Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel from Givat Mordechai Etz Yosef synagogue, Jerusalem.
For their nearly 4,000 years of history, the people of Israel have been dispersed and displaced to the outermost parts of the earth. And yet they have survived. Moreover, they have thrived! In the face of adversity, the will to continue to live and be a light in the world has been the theme for this tiny group of people throughout the ages.
Unlike other nations, who established themselves on a piece of land, the Nation of Israel was established before it ever had a piece of land to call home. Israel, as a people, have been guided, protected and challenged by the God who called them His. Whether in the Land of Israel or not, the challenges have been intense and often preceded by the evil that seeks to destroy them.
Last week was Purim, a holiday whose story encompassed the evil of a person who wanted to destroy the Nation of Israel. The story takes place some 50 years after the 1st Temple had been destroyed in Jerusalem (586 BCE), and the Jews had been exiled out of the land to Babylon (modern day Iraq). The Persian King Xerxes was ruling the kingdom and was looking to replace his wife with a younger more compliant woman. All of the potential prospects were rounded up and brought to the palace, put through a year of beauty treatments, and brought before the king. There was one beautiful Jewish girl named Esther that stood out above all. She was told by her cousin, Mordechai, not to tell anyone her nationality, as there were those who would bring her harm if they knew.
Esther found favor not only with the people around her but with the King himself. He chose her to be queen and planned a banquet to celebrate. Mordechai overheard a plot against the king and told Esther. She in turn told the king and the assassination attempt was thwarted. This honorable act of intervention would be the catalyst to the salvation of the Jewish people to survive a heinous scheme to destroy them.
Here is how the story unfolds in the book of Esther. A man named Haman was given Royal honor, higher than all the other nobles. The people were required to bow down to him. When Mordechai, the Jew, refused to bow to him, Haman was enraged. Instead of simply killing Mordechai, he wanted to take his vengeance out on every Jew in the kingdom. So he devised a plan to destroy them. Haman manipulated the king and was given his signet ring to make a decree against the people. Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children. Haman was crazed with hatred for the Jews. The justification was that one Jew would not bow to him.
Queen Esther coming before King Xerxes in the Royal Court.
Mordechai and all the Jewish people wept with anguish and despair. He got word to Esther that even she would not be spared. He believed that she was their only hope of survival and urged her to take action to help them. At great personal risk, Esther took the challenge and went to the King even though he had not called for her. This was completely forbidden and was the reason he had deposed the first queen. Her famous words, “if I perish, I perish” are recorded in the annals of history and have been repeated by many who have been willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save their nations from those who seek to destroy them.
Esther came up with a clever plan to bring the dark, evil plot of Haman out into the light. In order to do that, she had to be brave enough to let the king know that she was a Jew and plead for her own people. Before the entire plan was complete, it was made known to the king that Mordechai had previously exposed a plot against him and so the king decided to honor Mordechai. Haman, in misery and humiliation, had to parade Mordechai around the streets as a hero. When Esther told the King that Haman had deceived him into ordering a whole race of people destroyed, including his wife, he was outraged. He ordered Haman to be impaled on the very pole Haman had erected to kill Mordechai on.
Queen Esther saved her people and King Xerxes gave a place of honor to Mordechai who earned the king’s trust and his favor. He also bestowed the Jewish people with the right to protect and defend themselves from their enemies.
Though this story took place in Persia, nearly 2,500 years ago, the scenario has played out time and time again throughout history, with the same ending…the Jews survive and thrive! Generation after generation, an evil person or group rise up against the Jews and devise ways to exile, destroy or annihilate them. But there is a greater force at work for the salvation of the Nation of Israel. May Queen Esther’s words of courage ring out to every Jew and everyone who calls themselves a friend of the Jewish people, “if I perish, I perish.”
May there never be another “Haman” in Jewish history. May there never be another “king” or leader who would be manipulated to hate the Jewish people. And may those who see these signs be willing to speak up and be courageous against the evil that seeks to destroy.
