We are sitting amidst the burnt embers of civic destruction. All is vanity. Ashes from your incredible kitchen to Dust and Destruction of that backyard, where we sat for hours jumping in and out of the pool with the kids. Destruction of the corner yogurt shop where we ran into one another as our children grew taller and taller. Destruction of communities that will never again exist.
How do we respond to this depth of ruin? We dance.
The City of Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade along with Open Temple host a Silent Disco Dance on Shushan Purim Shabbat. That’s Friday, March 14 at 6:30 pm. Find us just south of the corner of Arizona and Third Street where a Walled City will rise for a Silent Disco as we Dance in Defiance.
Yes, the Jewish response to the face of evil is dance. Revery. Joyous disruption, even if it feels contrived at first. The month of Adar is upon us, and the rabbis declare: “Our Joy MUST increase!
Our Purim story takes place in the crib of creation – Ancient Persia – a gnarly corner of today’s world. And, both then and now, we look to the Rise of Women, a divine feminine energy, for our redemption. Narges Mohammadi is our modern day Queen Esther…our dance this year is dedicated to her release from incarceration as we cultivate the Voices of Women as Voices of Reason for an Unreasonable Age.
Look to the mothers, your Chick Rabbi Calls. Look to the mothers dancing and weeping and laughing as we lick tears from our cheeks and recollect the Mayim Chayyim (cleansing waters) of the sea which is now soiled with the toxic ashes of a thousand Teslas. Look to the mothers who see ourselves in Shiri Bibas, who nursed Kfir and Ariel’s friends, and declare:
“Dear Shiri, you did not die in vain. I do not want to even imagine your end of days, yet I can’t help, as a mother, to find my mind drifting to what it was like. It was…”
And in that blank… is the Story of Purim.
Purim is a dark tale; just read Chapter 9. It invites us into the dark space of destruction and asks us, amidst the ashes of ruin, connect with a source that is not at all present in that space, but always present within if at times forgotten.
The Concept of God in the Megillat Esther is one of God’s absence. Even Esther’s name itself means “Hidden One.” And it is through our own work of sorting through the ashes, seeking what is hidden beneath the ashes: that one mezuzah, that one Hanukah menorah, that one ring with the diamond that was sewn into a hem of a coat that your great grandmother smuggled out of Auschwitz; one Hazmat suit cleaning up one home at one time, one gardener with a metal detector looking for your family’s kiddish cup so that he can continue generating an income for his family when his entire clientele was lost in one week; it is through this HOPE and DEFIANCE in the wake of devastation that we will find our way through this darkness.
So Arise! Awake! Make your bad day better. And please Dance. Dance at home, Dance-walk to your morning coffee, dance while brushing your teeth, dance with your children and partners, and dance with Open Temple.
Let’s dance our Tucheses off.
To Joy.
To Freedom.
To Love.
To Movement.
To Defiance.
To Life.
May we all rise again. May Shiri and Ariel and Kfir’s deaths be not in vain. And may our memory be of their smiles and tenderness and may our Purim Story this year awaken the Divine Goddess energy of all of our Jewish Matriarchs, of all of the Mommas still living out of suitcases, of All of the Esthers Yet to Rise. May All of us Dance and Defy every last particle of Hatred and Evil in this world. And May each of us, in our revery, celebrate all of this amidst Orange Balloons.
With Resolute Love and Defiant Joy,
Rabbi Lori