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The Nature of

Revolutions

Revolution, Evolution and the

Dynamics of Sustainable Change

Rabbi Doron Perez

t the core of Judaism is a rev- model for our future redemption. Reflect- push off the mitzvot of Purim by an entire
olutionary spirit: the inability ing on the morning sun, Rabbi Chiya the month?
to accept things as they are Great said to Rabbi Shimon the son of Cha- The Sages explain (Megillah 6b) that Purim
Aand the desire to continuously lafta: “Such is the redemption of Israel. It must be in the second month of Adar in
change ourselves and the world for the begins slowly, progressing stage by stage; order ה ָּ לּואְגִל ה ָּ לּואְּג ךֹמ ְס ִל, “to connect the
ְ
better. In many ways, Judaism is a protest the more it progresses, the more [its light] two redemptions” and ensure that the cel-
against how things are in favor of what increases” (Yerushalmi, Berachot 1:1). ebration of our redemption from Haman
they ought to be.
The Talmud then cites five chronological in Adar is juxtaposed to the celebration
Mordechai and Moshe, the main protag- verses from Megillat Esther which highlight of our redemption from Egypt in Nissan,
onists of the Purim and Pesach miracles, the gradual ascendancy of Mordechai and never more than a month apart.
were revolutionary leaders who shaped the salvation and redemption he brings to Although a thousand years separated
the course Jewish history. Moshe was the Jews. As the morning sun rises slowly these two redemptions, the Sages insisted
hand-picked by Hashem, leading millions but surely, stage after stage, bringing light that they must be celebrated in close prox-
of slaves to a miraculous redemption, to a dark world until it shines in full glory, imity to one another, for the redemption
unparalleled in the annals of human his- the redemption of Purim occurred natu- of Purim informs the way we experience
tory. Mordechai refused to bow to Haman rally, with a step by step progression. This Pesach and is the blueprint for the future
and, together with Esther, astonishingly is how the Sages envisioned the future redemption.
reversed the imminent edict of total redemption of Israel.
annihilation. This teaching explains a critical halacha The original Pesach vs. the Pesach Seder

But revolution is a double-edged sword. A relating to the Jewish calendar. When- The stage by stage, natural redemption of
revolution effects change extraordinarily ever there is a leap year and we add a Purim is similar to the way we celebrate
quickly, but that haste requires skipping second month of Adar, Purim is always Pesach today, and entirely different from
stages of development that are essential celebrated during the second month of the fast-paced, original redemption from
for lasting change. It’s no surprise that Adar. This seems to violate halachic prin- Egypt.
many revolutions are short-lived, often ciples such as תֹוו ְצ ִּ מ ַה ל ַע ןי ִרי ִב ֲע ַמ ןי ֵא, “do not
leaving a wake of destruction in their path. pass over a mitzvah at hand” (Megillah 6b), םִי ַר ְצ ִמ ח ַס ֶּ פ, the original Pesach celebrated
ת ֹוו ְצ ִמ ְל ןי ִמי ִ ּ ד ְק ַמ ןי ִזי ִר ְז, “one with alacrity in Egypt, is not the paradigm for תֹורֹו ּ ד ח ַס ֶּ פ,
performs mitzvot right away” (Pesachim the Pesach celebrated through all the
The Purim paradigm ָ
4a), and ה ָּנ ֶצי ִמ ְח ַּ ת ל ַא ך ְד ָי ְל ה ָא ָּ ב ַה ה ָו ְצ ִמ, “if a generations of Jewish history, and it
For this reason, the Sages insist that the mitzvah comes before you do not let it grow is certainly not the paradigm for the
natural redemption of Purim serves as the old” (Mechilta, Shemot 12:17). Why do we future redemption. In fact, the way we

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