Our Secret Weapon is Jewish Unity (Maya Bloom, High School Intern)
In the story of Megillat Esther, King Achashverosh is married to Queen Vashti and rules over the Persian empire. Achashverosh makes two parties for the people in his empire and at the second party, after becoming intoxicated, he orders Vashti to enter the men’s party naked. Vashti refuses to do so and as a result, Achashverosh gets rid of her. Now, Achashverosh must find a new queen. He decides to marry Esther, a Jewish girl, although the king doesn’t know that she is Jewish. During Esther’s rule, a man named Haman tells king Achashverosh, that “there is a certain people scattered and separate among the peoples throughout all the provinces” of Achashverosh’s kingdom. Haman is referring to the Jewish people. He suggests that Achashverosh should kill the Jews and he uses the excuse that they are a “divided people” to convince the king to agree to his evil plan.
Esther now needs to come up with a strategy to save the Jewish people. She sends messages to her uncle Mordechai, who lives outside of the palace. She instructs him to gather all the Jews throughout the kingdom and in a tremendous act of unity, she asks the entire Jewish People to pray and fast for three days. Through this, Esther is ultimately able to save the Jewish people from their gruesome enemies.
Why did this act of unifying the Jews save them from this death decree?
When our enemies want to destroy us, if the Jewish people are unified, our enemies are not able to mess with us. In today’s society, when it comes to standing up for Israel and combating the many anti-Semites that approach us, we must fight as a unified nation. Whether we are politically conservative or liberal ; whether we are religious or secular, when we are united against our enemies, they do not have a chance against us. However, if we remain divided and fight among ourselves, then our enemies can (G-d forbid) take advantage of us.
That is the message of Purim and it’s as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago.
Chag Purim Sameach!
