The halachah is:הקורא את המגילה למפרע לא יצא - “If someone read the Megillah starting from the end, he does not fulfil his obligation properly”. The Ostrovtza Rebbe explains, when we read the Megillah in order, at the outset we don’t seem to understand why we need to know that Achashveirosh threw a party and that Vashti also made a party and that a new queen was chosen and so on. But when we get to the part where Achashveirosh can’t sleep one night and asks for his sefer zichronos to be read, that is when everything starts becoming clear. That is when we see how the hand of Hashem was working for years in advance to set the stage for that moment. Mordechai hearing the plot of Bigsan and Seresh, Esther relating it to the king in his name and so on. To start from the end of the story and go back to see the hand of Hashem, anybody can do. In fact, the Megillah tells us, many people converted to Judaism after they saw this story in its entirety. The job of the Jew, however, is to be able to say: “This is from Hashem,” before he sees the bigger picture. We must read the Megillah from its beginning and say the entire time, “This was from Hashem, and that was from Hashem,” even before all the pieces are tied together.
Most of the time in life, we will not be able to see the full picture and there are many questions people have as to why things are happening. The best thing we could do is say: “This is also from Hashem for the best reasons. Just because I don’t see how, doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Every question is going to have a great answer. If we can believe now, before we see the answer, that is where all the glory lies.
Story #1
The first story which was told over by Dr. Meir Wikler is a story which took place in 1987 when Aish HaTorah sponsored a forum on how to achieve happiness, and they had Rabbi Zelig Pliskin as the featured speaker. The event was held in the King David Hotel in Yerusholayim and drew a standing room only crowd. The rabbi explained to the audience how a person is free to choose the attitude in which he will view any situation. And if he chooses to adopt a positive perspective, he is capable of achieving happiness in any situation. At the end of the class, there was a question-and-answer period. A middle-aged man stood up to ask the first question. He introduced himself saying his name is Steve and how much he enjoyed the class. Then he said, “Honestly, Rabbi, do you really expect us to believe that a person can re-frame any situation in a positive light? Certainly, there are some situations that cannot be viewed positively. For example, you will not be able to find one in a million who will feel good about getting a flat tire on a highway.”
During the brief pause that followed, Rabbi Pliskin thought about how to respond. What would he say that would be acceptable to Steve? The hushed crowd waited anxiously for the reply. But suddenly, the man sitting right next to Steve, named Alan, asked permission to address the question and Rabbi Pliskin happily gave him the floor. Alan said, “A couple of years ago I had a serious heart condition. After the doctor examined me, he said if I wanted to see my next birthday, I had to radically alter my lifestyle. I had to quit smoking immediately. He put me on a strict low fat salt free diet, and I had to cut back on my 12-hour work days at my law firm. I couldn’t use the subway or drive in rush hour traffic, and I wasn’t allowed to do any exercise or even lift a suitcase. Believe me rabbi, I was scared so I followed my doctor’s orders religiously. After twelve months, the doctor himself couldn’t believe the recovery I made. He was so pleased, he told me, I was no longer in danger and could resume regular life again. I was so excited! I was afraid I wasn’t hearing him correctly, so I asked him to be more specific.
‘Alan’, he said, ‘you can exercise now, and you can lift whatever you want. You can even change a flat tire if necessary. Your electrocardiogram is excellent.’
“I floated home that night, I was on Cloud Nine. Two days later, on my way to work in a thunderstorm, I suddenly heard a loud thumping noise. I pulled over and saw I had a flat tire. As I opened the trunk to get the jack and spare tire, I burst into tears. Tears of euphoria. It suddenly hit me, I’m allowed to change a flat tire! I was so grateful to have made such a complete recovery and then demonstrate to myself by changing my own flat tire.” Alan then sat down and Steve sat speechless, together with the rest of the audience.
A question that Steve thought was impossible to answer – how could anybody be happy with a flat tire – was shown to have the simplest answer. Every question we have is going to be answered even more simply than that.
As an aside, Rabbi Pliskin observed that the one person who was capable of giving the answer happened to be at the class that night and happened to be sitting right next to the questioner. The hashgocha of Hashem is amazing. As for us, we have to believe in the hashgacha of Hashem before we see the end of the story.
Story #2
A second story is a story I heard from Rav Ephraim Wachsman: Rav Wachsman relates that his wife’s grandparents lived in Vienna when the Nazis invaded. They had three little children, and they ran to France to escape the Nazi onslaught. They found themselves in the city of Bayonne and were trying to escape Europe. The streets were choked with thousands of refugees, and nobody knew where to go. How do you find passage, how do you travel? He wanted to go to England, but he had no clue how to go about it.
Then he saw a half drunken sailor. He went over to him and asked him are you traveling? It turned out that he was a Yugoslavian captain, and he was sailing tomorrow to England. “You’re welcome to come along with us, but you have to have a visa to get into England.”
Where do you get a visa? He found out that in a nearby town was a British embassy, so he promptly travelled the long distance. He prepared himself to beg for mercy to stamp his passport and allow him into England. But when he got there his heart dropped. The gates of the embassy were swamped with thousands of refugees trying to get visas. They were all begging to get in, but the guards blocked the doors and let no one in. There was no chance he could fight through that crowd. Suddenly it began to thunder and rain. It was such a heavy downpour that everybody began to run for cover. The guards also ran inside to seek shelter. He too began to run and suddenly he found himself inside the embassy. He looked around him and saw that right in front of him was a door with a sign, Consular General. The very person he needed to give him a visa! He knocked and entered, and he was standing face to face with the person in charge of stamping the passports.
“What are you doing here? What do you want?” he asked.
“I’m a Jew,” he answered. “I have a wife and three little children. I have passage tomorrow on a ship to England if only you’ll help us and give us a visa. You are the only one who can save my life. Please have mercy!”
The Consul was very moved, and he said, “Sure, give me your passport and I’ll stamp it.”
He reached into his pocket and ... He had left his passport at home. He fainted on the spot. In his eyes this was the worst moment in his life. They poured cold water on him and revived him. And the Consul asked what happened?”
“Well, I don’t know what happened, but it seems that I don’t have my passport. I must have left it at home.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. He took out a piece of paper and he wrote, “Those who are listed below on this paper have passage and have permission to enter England.” He signed his name at the bottom and stamped it and he gave him the blank piece of paper.
Rav Wachsman’s grandfather went and found every single Jew he could find and filled the paper with names from top to bottom. All the Yidden on that visa arrived safely in England. Today they all live in England and have beautiful families.
This all came about from the worst moment in his life.
Sometimes you see it the very next day, and sometimes it takes many years. But the Ribbono Shel Olam is weaving that tapestry, the Ribbono Shel Olam is writing a Megillas Esther, and eventually we will see how the plan of the Ribbono Shel Olam will triumph and the Ribbono Shel Olam wants only our benefit. The lesson we must take from Megillas Esther is that we have to believe in the hashgacha of Hashem before we see the end of the story.
