When I was a teenager the rabbi at our Reform temple said
something in his pre-Purim talk that I have never forgotten. He stated that one
of his colleagues always told over the Purim story with a slight twist
to the ending. This other rabbi’s conclusion had Mordechai and Haman making up,
sitting under a tree together, and becoming the best of friends.
If I remember correctly I was enthralled with
this new ending. After all, growing up in that oasis of time of the fifties and
sixties overt anti-Semitism was something I learned about but did not
experience. How I wish my children and grandchildren could think the same way I
did. Hatred to the Jewish people is such a reality for them. Friends have been
murdered on their way to Torah classes. Playmates have been stabbed to death
while sleeping in their beds. All this and more has been done by Arab
terrorists who want to destroy Israel. Unfortunately,
my children and grandchildren know firsthand there is no truth to that other
rabbi’s happy ending.
As I left adolescence
I learned more and more about my Jewish heritage and discovered that Haman was
a descendant of Amalek. There is a commandment in the Torah, (Deuteronomy,
Chapter 25, verse 19) that once HaShem has given us the inheritance of the Land
and rest from the surrounding enemies we need to erase the memory of Amalek
from under the heavens. Who is this Amalek and why were we supposed to
annihilate him? Amalek was the grandson of Esav, Yaacov’s twin brother, the
twin brother whom he had at one time sworn to murder after his father died.
That did not happen but his animosity continued and was passed down. So much so
that after the Children of Israel crossed through the Sea of Reeds, while all
their Egyptian pursuers drowned and the world was in awe of the Jewish nation
and HaShem, Amalek came to attack. (See Exodus, Chapter17, verses 8-16) Our
sages teach us that Amalek’s aspiration was not to fight the Jewish people, but
rather HaShem. This is why we are commanded to eradicate him and his nation.
As history progressed we have lost sight of
who exactly is from the Amalek nation. Of course, sometimes it is easy to guess. Surely
Hitler was a descendant and no doubt Ahmadinejad is, also. Probably the organizers of Israeli Apartheid are part of
the same illustrious family. If, indeed Mordechai and Haman had had a lovely
picnic lunch with each other, then we would not have suffered through the
Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, the Holocaust, and current anti-Zionism.
The rabbis teach us that
when the month of Adar, the month of Purim, enters, joy increases. The last six
years I have had problems with this dictum.
Six years ago at the beginning of Adar my neighbor’s son, along with
seven other boys, was shot to death in the gruesome Mercaz HaRav Massacre.
Three
years later my grandson’s buddy from down the block, four-year-old Elad Fogel,
was stabbed to death along with his mother, father, older brother, and baby
sister.
How can joy increase when there is such evil? And yet, there is a commandment to feel joy.
2 comments:
As always, your postings make me think. I think we led a sheltered life in Wichita. As Jews, we were accepted as the people we were. The Docs in the family gave us a great reputation in the community. I never really felt anti-Sematisim til I went to college. You make me think!
Thanks, Esther
Thank you!!!!!
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