The Shikkerdovid loves Purim. It is such a holy day. His first child was born on Purim.  The Shikkerdovid remembers sitting with the new Zaidy (Shikker Sr) in the recovery room and drinking some boysenberry Vodka from a silver flask right after the delivery.

Quite miraculously,  SD just learned that his favorite pasuk in the Torah also figures prominently in Purim Midrash.  The pasuk  is from the  Rebukes: Devarim 28:67. The pasuk states: “In the morning, you will say: were it the evening, and in the evening you will say, were it the morning.”  The SD has said this is a brutal curse because it shows a person who will never be happy. Whatever he has or wherever he is, he wants something else.

Now the miracle:  The SD opened the Esther Raba and literally the second line of this Midrashic text quotes this pasuk in the Torah. However, it adds: “In the morning in Babylon you will say, were it the evening in Medea!. In the morning of Media you will says, were it the evening of Greece!

Now: What is this doing in Esther Raba. what does this pasuk have to do with Purim? The SD would like to propose an answer.  In Purim, things are “hafoch”- switched.  Mordechai is elevated, Haman is taken down.  Esther is elevated, Vashti is taken down.  We wear costumes to change our outer exterior.  Finally, we drink to not know the difference is blessed is Mordechai cursed is Haman. It is a day of like no other. Things swing and switch. We alter our minds with alcohol.   It appears that the reality is changed.

The sobering pasuk tells us that Hashem rules the world. He switches things, he changes things.  We can be elevated or destroyed.  The Purim story is triumph. But the triumph might not last forever.  Things change, but we cannot long for what we don’t have. We can put on a  superman costume on Purim, but we cannot become Superman. We can drink on Purim, but the next day we must be nominally sober.

The reality is  We must be happy  if we are in Bablylon and not wish for Medea. We must be happy in Medea and not wish for Greece. We can put on a costume for a day, but we must accept our reality and learn to love it and be happy.