In an address on Purim 5733, March 18, 1973, the Lubavitcher Rebbe related life to the Purim story.
The message of the Megillah is a simple one, though in a way surprising. When King Achashverosh throws a party, he knows he must go all in. Not for him was a mere hundred-day feast or goblets from silver instead of gold. He makes a serious party and throws everything he has at his disposal at the party. This king will not settle for mediocrity or even the normal standards of a feast. He will not get away with just doing a fine job. If he can do it over the top, he will have it just that way! If he can drink for 187 days, so be it. If he can give his people a memory of a lifetime, this is what he will do. No less.
Now, as the Talmud states, this king was a fool. He wasted his affluence and energy on an empty endeavor. Achashverosh’s motives in throwing his bash were vain and foolish. But the Torah is telling us the story, the Rebbe suggested, to teach us an invaluable lesson.
Even this paranoid, foolish king understood that in life, you’ve got to give it all you’ve got! You ought not to live a life of “quiet desperation.” Do not settle for smallness. You’ve got to suck the marrow out of life. Carpe diem! Life calls on us to live it to the fullest.
If even the Persian dictator understood this, how much more do we, G-d’s people, need to understand this! Do not settle for smallness. Give life all you’ve got. Utilize every potential, every resource, every opportunity, every faculty, and every talent. Do not squander a moment, and do not squander any aspect of your soul.
Show up to life and to love with every fiber of your being. Hold nothing back. Dance to the end of love. Celebrate to the heavens. Flex all your spiritual, physical, and emotional muscles. Let your infinite light radiate, and inspire every person you encounter.
Don’t be stingy with your love and passion. Be who G-d meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.
If someone is blessed with the ability to write, continued the Rebbe, then they must find a way to use that to change the world for the better. If you can raise 18 million dollars a year for Jewish education, do not be content with 17 million. Do not let fear or too much logic stifle you. Aim for the top. Do not make your target close and easy just to avoid fear and shame.
If you can build and spread goodness, kindness, truth, morality, Yiddishkeit, holiness, in yet a bigger and more effective way, don’t be satisfied with small measures. The days of an impersonal, restrictive Judaism must remain behind us. The Torah wants our youths, and each of us, to develop wings—wings that will propel us upward to reach our maximum potential and change the world!
There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. The Megillah teaches us: Make things happen and think big.
