Friday, March 5, 2010

Purim Lessons

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere, and you and your father's household will perish; and who knows whether it was not for just such a time that you attained your majesty.” Mordechai to Esther (by messenger), 4:14

"Go, assemble all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, day and night; also I and my maidens will fast in a like manner; then I will go to the king contrary to the law, and if I perish, I perish." Esther to Mordechai (by messenger), 4:16

Our prayers are all answered. We just don't know how or when. They accumulate in the Heavenly account. Why was Esther's prayer answered and not those of other generations in peril? We don't know. And we can't know. But all the prayers that came before have their cumulative effect in a place and time we cannot know. Perhaps now; perhaps later.

“For if you remain silent at this time..” - Do not remain silent. Add your prayer to the great stream of prayers and perhaps it shall tip the balance.

“Relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere...” - Do not cut yourself off from the community lest...

“You and your father's household will perish.” - If our prayers are answered, you will have severed yourself from us and are dead to us, and if they are not answered, you will perish with us anyway.

“And who knows whether it was not for just such a time that you attained your majesty.” - “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” Perhaps it was for just this occasion to intervene and save the Jews that you were made Queen of Persia. We all have our unique position that fulfills a divine purpose. “Make His will your will, so they he may make your will His will.” There may come a point where the whole purpose of our lives hangs in the balance of a single act. Choose rightly or “you and your father's household will perish.”

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