Synagogue Sermon
Purim's Third Moral (1953)
The festival of Purim, and the Book of Esther, seem to have a three-fold message for us Jews. There are three individual morals to be learned from it. The first two are, more or less, well known. Here was a people, Israel, dispersed in exile amongst the Persians and the Medes, their very existence threatened by the anti-Semite Haman. There was no way out except through the intervention of G‑d, Who finally did redeem His people. It has been pointed out that the Name of G‑d does not appear even once in the Megillah. However, this does not indicate a lesser religious spirit than one finds in other religious writings. On the contrary, the fact of G‑d is so urgent and real and self-evident to these Persian Jews, that there is no need to mention Him by name. Thus it has been pointed out that Reform Rabbis are more prone to speak about “G‑d” than Orthodox Rabbis, who stick more to practical observance of the Mitzvot because to the Orthodox, G‑d is real enough and there is no need to remind one of Him. So too to Mordecai and his generation, it is certainly G‑d who saves them, and it is because of G‑d that he refuses to bow to Haman, and therefore Mordecai’s reference to G‑d is “Makom Acher” — help will come for us, not from “G‑d,” but from “some other place,” as Mordecai says to Esther.The second moral is the national. Israel is a people torn from its homeland and very much weakened in the land of its exile. Take a foolish king, give him a cruel and arrogant vizier, and apply a liberal dash of anti-semitism, and you have jeopardized the existence of the entire people of Israel. The antidote to this poison is, of course, concerted action. Love your fellow-Jew, work against your oppressing enemy, the anti-Semite. A simple lesson in national solidarity.It is the third moral, however, which is usually overlooked and which is of great importance — that is, the individual character of Mordecai as a leader. Mordecai is by all means the undisputed hero of the Book of Esther. He is…
