Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Tetzave
The underlying theme of the Purim story is hiddenness. Esther hides the fact that she’s Jewish – that’s why she’s referred to as "Esther" – which means "hidden" - and not by her real name, Hadassa. Mordechai, too, hides the fact that he’s related to Esther (& certainly that he is married to her!) for otherwise Achashverosh would certainly have known her lineage.
Hashem, too, is "hiding, in a sense, because this is one of only two books in all of Tanach (along with Shir HaShirim) where G-d’s outright name is absent. In fact, the visible hand of Hashem is nowhere to be seen; nothing at all supernatural occurs in the Megila. Things just…happen:
- Esther "just happens" to be crowned Queen at not one, but two beauty contests; - Mordechai "just happens" to overhear a plot against the king, & his act "just happens" to be forgotten until exactly the right moment; - Haman "just happens" to build a gallows in eye-view of Achashverosh, so there is a convenient - & ironic – way to dispose of the madman when the time comes.
As these various events transpired in "real time," no doubt they seemed by the local public to be disconnected & haphazard, fortuitous as they may have been. But when they are seen from above – or from beyond, long after the story has ended – they form an intricate pattern that defies randomness & screams out Hashgacha Pratit, Divine supervision.
Unlike the events of Pesach, when nature is dramatically suspended & all manner of outright miracles bombard our senses, here the choice remains ours to make. Will we chalk up all these various inter-weaving occurrences to chance or to coincidence, or will we acknowledge that some overriding force – hidden & behind the curtain as He may be – is painstakingly directing the action to a greater goal?
It is far from an easy choice to make. Indeed, Esther had to plead passionately with the rabbis to include these Purim events in Tanach, & she was met with a lot of resistance. Part of that may have been due to the fact that glorifying the marriage of a devout Jewish woman to a non-Jew - king though he be - was not something they wanted to publicize. But they may also have wondered if future readers would get the message that Hashem is ever-present, even when His actions are hidden & invisible.
We generally view world events through a glass, darkly. But Purim bids us to see through the fog & spot the truth, and to confirm the adage: "Had I not believed it, I never would have seen it."
Rabbis in Midrash
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
