Half the Kingdom
If you had three wishes, for what would you wish? Are they wishes for yourself? For your family? For others? Are they material items or are they deep-seated needs? We all associate the holiday of Purim with blotting out the memory of the Amalekites, and specifically the evil Haman. We all scream and yell and clap noisemakers and shake groggers to erase the sound of Haman’s name. But the message of Purim is not solely about erasing the memory of evil. It is about how we answer the above questions.
One of the essential lessons of Purim is recognizing one’s responsibility as a member of the Jewish community today. The entire Purim story permeates the cultural memory of Jews. Still, out of the entire story, there is one verse that speaks specifically to this sense of communal responsibility.
Queen Esther approaches King Ahasuerus after Mordechai tells her of Haman’s evil plans for the Jews. The King asks, “Whatever is your wish, Queen Esther, it shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half the kingdom, it shall be fulfilled” (Esther 7:2).
Esther could have asked for anything. She had the king in the palm of her hand, “ad hatzi hamalkhut”-she could have taken over half of the kingdom! Without hesitation and without fear, Esther acted as a Jew first. She saved her people and she saved the future. She saved us.
Think about it: if someone gave you the opportunity, “You can have whatever you want, even rule over half of the world,” how might you respond? Just like the three wishes, would you ask for the material items for which we so often long? Or, would you answer the call and make changes where they are truly necessary?
In today’s world, there is hate, pain and suffering. It is a reality of the world in which we live. Where there is wealth there is poverty. Where there is health there is sickness. And where there is life there is death. We as a Jewish community have not only a responsibility to stand up for each other, but to think about our neighbors just as we think about ourselves. Each day that we walk this earth is another Kingly offer: “What is your wish? What are you going to do? What do you want today?” We do not live in this world alone; we should never ever think solely about ourselves.
Esther teaches us that it is not enough to be Jewish, one must act Jewishly. Esther teaches us that it is not enough to be human, one must act humanely. As we approach Purim this year, take stock in the life and world around you. This year is already gloomy for many of our neighbors, our brothers and our sisters. And even for many of us. We can appreciate the challenge that we are blessed with the opportunity to appreciate what really matters. We each need to find a way to give that “half of the kingdom” to someone else because that is essentially what Esther does: she turns her own prominence into future redemption.
When the time comes for us to do something for someone else, and when the time comes for us to use our stature in the world to brighten someone else’s day, we must seize the opportunity. It may only come once-and that once may change the world forever.
May this be a Purim where we all have the opportunity to the save the world, yet again!
