A Time For Taking Off Masks (Purim and Ki Tissa 5777)

Between Mardi Gras (or Shrove Tuesday) and Purim, this is a season for masks. Wearing masks is associated with these days as a way of bringing history to life, temporarily adopting a new personality, hiding, or, even, subverting reality.

We often wear masks to make fun of ourselves or others. And not just by wearing them. For instance, “Why does Batman wear a mask but Superman doesn’t?” “Because the citizens of Gotham City are much smarter than those in Metropolis.”

But this is really a season for profound messages about masks. Even the Torah portion this week, which coincides with Purim, ends with Moses putting on and
taking off a “mask” (sometimes translated as “veil”). (Exodus 34:33-35). He does this after talking directly with God.

That experience leaves him so transformed that the text describes Moses as glowing, radiant afterward. His face was so bright that Moses uses a mask to cover his radiance in order that others in the Israelite camp could comfortably be around him. He is wearing a mask to conceal and to protect. His use of a mask reflects his highest aspirations, his courage, and his capacity for transformation or growth.

Because masks are artificial, however, we cannot leave them on forever.

As important as it is to understand why we put on masks, it may be more important to learn how to take them off. We colloquially use the terms “taking off our mask” or “letting down our guard” to mean revealing our true selves to another person. Often when we wear a mask, we feel strong. Taking it off makes us feel vulnerable. Yet that vulnerability is crucial both to expressing ourselves authentically and relating to others directly.

For Moses, in the Torah narrative, his mask comes off when he is talking directly with God. According to Rashi (11th century), Moses also takes it off when he is talking with others about his direct communication with the God. In other words, Moses mask comes off when he needs to be completely present and when he is speaking his most powerful truth.

James Baldwin perfectly captured these sentiments, “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word ‘love’ here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or … being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”

When do we take off our masks? Who knows the authentic person hidden behind our masks? May we have the wisdom and courage to take off our masks to be completely present with others and keep them off when speaking our most important truths.