The names, the localities and the circumstances of the Purim story change and differ from generation to generation but the basic social and historical lessons of Purim remain cogent for the Jewish people for all time. We are being taught basic lessons of Jewish existence in this Purim story. By ignoring or perverting these lessons, the Jewish people over the centuries have been exposed , both nationally and individually, to mortal dangers.

 

The Jews of ancient Persia had pretty much despaired of rebuilding national sovereignty in their homeland.  They had to adjust to being a particular ethnic and religious minority in a polyglot, the Persian Empire, which was overwhelmingly pagan. They had to learn how to sagely remain different from all others while somehow being part of the whole. And this remained the challenge for all of Jewish society – again nationally and individually – for almost two thousand years of exile.

 

The wicked Haman described us correctly when he said that the Jews are dispersed, disunited, and have and observe different values and laws than the general population. In short, the crime of the Jews is that they are different and the world has difficulty accommodating those who insist on being different.

 

In ancient Persia a large section of the Jewish people chose the path of complete assimilation into the dominant culture and society. They gleefully participated in the king’s banquet and excesses and willingly bowed down to Haman and to his pagan ways. German Reform in the nineteenth century called itself and its adherents “Germans of the Mosaic persuasion.” I imagine that the Purim Jews thought of themselves similarly as “Persians of the Mosaic persuasion.”

 

The complete abandonment of Judaism in Persian society did not spare the Jews of Persia the trauma of Haman and his decrees. And we are all only too painfully aware how the German assimilation of the nineteenth century turned out in the actions and events of the twentieth century. In the long run of history, assimilation does not work, not for the Jewish people as a whole or for individual Jews.

 

This fundamental lesson of the Purim story remains a challenge in every generation of Jewish life. In our time, it has become perhaps the greatest danger to Jewish survival. However we can avert the pitfalls of assimilation willingly and voluntarily through increased Jewish education and at least minimal adherence to Torah commandments and Jewish tradition. Otherwise, our history shows us that there are far more painful methods available to remind even the most assimilated among us of being Jewish.  

 

Another underlying lesson of the Purim story is that of the power of Jewish pride and self-worth. Mordecai’s intransigence and Esther’s courage in a moment of fateful decision and dangerous choice are the ingredients that make them the immortal heroes of the Purim story.

 

Pride in one’s personal and national heritage is instilled at home by parents to children. The most effective tool that I remember in raising our children – and a rabbi’s children often face many severe peer challenges - was to simply say that this is the way our family behaves, talks and acts. A strong sense of family and of continuity will almost automatically engender Jewish self-pride in a child. It is more powerful than pure book knowledge in creating a Mordecai and Esther.

 

And the great sage Hillel stated: “If I am not for myself than who will be for me?” If Jews themselves are not for Judaism and the Jewish people and the State of Israel, than who shall be for us? Mordecai warned Esther that if she remained silent now she and her family were doomed to extinction, Jewishly speaking.

 

Being a Jew always presents one with making hard choices and difficult decisions. The Purim story comes to reinforce for us this important truism of Jewish life. That Purim would remain the eternal holiday of the Jewish people corroborates the importance the Rabbis placed on the messages of this wonderful Yom Tov.

 

Shabbat shalom

Purim sameach