WHERE IS G-D IN THE STORY OF PURIM?

The story goes, that in Persia, there lived a king named Achashverosh, who desired for himself a new wife, his old wife having been killed off by himself. His servant Haman was meanwhile plotting to annihilate the Jews. The Tzaddik (righteous Jew) Mordechai and his niece Esther were aware of this, and decided that something must be done. Esther approached the king, and was picked amongst the many women who came to his palace to be his new wife. Much self-sacrifice and bravery on her part eventually led to the salvation of the Jewish people. Haman and his 10 sons were in the end hung, and the Jews of Persia rejoiced. The word purim in Hebrew means a lot, or lottery, in this case referring to the lot which the wicked Haman drew to determine which day he would execute his plan to exterminate all the Jews. Similarly, the Hebrew word esther literally translates as "I will hide". Jews today dress up on Purim, and observe the mitzvah (commandment) of getting drunk to the point of not being able to "distinguish between the evil Haman and the righteous Mordechai", thus concealing their identities from not only the world, but in a way from themselves as well. Wine, food and laughter are emphasized on Purim, as opposed to meditation, prayer and additional Torah study, a phenomenon which appears quite unbefitting to a holiday which is so lofty that it will be celebrated in the time of Moshiach. The word for "world" in Hebrew is Olam, comes from the root of the word lehaalimwhich literally means "to hide".This world is one of concealment. Nothing is as it appears. There is a concept in Chassidus (the inner, more esoteric dimension to Torah) that the higher the source of something, the lower it falls. This is true in terms of gravity and other natural phenomena, and it is true of spiritual essences as well. Nothing occurs by chance, everything is governed by a supreme divine order, even lots ( purs). Torah tells us that there are two types of miracles that occur in our world: revealed miracles and concealed miracles. The former type may not always necissarily be a higher form. The messianic age will be a very physical earthy one. If G-d wanted a spritiual non-material world, he wouldn't have created this one. Our purpose is not to hide ourselves away in a cave and meditate until our souls have finally left our body to return to their source. This task would be far too easy. Our mission is in fact just the opposite of bringing Earth up to Heaven. This explains the Yom Kippur - Purim relationship. Yom Kippur is the most spiritual and lofty day of the year. We don't eat on Yom kippur because our neshamas (highest faculty of the Jewish soul) get all their nourishment straight from Hashem (G-d). We spend the day in repentance and prayer, and dress in white to resemble the angels. Yom Kippur, is in essence, a day in which we uplift this physical world to Heaven. It is only likened to Purim however, because uplifting this world is only the first step, and is by no means the end all purpose. It is true that such days as Yom Kippur are needed for now, living in Galus, or exile, in order to remind us of our essential beings and their source, however, our actual mission in this world, is to bring Heaven down to Earth, to use a commonly quoted term. Hashem also wouldn't have concealed Himself in this world for no reason. G-d is not "missing" from the Book of Esther, only His name is (at least in the literal sense). And in fact, this makes Hashem's significance in the story all the more meaningful. A name by nature, is limiting. Each of Hashem's many names impose a certain definition upon G-d so that we are better able to understand Him through a certain aspect. Even the highest of his names, the Tetragramaton, suggests somewhat of an idea of who or what Hashem really is. Above our relation to G-d through this name, exists our unchanging and everlasting relationship to our Creator as He is, beyond all names. This is the relationship of the neshama. This is the relationship we engage in upon thanking G-d the moment we awake in the morning, before we even wash our hands of the unholiness that accumulated over the course of the night. Here too, in the Modeh Ani prayer(the prayer that is recited upon opening one's eyes in the morning to thank G-d for restoring our soul), we do not say Hashem's name. The relationship to G-d at the level of neshama, which is the highest of the 3 parts of our soul, is not affected by such concepts as tuma (ritual impurity), or teharah (ritual purity) that relate to the washing of the hands. This is the relationship G-d had with the neshama of the world in Persia in the 5th century B.C.E. and today has with us on Purim, and will have all the more in the soon to be age of Moshiach.