Page 22 - HaMizrachi #7 Purim

G-d’s Hidden Call

a time when G-d’s face is concealed from another quarter… U’mi yodei’a im
and it seems as though He has stopped la’et kazot higa’at lamalchut. And who
communicating with us. The story of knows – perhaps it was to serve at this
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Esther is alluded to in the warning of time that you attained royalty.” This
hester. is the ultimate statement of hashgacha
pratit, Divine Providence. It reflects
Esther is one of only two books in the fundamental belief that G-d never
Tanach that do not contain the name of abandons us, that He puts us where
G-d, the other being the Song of Songs. we are – with these gifts, at this time,
But whereas the Song of Songs is a with these dangers, and in this place –
book about G-d’s love for us, Esther is a because we have something to do. Even
fearful book; it records the first warrant when G-d seems to be “hiding,” if you
for genocide against the Jewish people, listen hard enough, you can hear Him
the attempt “to destroy, to slay, and to calling to us as individuals: “U’mi yodei’a
exterminate all Jews, young and old, im la’et kazot higa’at lamalchut!” Was it
children and women, in a single day.” 3 not for this very challenge that you are
Esther comes from an almost secularized here in this place at this time?
world, one in which we search for the
presence of G-d in history and fail to The third book of the Torah begins
find it. with the words, “Vayikra el Moshe,” “And
He called to Moshe.” In a Torah scroll,
Indeed, Purim is the only festival in the the word “Vayikra” is written with a
Jewish year based on an event that took very small letter aleph at the end, so
place entirely in galut, in exile. Every that it could also be read as “vayikar,”
other festival is either based on an event
that happened in Eretz Yisrael or on “And He happened upon.” These two
words sound the same, but are in fact
the journey toward Eretz Yisrael. Purim completely different, even opposites.
alone is set in the place of hester panim,
when we are outside of the Land and Mikreh describes something that
where it is harder to feel the presence of happens coincidentally, without Divine
G-d. Providence. Mikra, in contrast, is used to
describe a calling from G-d, a direction
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Nevertheless, there is one line in the to fulfill a particular task. Why, then,
lthough the book of Esther was Megillah that represents the most is the aleph written small, blurring the
the last book of Tanach to be powerful statement in Judaism that G-d line between these two terms? To teach
A canonized, our Sages attempt to has not abandoned us. us that it is sometimes difficult to hear
find a hint to it in the Torah: “Esther min When Esther hesitates to intercede with G-d’s call. It might even be a silent call,
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ha-Torah minayin?” They find the hint King Achashverosh regarding the fate of a kol demama daka – a voice you can
in the ominous promise, “V’anochi haster the Jewish people, given the dangers of hear only if you are listening. Even in the
astir panai bayom hahu,” “And I will doing so, Mordechai responds strongly: worst hester panim, G-d is always calling
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hide my face on that day.” G-d’s most “If you keep silent at this time, relief upon us to act.
fearful warning is that there will come and deliverance will come to the Jews One of my great heroes was a man
a time when there will be hester panim,
called Victor Frankl, a psychotherapist

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