Throughout our tradition, our sages imagine Jewish life in “the world to come.” Which of our prayers and holidays, they wonder, will exist in the Messianic Era; what, they ask, will we still need?

In the Midrash, the rabbis offer this:

“All of the holidays are to be nullified in the future but the days of Purim will not be nullified, as it is stated (Esther 9:28), ‘And these days of Purim will not be rescinded from the Jews.'” Rabbi Elazar said, “Also Yom Kippur will forever not be nullified, as it is stated, ‘And it will be to you for an everlasting statute to atone for the Children of Israel from all of their sins once a year. (Lev. 16:34)'”

There seems to be widespread agreement that, in the World to Come, the holidays that will remain are Purim … and Yom Kippur. This idea, and this connection between the two, becomes an important idea for the mystics, who teach (in the Zohar) that Yom Kippur is actually Yom HaKiPurim—a day like Purim. We learn that there is an intrinsic relationship between Purim and Yom Kippur, days that, on the surface, could not seem more opposite.

What is the connection, and what might it teach us?

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno is known as the Aish Kodesh. His writings and teachings come to us from the ashes of the Holocaust—far from the palaces of ancient Persia, but no stranger to plots to destroy the Jewish people. From the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, he wrote:

Just like on Yom HaKiPurim there is a requirement of fasting and teshuva (return/repentance). A person must do them whether he wants to or not! They are fulfilled because of the decree of the Holy Blessed One. So too the simcha (happiness/celebration/joy) of Purim is required: not only if a man is naturally in simcha or is in a situation where it is possible for him should he rejoice, but rather, he has to be happy! Even if he is feeling wretched and broken hearted, his mind and spirit trampled, it is required of him to find even a little spark of simcha to bring into his heart.

So, as we emerge from the joy of Purim—and hopefully hold on to it—I offer these words from the poet Khalil Gibran, in his seminal work “The Prophet”:

A woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

—Rabbi Sari Laufer