Stand for Israel

“Mishe’nichnas Adar marbim b’simcha!” — “When Adar arrives, our joy increases”

– timeless Purim song

You may already know that Purim–which begins Saturday night–is often called the most joyous of Jewish holidays (it’s certainly the most raucous). But as much as merriment is at the center of the celebration, the holiday really marks the hidden ways in which God redeems and what Esther 9:1 calls “v’nahafoch hu” (“turning upside down”) –  the ways in which those who oppress and persecute will eventually have the tables turned on them and face Divine justice.

Adar brings joy

Purim itself is celebrated on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar* (which corresponds to this Saturday night and Sunday), but, as the holiday’s best-known Purim song tells us, joy increases as soon as the month of Adar dawns — culminating in the wild festivities of Purim, in which Israeli cities and Jewish neighborhoods around the world are filled with little children dressed as everything from the heroic Queen Esther or the sagely Mordechai to little policemen, tiny brides (always a hit with little girls) or, charmingly, High Priests; families rushing around delivering gifts of food and candy to one another; and more than a few tipsy stragglers singing and dancing on their way to a festive meal.

Just as stores in America begin filling with costumes in the month before Halloween, in Israel, stores begin stocking costumes as spring begins to dawn (the holiday falls four weeks before Passover, which usually marks the end of Israel’s rainy season).

The first holiday of exile

Purim is the first holiday of the Jewish exile. Following the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., the Jews were driven out of Israel and a good portion settled in Babylonia, then a part of the Persian empire. Through a series of seemingly unrelated events, a young Jewish woman named Hadassah was conscripted into the King’s harem and eventually became Queen. Her uncle Mordechai  directed her to hide her Jewishness and, in fact, she gave her name as “Esther,” which means “hidden” in Hebrew.

As Esther endures life in the palace, Mordechai–the leader of the Jewish community–runs afoul of the King’s newly empowered (and evil) viceroy, Haman, to whom Mordechai refused to bow down (since Jews do not prostrate themselves before anything but God). Using language eerily familiar to any scholar of anti-Semitism, Haman then bribes the king to allow him to destroy the nation who is “scattered and dispersed,” who have their own laws, who live apart, who are different.

“Who knows if this isn’t precisely why you’re here”

Mordechai tells Esther to intercede with the king, but she resists, pointing out that she will likely be killed if she does. But her uncle chastises her, reminding her that her fate lies with her people and, moreover, that the real reason she ended up queen may be precisely so that she could be in a position to save her people.

And, he tells her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.”

God is hidden, but His hand is not

And this is the real message of Purim. Esther is the only book in the Hebrew Bible that doesn’t mention God–an allusion to the fact that, in our world, God’s face is hidden from us. And yet it is clear that His hand is at work throughout. Though the book itself is short, the events it describes took place over the course of a decade or so. The Jewish people find themselves an uprooted nation, assimilating into a foreign culture, and then suddenly find themselves singled out and in mortal peril and–at the last moment–they’re not only delivered from danger, but their enemies are delivered into their hands.

Haman was bent on annihilating the Jews–and he amassed the worldly power to do it. Nonetheless, God–in the most dramatic way–stymied his “fool-proof” plans and delivered him into the hands of the tiny, stricken nation he’d persecuted.

Knowing where Power really lies

Esther faced the tyrannical would-be murderer in this world, but she knew where real power lies: Before confronting Haman, she fasted and prayed for three days, and the Jewish community fasted with her, knowing that the confrontation depended on the will of God. (Esther 4:16)

Mordechai, the leader of the Jewish people, refused to bow to the second-most-powerful man in a huge empire. Haman expected him to quake, but Mordechai knew that there is only one real Source of Power and only one Being worth fearing, and this meant that Haman didn’t scare him. As the psalmist wrote, “In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 56:11)

We wish all of Israel a freilechen Purim, a joyous holiday, and pray for the day in which we will all live and act with the knowledge–and courage–that Esther and Mordechai teach us.

* Except in walled cities or formerly walled cities (like Jerusalem or Jaffa), where it is celebrated on the 15th.