Playing Divine Hide and Seek

Death warrants signed. Gallows constructed. Genocide imminent.

Then, everything flips. The villain hangs in place of the hero. The king’s seal used to condemn now authorizes deliverance. A concealed queen reveals her true identity and saves her people.

This dramatic reversal—this “v’nahafoch hu“¹ (and it was turned upside down), as the Book of Esther itself describes it—is the essence of what we celebrate during the Jewish month of Adar.

The Talmud declares “when Adar enters, we must increase our joy.”² The very month that hosts Purim is designated as a time of heightened happiness. But this raises a puzzling question: how exactly does one summon joy at will? It seems about as practical as telling someone who’s anxious to “just relax.”

Counter-intuitively, to discover the secret of Adar’s joy we must first explore its opposite.

Divine Plot Twist

The same passage of the Talmud that urges us to increase our joy in Adar also tells us to minimize our joy in the month of Av. In Av, we commemorate the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. But our mourning runs far deeper than architectural loss. The Temple wasn’t merely a building – it was the infrastructure that enabled the physical manifestation of God’s Presence in our world. Our ancestors could walk into that space and tangibly feel divine Presence surrounding them! During Av, we mourn the loss of that immediate, palpable connection with the God.

If acknowledging Divine Distance in Av diminishes our joy, then recognizing God’s hidden Presence in apparent darkness must be our pathway to enhancing it in Adar.³ During Adar, we celebrate Purim with <four special mitzvot, each designed to spark joy in its own way. We feast together, give gifts to friends, and give charity to the poor. But it’s the fourth mitzvah – reading the Megillah – that holds the key to unlocking true, lasting joy.

On Purim, Jews worldwide gather to read the Book of Esther that tells an extraordinary tale of survival against impossible odds. The story unfolds in ancient Persia: The Jewish people are scattered and vulnerable. Queen Vashti has been deposed, and a Jewish woman named Esther becomes queen through what appears to be a chance beauty contest. Meanwhile, the villain Haman rises to power and, enraged by Mordechai’s refusal to bow to him, convinces King Achashverosh to authorize the complete annihilation of the Jewish people.

The situation seems hopeless. The Jews face a genocide authorized by the most powerful empire in the world. Esther risks her life by approaching the king without being summoned. Mordechai walks the streets in sackcloth and ashes. The future hangs by a thread.

And then, in a breathtaking display of divine orchestration, everything flips:

Esther’s forced marriage to a wicked king becomes the key to salvation for her entire people.
Haman hangs from the very gallows he built for Mordechai.
The decree of destruction becomes the legal basis for Jews to arm themselves and defeat their enemies.
And Darius the Second, child of Esther and Achashverosh, later authorizes the rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem

The Hebrew name “Megillat Esther” carries a double meaning: “The Scroll of Esther” and “Revealing the Hidden.” The story is a cosmic game of hide and seek where God’s signature is found not in splitting seas or thundering proclamations, but in the perfect orchestration of supposed coincidence. Though God isn’t mentioned once in the story, we’d have to be blind not to see Him. The Purim story is one giant spectacle of Divine Providence – revealing God even when He’s most hidden.

Flipping Your Narrative

This pattern of reversal isn’t just ancient history – it holds the key to finding joy in our own lives. We don’t see God, we don’t have prophets, and we don’t have a Temple. Yet the Book of Esther teaches us that our lives aren’t random events but carefully crafted stories where today’s challenges become tomorrow’s redemption. God isn’t absent—He’s the unseen Author guiding every plot twist toward His perfect conclusion.

When we learn to fully trust that God is orchestrating miracles and salvation behind the scenes, we discover lasting joy. This unwavering trust in divine providence taps us into the wellsprings of joy available to us in Adar.

To help us flip our narrative on the struggles of our lives, Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits gives the following exercise: Before <Purim, write down every difficulty facing you and the Jewish people. Then, raise a glass and toast “L’chaim” to each one. Not in resignation, but in radical trust that just as every threat in the Purim story became a stepping stone to redemption, our current challenges are but plot twists in a story whose true meaning has yet to be revealed.

May we all merit to see the hidden blessings within our challenges, and witness the day when all our sorrows flip into salvation.

Purim Sameach! (Happy Purim!)

Esther 9:1
Taanis 29A
Excerpt from Talmud ““So I commended mirth,” that is the joy of a mitzvah… The praise of joy mentioned here is to teach you that the Divine Presence rests upon an individual neither from an atmosphere of sadness, nor from an atmosphere of laziness, nor from an atmosphere of laughter, nor from an atmosphere of frivolity, nor from an atmosphere of idle conversation, nor from an atmosphere of idle chatter, but rather from an atmosphere imbued with joy of a mitzvah (aka joy of doing an action of connecting to God)” (Shabbas 35B).