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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Purim & The Month of Adar
- Purim in Our Time
That sense of fragmentation is exactly how the Megila opens. King Ahasuerus throws one wing-ding of a party – a 180-day lollapalooza where the models pose and the booze flows – and he invites the Jews of Persia to attend. In fact, notes the Medrash, he even makes sure to order Glatt kosher food so the Jews can eat their fill without any remorse. Yet at the same time, the king – whose empire is the successor to that of the Babylonians – mocks the Jews by using vessels taken from the Temple years earlier by Nebuchadnezzar.
Mordechai pleads with the Jews to stay away from the raucous revelry; if he was speaking Yiddish (which is altogether possible, since by tradition he was reported to have known 70 languages) he would have said, "Pas nisht – stay away; this is not for us!" But the people, apparently so proud and grateful to have achieved such an elevated social status in the Persian kingdom, dismiss Mordechai as an out-of-touch, non-progressive staid relic of the past and so they refuse to heed his warning. As a result, they pave the way to their own misfortune.
God, as it were, turns His face away from this ugly scene, for He cannot bear to watch us break into factions and engage in destructive distance from one another. (Perhaps that is one reason why God’s name is conspicuously absent from the Book of Esther). He knows that only in times of crisis do we drop the dissention and rally together, and so Haman, in a sense, comes to the rescue. The Amalekite is given a free hand to usher in his reign of terror against us and plot our demise; Haman’s evil crusade will ironically be the catalyst for our closing ranks and finally banding together. As the Talmud so succinctly points out, the moment when Ahasuerus took off his signet ring and handed it to Haman, it had a greater effect on the Jewish People and engendered more soul-searching and repentance "than the rebuke of forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses who preached to Israel." But our salvation will not easily be accomplished, for we are left "bereft and bewildered" (3:15) when we learn of Haman’s nefarious decree.
Enter Esther, our sister in the palace. While Mordechai will famously plead for Esther’s intervention in an impassioned speech of the ages – "Who knows if it is not precisely for this moment that you attained your position!" – Esther wisely understands that if she acts alone, she cannot succeed. She insists that the entire community come together not only in prayer, but also in fasting, to atone for that which they ate at the forbidden feast. Not only do her people accede to her wishes, they will later join forces to create perhaps the only Jewish militia ever to be formed in the history of our Diaspora. For even after Haman is hanged, his genocidal plan goes into effect and we are required to organize and fight back in order to vanquish the forces of evil arrayed against us.
In recognition of this stunning reversal of fortune, the rabbis canonized Esther’s story and decreed a number of Mitzvot that are meant to strengthen our sense of camaraderie. These include the giving of charity to the less fortunate in the community, the dispensing of ready-to-eat foods to friends and neighbors, and the Fast of Esther that precedes the reading of the Megila, to help us eternally remember what can happen to us if and when we fall prey to factionalization. Even the widespread custom of wearing masks and costumes helps us to avoid distancing from others simply because of their looks or style of dress, a syndrome all too common today.
Fast-forward 2500 years. We are now blessed by God with our own country, and a superb military that is sworn to our safety. And yet, that nagging nemesis of disunity still haunts us. We would have thought that Corona would be compelling enough to create common cause, knowing that each one of us is equally vulnerable. We should have unanimously accepted that the way out of the pandemic was to inject, rather than to infect.
And yet, we did not all rise to the challenge nearly as well as we could have. Many stubbornly put their own selfish desires above the needs of the community, even to their own detriment or death. Many so-called leaders spoke in markedly different voices from one another, creating confusion where there should have been clarity. Instead of uniform enforcement, there are endless exceptions. Instead of policy, there is protekzia. I suggest that our ongoing election (not-so)merry-go-round – where over and over again, we fail to reach consensus - is a glaring symbol of our self-polarization.
As we celebrate Purim and hopefully emerge from Corona, we need to bear in mind the stark reality that Haman still lurks dangerously nearby, whether in his familiar neighborhood of Persia or on our very borders in the guise of Hamas or Hezbollah. We need many Esthers and Mordechais to encourage and inspire us to advance the common good rather than go it alone. As Shabbat ends each week - ironically at the Havdala ceremony - we recite the famous verse of the Megila: "And the Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor." To accomplish that glorious blessing, what we need to have is not Havdala – separation – but Achdut – unity.
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
