with open hearts.
Such is the case in an interpretation my dad offered of Purim's puzzling drinking custom.
💬 DAD’S INSIGHT: The purpose of the excessive drinking is not to confuse moral categories but to transcend them—to glimpse the underlying unity connecting all human beings, even those who seem totally at odds.
Beyond Heroes and Villains
Few characters seem more different than Mordecai and Haman.
Mordecai represents righteousness, wisdom, and courage.
Haman embodies hatred, arrogance, and cruelty.
They stand as archetypes of good and evil, hero and villain.
Under normal circumstances, distinguishing between them is not merely easy but necessary for moral clarity.
Yet Purim's drinking custom invites us to temporarily set aside these distinctions and perceive a deeper truth.
Beneath the surface of human action and character lies a common essence.
🔥 SOUL TRUTH: Every human being, regardless of their moral choices, carries the divine spark—the image of God in which all people are created.
By temporarily blurring moral categories, we recognize that even Haman—the archetypal enemy—shares with Mordecai a fundamental human dignity.
The excessive drinking does not erase the differences between right and wrong but reminds us that these differences exist within our shared humanity.
🌟 THE DIVINE BLUEPRINT: Finding God's Image in Everyone
Genesis tells us that God created humans "in the divine image." (1:26)
This verse forms the foundation of Jewish ethics, establishing the inherent worth of every person.
Yet in daily life, it's all too easy to forget this truth, especially when confronted with those whose actions we find abhorrent.
The Purim custom offers a corrective to this tendency.
Through the altered state that comes with drinking, we momentarily transcend our habit of categorizing people as entirely good or entirely evil.
We glimpse the truth that Rav Kook articulated:
"The light of God shines on all creation."
This doesn't mean excusing harmful actions.
Haman's plot remains unequivocally wrong.
But the hiddush reminds us that condemning evil actions need not entail denying the humanity of those who commit them.
Even Haman, with all his hatred, was created in the divine image.
BEYOND THE HOLIDAY: Living the Lesson Every Day
While Purim provides a ritualized opportunity to recognize our shared humanity, the real challenge lies in maintaining this awareness throughout the year.
Can we learn to see the divine image in those who oppose us, disappoint us, or even harm us, while maintaining our moral clarity?
This is perhaps the deepest question behind our strange commandment.
It offers a taste of a perspective we're called to integrate into our everyday consciousness.
And it’s a critical lesson for today, where media and politics sew division constantly.
WHEN PARADOX BECOMES CLARITY: The Hidden Harmony
Seen through this lens, the paradoxical Talmudic teaching reveals its profound wisdom.
The instruction to drink until we cannot distinguish between Mordecai and Haman becomes not an invitation to moral confusion:
It becomes a pathway to deeper moral insight.
One that acknowledges the complexity of human nature and the universality of divine creation. The point is not the drinking itself but the shift in perception it symbolizes.
⚠️ IMPORTANT REMINDER: This custom must be practiced responsibly. Those for whom alcohol poses health risks should find alternative ways to engage with its underlying message.
In a world increasingly divided by tribalism and binary thinking, this ancient wisdom offers a timely reminder:
Beneath our judgments of good and evil, hero and villain, friend and foe, lies a common humanity that transcends all distinctions.
By recognizing this shared essence, we don't abandon our moral principles—we deepen them.
We ground our ethics in the recognition of universal human dignity.
In discovering the divine image present even in those we condemn, we take a step toward fulfilling Judaism's highest ideal:
To recognize in every face, however familiar or foreign, the reflection of our Creator.
In other words, my dad’s hiddush illuminates not just a puzzling teaching but a path toward healing our fractured world.