Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The lesson of Purim

The lesson of Purim

Elad Yana

If there is one thing Jews are not lacking, it is bitter enemies. As it is written in the Passover Haggadah, “In every generation, they rise against us to destroy us.” This year, our bitter enemy from Iran seems more real than ever.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a built-in role model and handbook for destroying the Jews: All he has to do is read the Book of Esther. For his first lesson, he should delve into the third chapter, where Haman explains to Ahaseurus why the Jews should be exterminated: “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they the king’s laws; therefore it profiteth not the king to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed.”
At the officers’ training base in southern Israel, soldiers are taught how victory is achieved. The best way is to identify your opponent’s weakness and take advantage of it. I don’t know whether Haman completed a Persian officers’ course, but it appears that he was well-versed in the art of war. He identified a fundamental weakness that worked against us – in the absence of an idea to rally around, a significant ideal that speaks directly to every Jew’s heart wherever he may be, we divide and collapse.
Why? Because, like the old adage says, wherever there are two Jews there are 10 opinions. We are opinionated and stubborn, even if sometimes it can lead to civil wars, large or small, and there is no shortage of examples.

So it is likely that Ahmadinejad, along with his ally Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, learned the secret of the Jews’ weakness from Haman. Nasrallah went a step further, so aptly comparing the division among our ranks to crumbling spider webs.

That is how it appears from the outside, but it is not the whole truth. Proof to the contrary slapped Nasrallah in the face when he suffered a defeat in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, teaching him that, as it says in the Bible, the more you afflict the people of Israel, the more they multiply and the more they spread. We, however, need to learn that our power lies in our unity.

The Book of Esther also teaches us this: When Esther wanted to avoid the decree of death and save her people, she called on all the Jewish communities to fast. This was not motivated by nutrition or fashion; it was an attempt to unite all of Israel under one goal. The fulfillment of her wish – when all the Jewish communities fasted together – gave her the support she needed and we proved that we were worthy of redemption.

The shared fast achieved its purpose 2,000 years ago, but today it appears that the disparity between talk of unity and actual unity can be sometimes be as wide as the distance from east to west. Let’s not wait until we require a catastrophe to unite us. Let us try something different.

It is not difficult. It is just one small step that could lead to great victories. And on Purim it is even easier – the joy of this holiday facilitates reaching out to others and overcoming the stupid embarrassment that prevents us from making that important move toward getting to know our neighbor, co-worker or fellow student.

With the joy and positive mischief of Purim as a backdrop, we can turn to our neighbor, with a smile from ear to ear, even if they are a bit different from us, and wish them a “Happy Purim!” We can even combine this with a genuine interest in their well-being. Beyond the simple benefit of making a new friend, we can also make our nation stronger forever!

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1486

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