Rabbi's Blog

Dear OZ family,

It was one lunar year ago that the uncertainty of what was in store began to fall upon us. I remember the sinking feeling brought on by the decision to announce that we would suspend services for the unforeseeable future. The idea of life being capsized, and all that is normal being overturned, is very much the theme of Megillat Esther. One moment the Jews are enjoying the largesse of the king of Persia, and the next moment we face genocide. One moment, Mordechai’s life is nearly forfeit, and the next moment he is wearing the king’s ring and enters the highest echelons of government. In the beginning of the story, the king’s best friend convinces him to kill his wife, and at the end of the story, the king’s wife convinces him to kill his best friend. The verse that mentions “V”Nahafoch Hu” (9:1), the thing was overturned, characterizes the entire story.

The suddenness of it all is debilitating, but it can also be exhilarating. Esther and Mordechai prepare for the worst outcome, but they expect the best outcome. A nation maligned as being scattered and dispersed (3:8), rose to the occasion to gather as one, and to unite in repentance and self-improvement (4:16). Thus Esther raised the confidence to face the abyss with the courage to change the lot of her people. Kohellet knows what the Jews of Persia faced when he laments about this debilitating aspect of the human condition: “Man cannot know his time , as fish are enmeshed in a fatal trap, and as birds are trapped in a snare, so men are caught at the time of calamity, when it comes upon them without warning” (9:12). In the Purim story, just as Haman’s decree came out of nowhere, so too was Haman himself blindsided by how his own plan was overturned, without warning.

There is still some degree of uncertainty before us, but the light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of vaccinations and improved numbers, gives us extra reason to rejoice this Purim. May we all rejoice in good health, and may simcha and mazel continue to increase in our midst. 

With that in mind, please join me in wishing Mazel Tov to Alon and Sabrina Bendory on the birth of a boy. Mazel Tov, also to Meir and Rocky Milgraum on the birth of a girl, and Mazel Tov to Harry and Rachel Skydell on the engagement of their son, Ephraim to Shaina Mirsky. Simcha should continue unabated!

Stay safe. Be healthy. Be excellent.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz