By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
As we ready for Purim, most people’s thoughts turn to shalach manos, the Purim seudah, and other means of celebration. Children may think of costumes and Purim shtick. And justifiably so—Purim is one of the happiest days of our year! But our main focus should be on something else: the celebration of a Holocaust that never took place.
A wholesale slaughter had been planned by Haman and Achashverosh. Chazal tell us in no uncertain terms that it had also been decreed in Heaven. In spite of the warnings of our neviim, the terrible destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and Yerushalayim, and the long exile in Bavel, klal Yisrael had slipped further and further from what Hashem wanted. One of the main themes of Megillas Esther is that Hashem wanted to shake them up, to spur them to do the teshuvah they had avoided for hundreds of years.
Many years ago I gave a shiur on Megillas Esther. In the course of my talk, I quoted Chazal, saying that one reason for the decree of Purim was because the Jews had attended the morally corrupt party of Achashverosh. But the decree of Haman electrified them, and under the guidance of Mordechai and Esther, they did an about-face, returned to Hashem, and overturned the decree through their tefillos. I told my audience that we must believe that had there been a wave of teshuvah in Europe in the 1930s, the tragic outcome of the Holocaust would never have come about. One young woman stood up and told me that she found this statement offensive.
“When I said that all of the Jews of Achashverosh’s empire would have been annihilated because they attended a party, you did not find that offensive,” I said. “Only when I applied the same logic to the Jews of Europe. You must come from a family that suffered in the Holocaust—for you, this is personal. It is an emotional issue. For that I have no solution.” The woman told me that my assessment was correct.
The Ribbono shel Olam wants only good for His people. Now, just as we have seen throughout our galus, we are enduring suffering that can be averted through teshuvah. Hashem is waiting for us. He has been waiting all this time for us to wake to reality and bring our ultimate yeshuah.
We certainly should be b’simchah on Purim, as instructed by Chazal, as we have been for 2,400 years since Shushan. But we must never forget that Purim commemorates our salvation from destruction, and that Hashem loves us and wants us to survive and thrive, living as the am kadosh He desires.
“A Historical Background of Purim,” an essay expanding on the Heavenly decree, is on Chinuch.org or by emailing [email protected].
