Hello Guy, I'm here to copy and paste a lovely piece by Toko-pa Turner on the Jewish Joy tradition. I read your essay about the Joy problem but I can't find it now, so I'm just attaching this here. Why not! It's the best I can do.
"Dear Kerry,
Happy new moon! I've been reflecting on the symbolic meaning of the Hebrew month of Adar—which begins on today's new moon. The Megillah teaches that this is the month of actively cultivating joy. We are being asked to choose activities and pursuits that we know will bring joy into our hearts and bodies, despite the hardships we may also be facing.
Purim, which falls on the full moon, is a Jewish festival a bit like Mardi Gras, full of wild costumes, rowdiness and general revelry. But the story behind Purim is rather grim: it is about a last minute reversal of an attempted genocide against the Jewish people and how overcoming evil is done not through its denial, but through unflinching acknowledgment of its existence.
Strange then, that the month of Adar is considered the most joyful in the Hebrew calendar. But when the new moon arrives, we say Mishe-nichnas Adar marbim be-simcha: “From the beginning of Adar, we increase in joy.” This isn’t a fake-until-you-make it kind of command, but rather an organic liberation that begins with the shattering of illusions.
In the Purim story, the idea of pure evil is embodied by Haman, an advisor to the Persian King Achashverosh, who decides to exterminate all the Jews on a single day. But what the King doesn’t know is that his beautiful wife Queen Esther has been concealing her Jewish identity from him. When she outs herself to the King to save her people, he orders Haman to be executed instead! He is hung at the same gallows intended for the Jews. This sudden reversal lifted the Jewish people out of the depths of fear and mourning into merrymaking. Celebrations broke out, and a carnival of outlandish costumes, carousing, and a comedic spiel was born. This has always been the Jewish way, to answer evil with humour. As we say on Purim, “They tried to destroy us. We survived. Let’s eat!”
The King in the Purim story is a dangerous mix of obliviousness and absolute power. He is an archetype of one so blinded by his own ambitions that he’s easily manipulated by those closest to him. He doesn’t know his own mind —and this is what makes him dangerous. What Hannah Arendt called the “banality of evil” is what occurs when a person simply carries out their duties without thinking critically. They aren’t wicked monsters driven by hatred, but ordinary people just following the crowd.
We can see the King in ourselves when we repeat ideas we haven’t thoroughly thought through, or take on beliefs because they are trendy, or keep silent when we see an injustice, often out of our own self-preservation. But sometimes obliviousness is the result of of naivety.
No matter how much I believe in the goodness of others, it won’t conjure that reality. Neither does being a good person guarantee a just world. Quite the opposite: idealism can blind us to the realities we refuse to confront. Many idealists are so committed to the belief in universal human goodness that it prohibits them from acknowledging real evil. This ambivalence may look like simply “staying out of it,” but it quietly drains our emotional and mental vitality. The energy spent trying to reconcile irreconcilable things is exhausting and demoralising. Only when we look at evil squarely, as painful as it is to admit, can we learn to really laugh, even revel in the absurdity of our complex world.
Adar’s themes of joy, reversal, and confronting evil head-on are braided together into an intricate teaching: That joy is connected to shattering illusions, because it requires our willingness to no longer deny the world’s complexity. It requires us to lift the veil of our own biases and motivations that we may see things not as we want them to be - but as they are.
Haman is not misunderstood; he is evil, and his downfall is necessary. The Jewish response isn’t to negotiate with him but to celebrate his defeat. Joy in the Purim story is a form of defiance. In the awareness that true evil exists and cannot always be redeemed, joy says: I choose to laugh even with tragedy so close at our heels.
Adar reminds us that even in our darkest hour, reversal of fortune is always possible. But it hinges on acts of bravery and joy, which are forms of resilience. Laughter, celebration, and community are affirmations of life itself. In choosing joy, we assure that goodness endures, that love persists, and that we keep going—with eyes wide open.
May this new moon inspire you to choose joy in hard times,
yes! this is right on point with my recent essays, although the last one included joy more explicitly. i did not know of this story and it is great! yes! i've had several synchronicities that evil is not defeated by denial or eye-for-eye reactions: it is defeated with calmly seeing what was hiding and being joyful when truth, even the truth of evil, is discovered: discovery of evil is an opportunity for joy because evil cannot live when seen with humour and joy!
your story is a perfect example of the i ching casting which cites the importance of seeing what is true within and without! this is also a main point of the bhagavad-gita. although the real world reality that the bhagavad-gita is referring to is usually denied by new age superciliousness as only metaphorical about the self. by doing that the new agers deny the reality of 'real' evil in the world hiding behind the banality of conformity to ideas, beliefs and group identities. new agism denies even overt evil!
i really appreciated this story as a great addendum on my comment.
here's the link to the written form of this essay:
(my next essay, almost finished, is a deconstruction of the very popular book 'the four agreements' by miguel ruiz and why it didn't stop people most of the millions who have read it from conforming to the banality evil when they willingly walked up to be injected with unknown untested stuff while condemning the non-conforming to shunning and censure. surely one of the most blatant acts of the banal conforming to evil ever seen.)
we are living the bhagavad-gita wedded to the great apocalypse! all the best with what is changing. everything changes! with peace, respect, love and exuberant joy.
Thiswas a no Brainer, when they fiest announced it I looked it up on the US Patent Office wsbsite ans saw who owned the pattent....and knew immediately it would be deadly/
Thank you Guy, I look forward to reading the essay in the Four Agreements - a book I read many years ago and have a story of my own from that time about how unimpeccable a spiritual teacher was whose school I left. I appreciate your writing diligence!
