The essence of the Purim miracle is "v'nahafoch hu" – "it turned about – that the Jews ruled over those who hated them," to the extent that the phrase "v'nahafoch hu" has become the holiday's slogan. A charming hint: the entire Megillah contains exactly 167 verses – the gematria of "v'nahafoch"!
We can understand that negative situations require a revolution, but is revolutionism a good trait in itself?
Doubting the Doubt
The Jews' enemy in the Megillah is "Haman the Agagite," a descendant of Amalek. The entire Megillah story relates to the eternal struggle between Israel and Amalek, from the malicious Amalekite attack on the Israelites leaving Egypt to the eradication of Amalek in the complete redemption. The Baal Shem Tov explains, based on gematriah, that Amalek's essence is the experience of negative doubt in the soul. While Israel walks confidently from the miracles of the Exodus and the splitting of the Red Sea towards the Sinai revelation, Amalek comes to cool Israel's faith in God and their confidence that they are walking on the good and straight path.
The skeptic argues in the believer's ear: "What if it's the opposite?" "Who said so?" "How do you know?" Casting doubt on conventions and cooling positive enthusiasm mainly requires audacity, of which Amalek has an abundance. The spiritual war of Purim is against skepticism and the audacity to claim 'perhaps the opposite' about everything precious and holy.
But how is the revolutionary, who boldly claims "v'nahafoch hu" against all conventions, different from the professional skeptic who doubts everything?
A great principle is that one must fight the enemy with his own weapons ("strike him with his like" in the sages' language). Therefore, Amalek's baseless audacity must be countered with holy Jewish audacity. When skepticism succeeds in dissolving all goodness, the skepticism itself becomes the accepted truth, as seen in the postmodern era, which posits that a wise person has no certainty except for the clear knowledge that truth is unattainable and everything is doubtful. The rebellion against this Amalekite skepticism is casting doubt on doubt itself. Against the claim of 'perhaps the opposite,' which presents the ultimate wisdom as skepticism, the believing Jew argues: 'Perhaps it's exactly so and not otherwise? Perhaps it's not just maybe but certainly? Perhaps all this wisdom-of-casting-doubts is nothing but a cover for despair and cessation, and the truly wise person actually reaches joyful certainty?!'
It is Reasonably just the Opposite
Purim is the holiday of the Oral Torah, which precedes the flourishing of the Oral Torah in the Second Temple period (wisdom coming from below, from human intellect, as opposed to the prophecy of the First Temple, which comes from above). While the Written Torah is called "Torah Or" (in masculine form, "your father's instruction"), on Purim it is written "'The Jews had orah (light) – this is Torah" (in feminine form, "your mother's teaching"), which is the Oral Torah. The same applies to the war of Purim: Amalek's main doubt is not in the Written Torah, which was given from heaven letter by letter, and to some extent always remains 'hovering' above reality and its various details. Amalek's skepticism pertains specifically to the Oral Torah, which is grasped by human understanding and teaches exactly what God's intention and will is in every commandment. Amalek argues that even if God gave the Torah, it is doubtful whether a person can be certain that he has understood what God's will is and exactly how to fulfill it.
Indeed, the study of the Oral Torah is built on the intellectual ability to turn everything on its head and not surrender to initial conventions. The common Talmudic expression for this is "ipcha mistabra" – the opposite of what was said is what makes sense (usually preceded by the word aderbba (which can also be read as adar ba – ‘Adar is coming’), hinting at the intensification of opposite reasoning when the month of Adar arrives…). How is the "ipcha mistabra" in Torah study different from Amalek's skeptical and cooling 'perhaps'? "Ipcha mistabra" is not baseless audacity, but a deep reasoning that reveals an understanding exactly opposite to what appears at first and superficial glance. The Amalekite doubt undermines all certainty, while the "ipcha mistabra" replaces an initial convention with a deeper and more proven certainty.
Let us add a beautiful hint: "ipcha mistabra" in gematriah equals "baal teshuva" (returnee to Jewish religious observance). The psychological foundation of a baal teshuva is the willingness to rebel against all the conventions on which he grew up (starting with the skeptical convention that it is impossible to reach truth and know what the Creator wants from man). A baal teshuva is not content with an anarchistic shaking off of existing reality; he deepens his perspective and reaches a clear recognition that "ipcha mistabra", it seems that the truth is opposite to everything he was educated on and grew up with (and again, at the end of the process, he does not remain a skeptical 'questioner' but a 'baal teshuva' [which can also mean ‘the master of the answer’] who has reached a new conclusion).
"Turn it Around and Turn it Around" – The Opposite of the Opposite
One might think that only someone who did not merit to learn Torah in his childhood needs to say "ipcha mistabra" and become a baal teshuva. But in fact, this should be the constant state in Torah study and in a person's spiritual progress, who should be "all his days in repentance." About the Torah it is said, "Turn it around and turn it around" – one must turn again and again in study. On the first "ipcha mistabra" one must say again "ipcha mistabra" and so on, 'turn upon turn', each time being more precise and deepening more. (Regarding this, our teacher the Baal Shem Tov said that he is capable of refuting any reasoning in the world, through his ability to reach the 'point of nothingness' hidden within it, and then present the reasoning in a complete and deep form belonging to a higher world of consciousness, and so on to infinity). Therefore, a baal teshuva should not 'get stuck' in the first place he reached. He must deepen further and again say "ipcha mistabra" even to the world he has entered (of course, without losing his place in the world of teshuva, Torah, and mitzvot).
Until now, it has been explained that a deeper understanding causes a "v'nahafoch hu" (and it was turned upside down) in consciousness, but sometimes the approach of "v'nahafoch hu" also causes a deeper understanding: when a person has merited to progress from a certain worldview, he has certainty that any statement stemming from that worldview is wrong, and he just needs to delve deeper to understand exactly why…
The Messiah – Bearer of Opposites עמלק
Amalek (עמלק), whom we must defeat with the Purim-like "v'nahafoch hu", is hinted at in the final letters of "seven times a righteous man falls and rises” (שבע יפול צדיק וקם). The righteous man turns every fall to the depths of doubt and loss of balance into a revolutionary 'head roll' that puts him back on his feet, this time as a "baal teshuva" of "ipcha mistabra" relative to his previous position. But must one forever turn everything over and over? Is there no revolution that achieves its goals definitively?
The logic of "ipcha mistabra", according to which one can even ask someone their opinion and assume with certainty that the opposite is correct, works again and again ("turn it around and turn it around"): A baal teshuva acts contrary to the conventions of the culture in which he grew up and chooses to live as a Jew; then he understands that the Torah's view is opposite to the reasoning of the simple Jew and becomes a Torah scholar; later he realizes that the truth of the heart is opposite to the cold reasoning of the scholar and becomes a chasid; and so on and so forth.
The end of this process is embodied in the saying of the Alter Rebbe that "The Mashiach we expect – will not come, and the Mashiach who will come – we do not expect." In other words, even the true Mashiach is "ipcha mistabra" from everything we tend to think about the Mashiach. Indeed, after reaching the Mashiach, one no longer needs to turn over, because the Mashiach is essentially a "bearer of opposites" – in his wondrous consciousness, he is both opposite to all the opinions that preceded him and also reveals the point of truth in all of them and agrees with them. He both reveals absolute Divine certainty and demonstrates that such Divine certainty is boundless and free from all mental fixation.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe called out, "Turn the world over today!" Let us follow his messianic instruction on the way to the joyous certainty of "ad d'lo yada" (until one does not know). Happy Purim!
