Page 34 - HaMizrachi #7BackgroundwithJIF-Purim

Michael Eisenberg
NOT ALL

IT SEEMS

egillat Esther starts and ends From the moment that Israel lived was captured when the city was sacked.
with a curious set of facts. among the nations... this has been the Avraham attacked the victorious armies
M It begins with a story of pattern of Divine providence: they will and rescued Lot and the other Sodomite
Hollywood-like wealth, overwhelming have a period of respite for a number of captives. Though the casus belli was
pillars and tapestries, gold and flowing years, a century or two, and then storm economic, and despite the affinity of
wine, and ends with a new tax. While winds will come and wave upon wave Lot and the king of Sodom to money,
this might sound like a political story will lash out, destroying, wrecking, and Avraham sought only to save Lot.
beginning with Donald Trump and overwhelming mercilessly until the lone,
ending with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, scattered remnants flee to a distant place “It happened in the days of the judges’
it was canonized in the Tanach, and so where they regroup, become a nation rule that there was a famine in the land,
and a man from Bethlehem in Judah
carries a meaning for all generations. once more, cultivate Torah centers, and
The story of Purim is a story of Jews in achieve great things using their minds went to live in the plains of Moab” (Ruth
1:1). Like Lot, Elimelech fled the land
Persia, and how the empire’s vicissitudes and intellectual resources. But then and people of Israel for his own financial
impacted Jewish fortunes and solidarity. they forget that they are strangers in a
foreign land. They begin to think that benefit, instead of sharing his people’s
The Megillah swings from a thriving is their place of origin, and they stop distress.
economy that generates opportunities anticipating the spiritual redemption “It happened in the days of King
for Jews to economic recession that that G-d will bring at the appointed Yehoyakim…” Early in Jeremiah’s
brings out anti-Semitism and threatens time. Then an even harsher storm wind career, he tells the king: “You have eyes
the Jews in Shushan, and back and forth will be visited upon them, reminding and a heart only for your dishonest
again. It also highlights the powerful them with a deafening roar: You are a gain, for shedding innocent blood, for
temptations facing Diaspora Jewry. Jew! 1 oppression, and for practicing violence”
(Jeremiah 22:17). You, King Yehoyakim,
Under Mordechai, Diaspora Jewish Diaspora Jews have always enjoyed
leadership constituted of the heirs of success. They forged close ties with choose profit over morality. You shed
the commercial and professional elite local rulers, built Jewish institutions, innocent Jewish blood for monetary
of Judah and Eretz Yisrael, the upper and succeeded economically. Yet they gain.
crust exiled from Eretz Yisrael 11 years remained small in number. Some were This is a recurring motif. “It happened
before the destruction of the First killed and some apostatized, but most in the days of...” a choice of profit over
Temple. These first immigrants, who simply vanished after a few generations, greater values; of comfort over morality
had skills and were used to status, sought swallowed up by the host society. and solidarity. Tragedy looms.
integration into the Persian Empire,
economy, and institutions. The greatest At the beginning of the Megillah, things So it is with the Megillah. “It happened
opportunities could be found in its seem to be going well for Persia’s Jews, in the days of Achashverosh” that
biggest and most powerful cities. yet there is a premonition of impending the Jews chose the affluent, powerful
troubles: kingdom over the developing Eretz
After some time, a group of Jews “It happened in the days of Yisrael, comfort over meaning, and the
returned to Zion to rebuild Jewish life Achashverosh…” (1:1) good graces of Achashverosh over Jewish
and the destroyed Temple, but most solidarity.
Jews chose to live securely in Persia. The This same phrase introduces several
Megillah, by mentioning neither G-d Biblical narratives:
nor Eretz Yisrael, suggests that G-d and 1 Meshech Chochma, Leviticus 26:44.
country were missing from the mindset “It happened in the days of King
of Persia’s Jews. Amraphel of Shinar…” (Genesis 14:1). Michael Eisenberg is a Jerusalem-
King Kedarlaomer, a Mesopotamian based venture capitalist and author
This critique was articulated forcefully imperialist, attacked rebellious client of The Vanishing Jew: A Wake-up Call
and presciently by Rabbi Meir Simcha of kingdoms. Lot, who had left his uncle from the Book of Esther (Sela Meir,
Dvinsk in the 1920s: Avraham for the affluence of Sodom, 2017)

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