Hello Guy, I'm here to copy and paste a lovely piece by Toko-pa Turner on the Jewish Joy tradition. I read your essay about the Joy problem but I can't find it now, so I'm just attaching this here. Why not! It's the best I can do.
"Dear Kerry,
Happy new moon! I've been reflecting on the symbolic meaning of the Hebrew month of Adar—which begins on today's new moon. The Megillah teaches that this is the month of actively cultivating joy. We are being asked to choose activities and pursuits that we know will bring joy into our hearts and bodies, despite the hardships we may also be facing.
Purim, which falls on the full moon, is a Jewish festival a bit like Mardi Gras, full of wild costumes, rowdiness and general revelry. But the story behind Purim is rather grim: it is about a last minute reversal of an attempted genocide against the Jewish people and how overcoming evil is done not through its denial, but through unflinching acknowledgment of its existence.
Strange then, that the month of Adar is considered the most joyful in the Hebrew calendar. But when the new moon arrives, we say Mishe-nichnas Adar marbim be-simcha: “From the beginning of Adar, we increase in joy.” This isn’t a fake-until-you-make it kind of command, but rather an organic liberation that begins with the shattering of illusions.
In the Purim story, the idea of pure evil is embodied by Haman, an advisor to the Persian King Achashverosh, who decides to exterminate all the Jews on a single day. But what the King doesn’t know is that his beautiful wife Queen Esther has been concealing her Jewish identity from him. When she outs herself to the King to save her people, he orders Haman to be executed instead! He is hung at the same gallows intended for the Jews. This sudden reversal lifted the Jewish people out of the depths of fear and mourning into merrymaking. Celebrations broke out, and a carnival of outlandish costumes, carousing, and a comedic spiel was born. This has always been the Jewish way, to answer evil with humour. As we say on Purim, “They tried to destroy us. We survived. Let’s eat!”
The King in the Purim story is a dangerous mix of obliviousness and absolute power. He is an archetype of one so blinded by his own ambitions that he’s easily manipulated by those closest to him. He doesn’t know his own mind —and this is what makes him dangerous. What Hannah Arendt called the “banality of evil” is what occurs when a person simply carries out their duties without thinking critically. They aren’t wicked monsters driven by hatred, but ordinary people just following the crowd.
We can see the King in ourselves when we repeat ideas we haven’t thoroughly thought through, or take on beliefs because they are trendy, or keep silent when we see an injustice, often out of our own self-preservation. But sometimes obliviousness is the result of of naivety.
No matter how much I believe in the goodness of others, it won’t conjure that reality. Neither does being a good person guarantee a just world. Quite the opposite: idealism can blind us to the realities we refuse to confront. Many idealists are so committed to the belief in universal human goodness that it prohibits them from acknowledging real evil. This ambivalence may look like simply “staying out of it,” but it quietly drains our emotional and mental vitality. The energy spent trying to reconcile irreconcilable things is exhausting and demoralising. Only when we look at evil squarely, as painful as it is to admit, can we learn to really laugh, even revel in the absurdity of our complex world.
Adar’s themes of joy, reversal, and confronting evil head-on are braided together into an intricate teaching: That joy is connected to shattering illusions, because it requires our willingness to no longer deny the world’s complexity. It requires us to lift the veil of our own biases and motivations that we may see things not as we want them to be - but as they are.
Haman is not misunderstood; he is evil, and his downfall is necessary. The Jewish response isn’t to negotiate with him but to celebrate his defeat. Joy in the Purim story is a form of defiance. In the awareness that true evil exists and cannot always be redeemed, joy says: I choose to laugh even with tragedy so close at our heels.
Adar reminds us that even in our darkest hour, reversal of fortune is always possible. But it hinges on acts of bravery and joy, which are forms of resilience. Laughter, celebration, and community are affirmations of life itself. In choosing joy, we assure that goodness endures, that love persists, and that we keep going—with eyes wide open.
May this new moon inspire you to choose joy in hard times,
Toko-pa
hola, kerry.
yes! this is right on point with my recent essays, although the last one included joy more explicitly. i did not know of this story and it is great! yes! i've had several synchronicities that evil is not defeated by denial or eye-for-eye reactions: it is defeated with calmly seeing what was hiding and being joyful when truth, even the truth of evil, is discovered: discovery of evil is an opportunity for joy because evil cannot live when seen with humour and joy!
your story is a perfect example of the i ching casting which cites the importance of seeing what is true within and without! this is also a main point of the bhagavad-gita. although the real world reality that the bhagavad-gita is referring to is usually denied by new age superciliousness as only metaphorical about the self. by doing that the new agers deny the reality of 'real' evil in the world hiding behind the banality of conformity to ideas, beliefs and group identities. new agism denies even overt evil!
i really appreciated this story as a great addendum on my comment.
here's the link to the written form of this essay:
https://gduperreault.substack.com/p/bhagavad-gita-weds-the-great-apocalypse
(my next essay, almost finished, is a deconstruction of the very popular book 'the four agreements' by miguel ruiz and why it didn't stop people most of the millions who have read it from conforming to the banality evil when they willingly walked up to be injected with unknown untested stuff while condemning the non-conforming to shunning and censure. surely one of the most blatant acts of the banal conforming to evil ever seen.)
we are living the bhagavad-gita wedded to the great apocalypse! all the best with what is changing. everything changes! with peace, respect, love and exuberant joy.
🙏❤️🧘♂️🙌☯️🙌🧘♂️❤️🙏
Thiswas a no Brainer, when they fiest announced it I looked it up on the US Patent Office wsbsite ans saw who owned the pattent....and knew immediately it would be deadly/
yes.
Thank you Guy, I look forward to reading the essay in the Four Agreements - a book I read many years ago and have a story of my own from that time about how unimpeccable a spiritual teacher was whose school I left. I appreciate your writing diligence!