The Book of Esther is Here and Now
Inspired by a brilliant prompt by my teacher, R’ Shulamit Theide who saw the connections between our current crisis of fear and the crisis of the Jews of Sushan in the Persian Empire
And it happened in these days, in a land Far away from the Provinces of Persia, in a far Eastern forest, The Dictator and Ministers decree that even more forests should be burned to clear the land for new coal mines. The bats in the forest desperately try to escape the blaze, and for a moment it appears they had found safety nearby. But the burns were too much for them, and they fell to the earth. Nearby, small boys gathered the tiny bodies of the bats, and cut them up to give food to their hungry families. And a virus entered the boys through scratches in their skin. The children did not get very ill, but the virus mutated once again and was transmitted by their droplets. It was a new virus, and many adults became very ill. Some died. The plague had begun. It appears that the Dictators and Ministers had forgotten the command to serve and guard the earth (B’resheet 2:15)
And it came to pass in the land of Persia in the days of Ahashverosh, and his prime Minister Haman, that it was heard that some outsiders were dying of plague. But the nobles were busily engaged in showing the riches of their provinces, and would not heed the needs of the outsiders. And Persia acted too slowly, until many died. It appears than on that day that the commands to love the stranger, were forgotten.
And so the ministers, who could not rescind their original mistake then proclaimed a new edict: that all should return to their dwellings, and that the safety of all would finally be considered, because, it finally occurred to them, we are all in this together.
It is/was a time of a topsy turvy world. The status quo was/is being shaken to its core. People are in danger through no fault of their own, and G!d seems to be behind the scenery. But it is the Holy One who built the set and the enlivened the actors, and remains hidden in this long-ago drama being played out again today.
Then as now, those with the least power will have their security ripped from them: wages, or health care, those on the fringes will be the most terrified.
The Ministers, corrupt and otherwise, who are in charge, are giving orders, and the world must obey. Our fear takes center stage as the motivator in our lives – so folks do obey, but it’s no way to live, this fear.
And life is different than it was before, and this does not come without insights.
How much of the life we live is just our mask: the events we go to, the positions we hold, become the face that we hold up to the world? When it is all stripped away – it’s just us, fragile human beings whose power over nature and events was just an illusion.
Miryam's Space 