Chizuk and Idud

CHIZUK and IDUD for Purim

Purim throughout Jewish history has been regarded as one of the most joyful holidays of the Jewish calendar. It is celebrated with wearing costumes, lavish Purim seudot and general merry making. However, there are other aspects of Purim which teach us important lessons concerning the Jewish people, their past, present and future.

The Rav zt”l, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, my revered teacher, considered the dialogue between Esther and Mordechai as one of the key moments in the story of Megilat Esther. Mordecai requested of Esther that she immediately go to Achashveirosh to beg him to rescind Haman’s edict to destroy the Jewish people. Esther told Mordechai that there were two possible alternatives to her approaching the King at that time. She might survive approaching Achashveirosh without being invited, but it was highly unlikely because the king rarely pardoned anyone who approached him without an invitation. The other alternative was to be patient and wait. After all, Haman’s letter was sent out on the 13th of Nisan and Mordechai appeared in sackcloth and ashes before the royal gate. This was eleven months before Haman’s decree would be carried out. It would appear that Mordechai’s request that Esther endanger her life was premature and she expressed this thought to Mordechai saying that delaying the visit to the king would allow her time to arrange a proper invitation from the king.

In reply, Mordechai sent her a copy of Achashveirosh’s edict to destroy the Jews and commanded her to go to the king immediately. After all, Mordechai was Esther’s adopted father and she always listened to him, as it is stated in the Megila, “V’et Maamar Mordechai Esteir Osa,” she had unlimited faith in Mordechai. Esther then responded by asking why undertake a mission now when it must certainly meet with disaster. If she were to be executed by the king, there would no one in the court to plead for the safety of the Jews. Mordechai replied that Esther should not attempt to save herself by hiding in the royal household. If she remained silent at this point, salvation would come from some other place and that she and her father’s house would be lost.

This dialogue teaches us an important lesson. No matter how important a single individual might be and how great his role might be in Jewish history, he should not think that he is indispensable to the Jewish people. While every individual must make his contribution to the Jewish people, salvation shall come from anywhere and anytime.

Ibn Ezra interprets, “Mi Yode’a im la’eit kazot higaat laMalchut”,  means that perhaps that only for this very reason Esther was selected to be queen.
We all know how the story ended. The Megila emphasizes the idea of the common destiny of the Jewish people. No one can save only himself when the entire Jewish nation is exposed to danger. The Rav said that he experienced this in the 1920s when extreme anti-Semitism was rampant in Poland. The German Jews said that such a situation could never happen in Germany. After all, the Polish Jews were segregated into ghettos while the German Jews were fully accepted into German society, and yet, we all know what happened in Germany. The Rav further said that this concept, “The indispensable self,” was the problem with Dr. Chaim Weizmann. Even though he sacrificed so much to the Jewish community, he considered himself to be indispensable to the Jewish community. He felt that without him, there would not have been a Balfour Declaration. That is why he was so bitter later in life when he had no influence in the government.

A further lesson was learned from the Megila, when Esther asked Achashveirosh to rescind Haman’s decree, Achashveirosh pointed out that he could not do this according to Persian law. He could punish Haman and his family but he was unable to rescind Haman’s decree. What he did agree to do was to issue another edict giving the Jews the right to gather, to arm and to defend themselves in order to preempt the attack from the Persian public. The Rav reiterated the parallels between the Six Day War and Megilat Esther. One should comply with the principle of preempting and killing an enemy in order to prevent the enemy from killing you. What did the prophet Shmuel say to Agog, “As thy sword has robbed women of their children, so too shall your mother be bereaved among women” -  The Amalakites were known already in the times of Moshe Rabeinu, to attack the weak in the same way that terrorists operate in Eretz Yisrael. The Megila teaches us that in the time of Esther and Mordechai if the Persians could not attack the Jews on the 13th day of Adar, they would find another time to do it. She therefore received permission from the king for the Jews to attack before they were attacked. As a parallel to the events in the Megila, the Rav related that Marshal Tito, former strong man from Yugoslavia, said that the Six Day War was won by Israel in the first four hours of their preemptive strike. He promised that the next time the first four hours will belong to us (the Arabs).

Dai L’chakima birmiza. A word to the wise is sufficient. Let us hope that our leadership in Israel today will learn the lesson of Purim.

Purim Samei’ach - Rabbi Binyamin Walfish, Jerusalem

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