Community Magazine February 2021

Purim is a time when what is normally hidden away gets revealed, and we put aside our external facades for a bit. What is the underlying lesson of this holiday, and why do we celebrate it every year? Jews don’t have holidays. That is to say, we don’t simply commemorate historical events with days of vacation and parties. Jewish history is filled with events both tragic and wonderful, and with very few exceptions, they are hardly even remembered today. Though our calendar is replete with days that are anchored in events from ancient times, none of those are simply commemorative. On Pesah , for instance, we are not merely memorializing the Egyptian exodus, rather we are reaffirming our unique identity as Hashem’s Firstborn. On Shavuot we rededicate ourselves to the study and upholding of the Torah. And so it is with every one of our Holy Days. An Unusual Holiday This pattern seems to break when it comes to Purim. We read the Megillah , where we find a long story of hashgaha (Divine intervention) and nes nistar (hidden miracles). A terrible danger was averted in a miraculous fashion, and the nation was saved. Truly a reason to celebrate. But why every year? There were other times when the entire nation was in existential danger. Though the very heavens opened, and the angels’ song wiped away our enemies, we don’t commemorate the destruction of Sanheriv ’s armies, for example. What was unique about the miracle of Purim that deserved a permanent entry into the Jewish calendar? Turnabout is Fair Play Perhaps the most unique aspect of the miracle of Purim was the large number of reversals that occurred. Esther the tzadeket being taken by force to live with a non-Jew was a personal tragedy that turned into a national salvation. Haman in his ego building oversized gallows was partly to blame for his getting strung up on those same gallows. The appointment of Mordechai the Torah Sage to adjudicate Persian disputes at the king’s gate turned into an opportunity for him to uncover the assassination plot. And there were many others, culminating in the greatest of them all – Haman’s mobilization of the anti-Semitic army gave rise to their own annihilation. The story of the Megillah is woven throughout with the theme. Let us examine this a bit more. The Gemara ( Megillah 12a ) gives two reasons that we deserved Haman’s decree of annihilation. The first was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. The king erected a gigantic statue of himself and declared that all his subjects must do him homage by coming and bowing to his image. The vast majority of Jews in that time decided to follow the king’s decree rather than provoking his anger. They felt it was better to just blend in. By doing so, we provoked the anger of Hashem instead. The second event that brought down Heavenly judgment was that recorded at the start of the Megillah . King Ahashverosh threw a lavish 180-day party, inviting all of Shushan to attend and participate. The Jews of the city, again not wanting to be left out, came and enjoyed – against the express warnings of Mordechai. Hashem saw us feasting while the king (erroneously) celebrated the end to Jewish hopes and decreed that we be wiped out. The common thread between these two events is that we chose to go along with the gentiles, to blend in and be good citizens. We just wanted to get along with our new neighbors and show the government that we won’t be any trouble. And that’s exactly what nearly brought calamity. PURIM Embracing our Latent Self RABBI YEHUDA BEYDA 28 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE