HAMAN -THE GREAT UNITER

It seems that we are always living in ‘interesting times’. Going back a few years, Jewish communities around the world were targeted for their perceived responses to a pandemic. Now Jewish communities are under attack because of the imagined actions by the only Jewish state in world responding to vicious terrorist attacks that killed thousands.

The Megillah describes the evil Dr No of the Purim story as ‘Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of all the Jews’. The Hebrew word for foe or oppressor used is ‘Tsorer’. This word ‘Tsorer’, has another meaning in Hebrew. It also means to bind together.

So we can also describe Haman as the one who bound the Jews together. Through his actions, Haman actually did the Jews a service. They were originally described as being spread out and scattered (Mefuzar u’Meforad), so disunited that they were vulnerable to attack.

But he became the ‘Tsorer’, through the adversity he caused, the Jews came together under the guidance of Mordechai which allowed them to fight back against Haman’s plans and to prosper both physically and spiritually as we know that post the Purim miracle the Gemara in Shabbos says, the Jews fully accepted the Torah and were higher spiritually than at Matan Torah.

What is the take away? Sometimes something doesn’t appear be too positive, but how a person reacts to that challenge can make the negative into a positive. A Haman can actually lead to a stronger Jewish people.

Witness the attitude of world Jewry prior to the recent mass terrorist attacks. We were a people that appeared to be at each other’s throats. Be it judicial reform, secular versus religious, charedi conscription – where conflict was possible, fires seem to burn. But that one awful day last year seemed to flip the switch and all Jewry reformed into a sold unit, one family. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a Haman to remind us that we are one.