Shabbos Parshas Zachor and Purim
I took the photo above at the Psagot winery gift shop
New Thought for 2023
Chazal tell us that Esther marks sof kol hanisim -- the end of miracles. It's not literally the end of miracles, as the Chanukah story occurs after the Purim one, though it is the last one to be canonized as a story in TaNaCh.
Today it occurred to me that it was the end of one type of miracle -- that of all the Jews coming together in unity. Everyone backed Esther up and fasted together with her before she approached the king. No one held a protest and insisted on taking a different approach to solve the problem.
You have to appreciate how very extraordinary that was -- this level of achdus that had been previously attained at Mattan Torah when the Jews were keish echad belev echa -- like a single entity to which the Torah was given. That's why Purim is the second acceptance of Torah -- that of the Oral law -- that can only be accepted by a wholly unified people.
This lofty level didn't last long, as you see that even in the course of the Megillah story, Mordechai is said to be ratzuy lerov -- accepted by most but not all of his fellows. Still at the time when it most mattered, the Jews stood together in perfect solidarity, and that is why they merited to be saved.
From 2022: ON FEELING TIRED
What struck me in this year's reading of Parshas Zachor was an echo of a much earlier episode in the Torah. In Devarim: 25:18, we read of how Amalek took advantage of the Jews in the desert with a surprise attack:
אֲשֶׁ֨ר קָֽרְךָ֜ בַּדֶּ֗רֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּ֤ב בְּךָ֙ כָּל־הַנֶּֽחֱשָׁלִ֣ים אַֽחֲרֶ֔יךָ וְאַתָּ֖ה עָיֵ֣ף וְיָגֵ֑עַ
how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary
Jump back to Bereishis 25:29-30 and we have an account use the same word twice
I would posit that just as Yaakov was able to gain the upper hand over his brother when Esav was tired, Evav's descendants in the nation of Amalek are able to strike back when Bnei Yisrael are tired. In both cases, I would say this is tiredness if more a matter of spirit than the physical need for sleep.
However, it is possible that bodily sleep is connected.
אֲשֶׁ֨ר קָֽרְךָ֜ בַּדֶּ֗רֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּ֤ב בְּךָ֙ כָּל־הַנֶּֽחֱשָׁלִ֣ים אַֽחֲרֶ֔יךָ וְאַתָּ֖ה עָיֵ֣ף וְיָגֵ֑עַ
how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary
Jump back to Bereishis 25:29-30 and we have an account use the same word twice
| וַיָּ֥זֶד יַֽעֲקֹ֖ב נָזִ֑יד וַיָּבֹ֥א עֵשָׂ֛ו מִן־הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה וְה֥וּא עָיֵֽף: | ||
| לוַיֹּ֨אמֶר עֵשָׂ֜ו אֶל־יַֽעֲקֹ֗ב הַלְעִיטֵ֤נִי נָא֙ מִן־הָֽאָדֹ֤ם הָֽאָדֹם֙ הַזֶּ֔ה כִּ֥י עָיֵ֖ף אָנֹ֑כִי |
However, it is possible that bodily sleep is connected.
Perhaps it is because of that balance of power that Yaakov was particularly motivated not to fall asleep, according to the Midrash, for the whole 14 years in which he learned at the yeshiva of Shem and Ever.
Now to draw a Purim connection, I would say that we see the turning point in the Megillah occur in 6:1:
The king cannot sleep and orders the book of records. This could allude to what we are reminded of in Parshas Zachor: we have to counter our own tiredness and remember our history and what it demands of us.
and from 2021:
Now to draw a Purim connection, I would say that we see the turning point in the Megillah occur in 6:1:
| On that night, the king's sleep was disturbed, and he ordered to bring the book of the records, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. | אבַּלַּ֣יְלָה הַה֔וּא נָֽדְדָ֖ה שְׁנַ֣ת הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וַ֠יֹּ֠אמֶר לְהָבִ֞יא אֶת־סֵ֤פֶר הַזִּכְרֹנוֹת֙ דִּבְרֵ֣י הַיָּמִ֔ים וַיִּֽהְי֥וּ נִקְרָאִ֖ים לִפְנֵ֥י הַמֶּֽלֶךְ: |
and from 2021:
THE MITZVAH IN CONNECTION TO AMALEK
I listened to a shir online last night in which the speaker ended up misrepresenting the mitzvah of remembering Amalek that we uphold with the yearly reading of Parshas Zachor. She said that it's a mitvah to hate Amalek, though that's not my understanding of the point of remembering.
It's more along the lines of "Don't get mad, get even," or "You don't need to hate, but do eradicate."
Feeding hatred is not productive. In fact, it can be dangerous. This is what struck me in a tweet that showed up on in my timeline:
@MarcACaputo
The greatest danger of hating evil people is that it’s so easy to become evil in the process of hating.
@MarcACaputo
The greatest danger of hating evil people is that it’s so easy to become evil in the process of hating.
This is not to say that one should forgive and forget all evil. On the contrary, the point of the mitzvah with respect to Amalek is not to forget and to pursue the eradication of evil. That is consistent with other mitzvos we have in the Torah that warn us "ubiarta hara mekirbecha" [eradicate the evil from your midst.] There's no point in feeling hatred toward the one who seeks to trap others in to sin; you have to channel the revulsion against evil toward removing it.
Additional Purim thoughts appear in these posts:
http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2015/03/good-will-and-good-works-on-purim.html
http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2016/04/word-association.html
http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2016/04/word-association.html
http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2010/02/poetic-justice-as-sign-of-divine.html
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