Purim
“Everything is
foreseen, yet permission is given.”
(i.e. Man is free to act - Divine
omniscience notwithstanding.)
(Ethics 3:19)
A Fatalist only reads the
first half of the mishna quoted above. He feels
a constant, oppressive sense of heaven’s all-pervasive
power; he is convinced that this all of reality. He
never gets to the second half.
Influence moves in one
direction only, in his view. Man is free to
accomplish - nothing at all. He determines
nothing at all. Decrees are decreed by the
heavens; he is but a plaything in their hands.
Such was the situation at Mount Sinai. “God forced the mountain over them…and
said: ‘If you will accept the Torah, well and
good. If not, here will be your burial place.’”
The Jews acceptance of the
Torah at Sinai was partly
out of fear.
However, during the era of
King Ahasueros, when the miracle of Purim transpired,
the Jews “ ‘upheld and accepted:' they upheld what
they had previously accepted [at Sinai].” That
is to say that they re-committed themselves to obeying
the Torah, to bearing and upholding the yoke of the
Torah and all of its commandments – out of love.
What changed? How did
fear transform into love?
The popular explanation is that this love was the
result of the great gratitude felt by the Jews for the
incredible miracle of rescue that had saved their
lives and foiled the diabolical schemes plotted by the
evil Haman and his murderous gang.
Yet the causes behind the
emotional transformation experienced by the Jews might
be sought at a deeper level, and perhaps even from the
opposite direction:
The Jewish people were
suddenly faced with a new reality: The old ways had
gone. Things would be perceived differently now:
It would no longer be a matter of man’s passive
response to what was decreed on high in heaven, for
better or for worse. It was not only faith in
the Creator’s love for His chosen people, and
gratitude for the fact that He had performed
miracles for them long ago in those days at this
time….
Rather, the Jews had observed
an awesome sight. They had witnessed an
incredible phenomenon. They had seen mere human
beings - Mordechai and Esther - assert their control
over the swing of the pendulum that is life’s process.
How had they done it?
Whence their great power? The Jews discovered
that the power wielded by Mordechai and Esther had
been acquired through devotion. By clinging to
their sacred duty, to their task of carrying the
torch, of bearing the Godly light in this universe -
they had changed the human condition from the status
of creatures controlled by fate to Divinely-inspired
beings who are the controllers of fate.
Mordechai's devotion is
expressed in “…and Mordechai would not kneel and would
not bow,” though he risked his life to stand by his
convictions. Esther's clinging to her sacred
duty is expressed in going to supplicate the king when
such an act is clear suicide, because “…who knows if
it is not just for such a moment that you have
attained royalty?”
Such devotion sanctifies
God’s name, and sanctifies all of existence for the
sake of God. Such devotion becomes power, and
becomes the ability to activate, direct and control
the movements of reality’s pendulum.
This is accomplished by first
controlling the swings of the pendulum of human
behavior. Such movement effects a parallel
movement in fate’s heavenly pendulum.
The discovery of human power
is the discovery of man’s control over his own
fate. It is in man's hands to change his fate by
making calculated and courageous changes in his own
destiny.
A discovery of this nature
draws man out of the sense of his own helplessness in
the face of fate. It returns him to his lost
splendor, to his original status as the crowning glory
of creation. He becomes again the being who is
capable of controlling heaven’s decrees through the
choices he makes.
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