Q. Why do we dress up with costumes on Purim?
A. It is an ancient Jewish custom to dress up in different costumes on Purim. In the story of Purim, the Persian king Achashveirosh gets drunk at a party and kills his queen, Vashti. He then marries Esther a cousin of the Jewish leader Mordechai. When the king’s prime minister, Haman develops a plot to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire, Mordechai convinces Esther to use her influence with the king to save the Jewish people.
In the Purim story plot there are no outright miracles but many unrelated details come together to save the Jewish people. It is not a story of supernatural G‑dly involvement like the exodus from Egypt that involved ten plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea. It is a story of natural events playing out in a way that is evident that there is a ‘hidden hand’ directing the story of events and ensuring a happy ending.
Purim reminds us that while we don’t usually see ‘sea splitting’ miracles, there is a ‘hidden hand’ directing our experiences ensuring our lives play out according to the divine plan. While our world seems to be running on its own full of random unrelated events, it is G‑d who hides behind the curtain of fate directing our experiences. To celebrate that, we hide ourselves by dressing up in costumes, appearing as something else, while our true selves remain hidden underneath the masquerade.