Parshios Tetzaveh & Purim

Our Story is History

By Rabbi Label Lam

And the remaining Yehudim (Jews) that were in the province of the king they congregated and stood up for their life… (Megilas Esther 9:16)

What was the secret of the miraculous turnabout for the Jews in the Purim story? The answer is real simple and not simple at all!

The Zohar says, “Israel and Torah and The Holy One blessed is He are one!” It sounds unfathomably deep and it probably is but there is a practical value in knowing this hard to understand fact.

Even Haman was able to identify a certain weakness and vulnerability of the Jewish People. He declared in his appeal to Achashveirosh, “There is a singular nation distributed and spread amongst the nations.” He recognized the lack of unity curiously of a singular nation.

There was also a diminished appreciation of the importance of Torah, as evidenced by their rejection of Mordechai’s advice not to go to the grand party of Achashveivosh.

To top it off HASHEM’s face was hidden! Ouch! It doesn’t get worse! When the Jewish People are alienated from each other, they are distant from Torah, and they are simultaneously withdrawn from HASHEM. That’s the three fold problem! How is it resolved?

A remarkable story circulated around Eretz Yisrael a number of years ago. Even if it is not confirmed as true, it still conveys a deep and relevant message that may help explain why we are made more vulnerable to an enemy attack when our business practices are less than honest.

It was during the time of when a young soldier whose last name was Wachsman was captured. His parents took an immediate and active role in rallying the entire nation to pray and light extra candles.

There were huge prayer rallies lead by the parents at the Western Wall and there was a profound sense of unity and common purpose that crossed all kinds of ideological lines and stated philosophies of life.

The end of the story, however, is less pleasant. The young man, on whose behalf these forces were set in motion, was brutally murdered and the momentary solidarity faded as fast.

Around that same time a young man who had been in a coma awoke shortly afterward and asked to be brought to a certain luminary personality in our generation. He told the elder Rabbi that he had been visited in a dream by an elderly woman and was told to deliver a specific message. The Rabbi displayed a picture of his deceased wife and asked if that was the woman. He confirmed that it was.

She had asked him to relay the following: That the unity at the time of the incident of that young soldier's capture and the events that followed was so profound that Moshiach could have come at that very moment, if it had not been for the sin of theft and ill-gotten gains in the marketplace.

At the conclusion of the Megila it states that the Jews “gathered together and stood up for their lives…” The Sefas Emes notes that the word for standing “Amad” is singular- not plural similar to when the Nation of Israel camped by Mt. Sinai with a singular expression. There Rashi says, “Like one man with one heart!” The unity was powerful and real.

Afterwards, in the Megila, there was also a re-reception of Torah, and although still hidden HASHEM’s inclusion in every detail of our lives was revealed.

All three alienations were dissolved in one swift movement of unified purpose. The cure could easily come from a rededication to Torah learning or taking the time think very deeply about the reality of HASHEM’s involvement in our lives and how our story is History!

DvarTorah, Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.