This coming week we will celebrate the holiday of Purim, be’ezrat Hashem, and we will read Megilat Esther.
Early in the Megilah, Jewish ascendancy is quickly replaced by Jewish peril. Esther becomes queen and Mordechai reveals an assassination plot to the king. Suddenly, Haman is promoted and the king issues a decree of death for the Jews. Mordechai reacted publicly to this decree; “Mordechai learned of all that had been done; and Mordechai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes. He went out into the midst of the city and cried loudly and bitterly. He came until the front of the king’s gate for it was forbidden to enter the king’s gate, clothed with sackcloth.” (Esther 4: 1-2) This location served as Mordechai’s post to pray and fast on behalf of the Jewish People for most of the rest of the Megilah story.
In another moment of ascendancy, the king ordered Haman to publicly parade his arch nemesis, Mordechai, around the capital city in royal clothing on a royal horse. The tides had clearly turned against Haman. Interestingly, upon the completion of the parade, the Megila writes that Mordechai returned to the king’s gate. (Esther 6:12) Our chachamim connect the king’s gate with the place of Mordechai’s prayer and fasting. They explain that Mordechai returned to the king’s gate to continue praying and fasting.
The Brisker Rov, HaGaon Rav Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, makes a prescient comment on this verse. He writes:
Regular people celebrate and are happy when there is a bit of success after a period of difficult suffering. But, (in reality), it is impossible to be happy until the arrival of the complete salvation. The proof of this idea is Mordechai. Despite seeing the beginning stages of the salvation (of the Jewish People) – Esther being taken as queen, revealing the assassination plot to Achashverosh, and, being paraded around by Haman by order of the king, Mordechai was not joyous and did not quit his “post” at the gate – i.e. his sackcloth and fasting. On the contrary, so long as the salvation was not complete, we must beseech Hashem for mercy to the same degree as before the initial signs of the salvation had been evident.
Natural events tend to occur in waves or in trends. A period of ascendancy lasts for a while and is followed by a period of decline. A bull market runs its course and then a bear market sets in. To celebrate at the first glimpse of success is to claim that the events of Jewish history follow a natural pattern. Mordechai understood that this is not the way of the Jews. Hashem guides Jewish history to its destiny through Divine Providence – hashgacha peratit. Events under the influence of hashgacha do not follow the same course as events that follow the natural course. Had Mordechai celebrated at the first glimpse of salvation, he would have shown that he believed that Jewish history follows the natural course of events and that the first signs of salvation would, therefore, definitely lead to complete salvation. By continuing to pray and fast until the complete salvation had come, Mordechai demonstrated that Jewish history is guided by Hashem’s providence – complete salvation cannot be anticipated until it has actually arrived.
During these days prior to Yom Ha’Atzmaut, we are celebrating 70 years of Israel. While the establishment of the State of Israel was not our nation’s complete final salvation – the coming of the Mashiach – it did represent the completion of the period of suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis and the other collaborating nations. The State of Israel presented the Jewish People the opportunity to serve Hashem in our own land under the leadership and values of our own people. Celebration was appropriate after the creation of the state because it completed the salvation from the perils of the Second World War and the Holocaust. In celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the State of Israel, we acknowledge the salvation that our people experienced during that difficult period in our nation’s history and we thank Hashem for his salvation.
Early in the Megilah, Jewish ascendancy is quickly replaced by Jewish peril. Esther becomes queen and Mordechai reveals an assassination plot to the king. Suddenly, Haman is promoted and the king issues a decree of death for the Jews. Mordechai reacted publicly to this decree; “Mordechai learned of all that had been done; and Mordechai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes. He went out into the midst of the city and cried loudly and bitterly. He came until the front of the king’s gate for it was forbidden to enter the king’s gate, clothed with sackcloth.” (Esther 4: 1-2) This location served as Mordechai’s post to pray and fast on behalf of the Jewish People for most of the rest of the Megilah story.
In another moment of ascendancy, the king ordered Haman to publicly parade his arch nemesis, Mordechai, around the capital city in royal clothing on a royal horse. The tides had clearly turned against Haman. Interestingly, upon the completion of the parade, the Megila writes that Mordechai returned to the king’s gate. (Esther 6:12) Our chachamim connect the king’s gate with the place of Mordechai’s prayer and fasting. They explain that Mordechai returned to the king’s gate to continue praying and fasting.
The Brisker Rov, HaGaon Rav Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, makes a prescient comment on this verse. He writes:
Regular people celebrate and are happy when there is a bit of success after a period of difficult suffering. But, (in reality), it is impossible to be happy until the arrival of the complete salvation. The proof of this idea is Mordechai. Despite seeing the beginning stages of the salvation (of the Jewish People) – Esther being taken as queen, revealing the assassination plot to Achashverosh, and, being paraded around by Haman by order of the king, Mordechai was not joyous and did not quit his “post” at the gate – i.e. his sackcloth and fasting. On the contrary, so long as the salvation was not complete, we must beseech Hashem for mercy to the same degree as before the initial signs of the salvation had been evident.
Natural events tend to occur in waves or in trends. A period of ascendancy lasts for a while and is followed by a period of decline. A bull market runs its course and then a bear market sets in. To celebrate at the first glimpse of success is to claim that the events of Jewish history follow a natural pattern. Mordechai understood that this is not the way of the Jews. Hashem guides Jewish history to its destiny through Divine Providence – hashgacha peratit. Events under the influence of hashgacha do not follow the same course as events that follow the natural course. Had Mordechai celebrated at the first glimpse of salvation, he would have shown that he believed that Jewish history follows the natural course of events and that the first signs of salvation would, therefore, definitely lead to complete salvation. By continuing to pray and fast until the complete salvation had come, Mordechai demonstrated that Jewish history is guided by Hashem’s providence – complete salvation cannot be anticipated until it has actually arrived.
During these days prior to Yom Ha’Atzmaut, we are celebrating 70 years of Israel. While the establishment of the State of Israel was not our nation’s complete final salvation – the coming of the Mashiach – it did represent the completion of the period of suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis and the other collaborating nations. The State of Israel presented the Jewish People the opportunity to serve Hashem in our own land under the leadership and values of our own people. Celebration was appropriate after the creation of the state because it completed the salvation from the perils of the Second World War and the Holocaust. In celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the State of Israel, we acknowledge the salvation that our people experienced during that difficult period in our nation’s history and we thank Hashem for his salvation.
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