- Shabbat and Holidays
- Purim & The Month of Adar
991
Candidates for the roles of Mordecai and Esther seem to be in short supply today. People who are unwilling to bow and scrape before tyrants and evil, who have principles for which they are willing to risk personal honor and even life itself. Mordecai is interested in saving the entire Jewish people irrespective of their individual opinions, behavior and attitudes. The plight of the Jewish people pains him deeply and personally. He is even willing to bear the strange indignity of having some of his rabbinic colleagues criticize him for his efforts to save the Jewish people and he does so unflinchingly and without rancor. He asks for no reward for his services and is solely interested in a positive outcome to his efforts. He was proven right in his predictions regarding Achashvairosh and Haman and he never states that "I told you so." Such a person is truly difficult to find in our current divided and divisive society. Mordecai the Jew is the quintessential Jew but he is also the rarest of characters in Jewish history. His niece Esther is also somewhat of a rarity. Jews in high public office in non-Jewish governments do not have a sterling record of protecting Jewish interests, even when Jewish survival is at stake. To put one’s concern for the Jewish people over personal ambition and position and to address the ruler in terms that certainly reveal that primary concern for the Jewish people is an act of honesty, loyalty and courage. Again, there do not seem to be too many candidates today vying for the role of Esther.
The unseen hero so to speak of the Purim story is naturally the God of Israel Himself. That role is filled today as well. The unseen hand that guides us through history and guarantees our survival as a people is certainly present in today’s Purim drama as well. The Jews of Shushan were not particularly God fearing or observant. They felt very comfortable and assimilated in the society and values and political correctness of the time. They were therefore shocked by the enmity directed at them by the community of nations that they had so mightily tried to assimilate into. Yet in the end they were forced to see their true situation realistically and rely upon God’s salvation - the hidden miracles that are part of our daily lives and existence. That part of Purim is certainly in play in our situation today as well. In a society that oftentimes cannot distinguish between Haman and Mordecai, Purim comes to remind us of our vulnerability and our hopes for a brighter tomorrow. That is what makes Purim such a great and joyous holiday.

Ask the rabbi: purim is fast approaching – what do I do?
Rabbi Stewart Weiss | 22 Adar II 5784

Ask the rabbi: how many "Purims" have there been?
Rabbi Stewart Weiss | 22 Adar II 5784

The Four Secrets of the Megillah
Rabbi Shlomo Goren zt"l
Unjust Desserts
At the Shabbat Table
Rabbi Daniel Kirsch | Adar 10 5780
Birkot HaShachar – The Morning Blessings
Chapter nine-part one
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775
The Laws of Torah Study
Part 3
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5761
Days on Which Tachanun Is Not Recited
Chapter Twenty One-Part Three
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775
Birkot HaShachar – The Morning Blessings
Chapter nine-part one
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775

Even the Wise Shouldn't Skip Stages
Ayn Aya Shabbat v, 78
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Iyar 5785
Daf Yomi Shevuot Daf 12
R' Eli Stefansky | 15 Iyar 5785
Daf Yomi Shevuot Daf 8
R' Eli Stefansky | 11 Iyar 5785
