By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — On Wednesday evening, March 7, we begin the celebration of the holiday of Purim which commemorates the victory of the Jews over their enemies in ancient Persia.
Once the hero of the story, Mordechai, finds out that Haman has received the king’s permission to kill the Jews, he begs Esther to go to the King to foil Haman’s evil plan. Esther at first refuses. The King has a rule: if you go to him before you are called, and he doesn’t want to see you, he puts you to death. It is only if he extends his golden scepter to you that you may enter and speak your piece. Esther tells Mordechai that if the King rejects her, she will die.
Mordechai rebukes her. “Do not imagine that you {will survive} in the king’s palace. On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish.” (Esther 4:13 & 14)
Mordechai warns Esther not to think that she will be safe from Haman because of her position. Rather, her fate is tied with the fate of her people. If she thinks only of herself and not of her fellow Jews, she will also lose in the end.
Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshishca found a similar lesson in the Maftir we read on Shabbat, March 3. He paid special attention to the grammar:
זָכ֕וֹר אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֥ה לְךָ֖ עֲמָלֵ֑ק בַּדֶּ֖רֶךְ בְּצֵֽאתְכֶ֥ם מִמִּצְרָֽיִם: יח אֲשֶׁ֨ר קָֽרְךָ֜ בַּדֶּ֗רֶךְ
“Remember (Zachor) what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt-how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in the rear.” (Deut. 25:17&18)
The desert tribe of Amalek was the bitter enemy of Israel. Amalek did not fight fair. We read this portion of the Torah on the Shabbat before Purim because Haman is a descendent of Amalek. Haman wanted to finish the dirty work begun by his ancestors. He did not succeed and the Jews were victorious.
Rabbi Simcha Bunim noticed that the verses in Deuteronomy which speak about Amalek are all in the singular: Zachor – remember! asher karcha baderech” – that attacked you (singular) in the desert.
Because of the use of the singular, Rabbi Simcha Bunim concludes that even though many Israelites were marching through the desert, not all of them fell victim to Amalek. As long as the Israelites were together, Amalek could not attack them. It was only if they split up and became distanced from one another that they became vulnerable to Amalek’s attack.
Rabbi Simcha Bunim concludes that it is only when Jews are not united that Amalek is able to attack us. As long as we are unified, no enemy can destroy us.
His words take on even greater significance today as the Jewish community becomes more fragmented and factionalized.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com