Skip to main content

Walled and Unwalled Jews

In chapter 9 of the megillah, the violent encounters between those seeking to wipe out the Jews and the Jews seeking to defend themselves and take the battle to their would-be annihilators is described. It seems that while the Jews throughout the realm achieved victory in a single day, on the 13th of Adar - the day slated by Haman for their destruction - the Jews of Shushan needed an additional day. This is what Esther asked of King Achashverosh and this is what was granted. So, the relief and celebration that is natural and automatic upon such a sudden turn of events came for the Jews throughout the realm on the 14th, but for the Jews of Shushan, only on the 15th. Then follows this verse:

Esther 9:19
“Therefore, the unwalled Jews (see the kri/ketiv distinction there), dwelling in the unwalled cities, make the 14th day of the month of Adar [a day of] joy and drinking-feasts, holiday, and sending portions to one’s fellow”.

After this, Mordechai sends letters to the Jews throughout the realm enjoining them to [continue to] mark these days. In his letter, he indicates that the Jews are to celebrate on the 14th and the 15th (the days of relief from battle for the Jews of the realm and those of Shushan, respectively). There is no distinction based on location in the megillah, the details are learned out in the Gemara.

Why doesn’t the megillah mention the initial celebration of the Jewish of walled Shushan on the 15th, as it did regarding the celebration of the 14th, referenced above? One take is that, they didn’t celebrate that first year! Perhaps they were too shell-shocked, needing an extra day to dispense with their would-be destroyers? But wouldn’t that be even a greater motivation for them to release all the pend-up angst and fear? And why didn’t Mordechai make it clear in his letter who should celebrate when?

I believe the key can be found in the verse cited above. What are “unwalled Jews”? Why does the verse need to characterize them, since it goes on to indicate that they are “living in unwalled cities"? Because, there are unwalled (or better “wide-open”) Jews and there are walled Jews. Or deeper: we all have our wide-open aspects and our walled-off aspects. Perhaps our personalities, what we show to the outside world, or even only to ourselves, are only a part, perhaps only the tip of the “I-ceberg”. 

If we are really going to unified the revealed and hidden, which is the ultimate message of the megillah, we need to access the walled-off parts of ourselves. It’s (relatively) easy, natural, to rejoice, to celebrate, to be thankful on the outside, or even on the outside of the inside. But what about deep inside, where lie those realms so recondite, so estranged from our normal consciousness that we just don’t go there? What terrifying, powerful, untamable forces lie there?

We need to go there, at least once a year. Because Hashem “went there”, everywhere present in His awesome hiddenness, so as to bring forth the beauty, the justice, the love and the symmetry of the megillah into our lives. This is what is spoken of only in Mordechai’s letter, in the verse (9:22) which echoes the one above, but adds the critical words “and gifts to the desperately poor”. We need to give our inner, inner selves the gift of being there.

Today is Shushan Purim. Drunkenness – the shedding of outer boundaries, is for yesterday (well, for most of us). Today is for giving ourselves, and thereby, the world, the gift of no fear as we penetrate the walls of the Chamber of Secrets to discover that, there too, Hashem is waiting for us.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The One (People) Who Must Not Be Named

Just as Balak brings Bil’am to consider his enemy from various vantage point, likewise does Parashat Balak allow us to view ourselves from the vantage point of others. The main story in Balak is of a single piece, and Am Yisrael appear only as foils for the central story – the interaction of Bil’am with Hashem. What is curious is that not only does Am Yisrael not appear as a real character in the story, we don’t even get a mention. Every time Balak or Bil’am refer to Am Yisrael in the non-visionary passages, they employ indirection: “this people”, “my enemies”, but never Yisrael. It almost feels that they are avoiding speaking the name, one which Bil’am, at least, employs so beautifully in his prophetic speeches. Now, recalling that this story of the interaction of other nations with Am Yisrael is being told in the Torah, I think the message is this: Yisrael is our name in the context of our covenantal interactions with Hashem, just as Hashem’s real name is used only in the conte...
1 comment
Read more

My G-d, a Navaho?

--> Shabbat Shirah, it’s time to sing. Standing on the edge of a Red Sea that has returned to its roiling nature, drowning the fleeing, terrified Egyptian charioteers, Am Yisrael is ecstatic and, with Moshe, breaks into song. They sang in unison a song that welled up from a prophetic vision of redemption that, our sages tell us, outstripped even the visions of Yechezk’el and Isaiah, both of whom “saw” Hashem enthroned on high. The song so permeated the very fabric of being that it is introduced with the imperfect mood of the verb – Az Yashir Moshe… “Then Moshe will sing”, as though the song is every ringing in the background of our Jewishness. So what did they sing? Pure poetry, and therefore, as difficult to feel confident in parsing as it must be even to attempt to imagine what they were feeling at that moment. And yet, we reprise it every day in our morning prayers, as part of Pesukei D’Zimra. Every verse of this song is fit for deep reflection; I’ve chosen...
1 comment
Read more

The Mishkan as an Instance of Tzaddik

I was speaking last night with Yonatan Neril, a student at the yeshiva with a keen interest in exploring the nexus between Torah and environmental consciousness. We were discussing a seminar he will be giving, G-d willing, in the Bat Area in the next few months. He wanted to present Ya'akov Avinu as a model of environmental consciousness, focusing on two episodes of his life as depicted by the Midrash. The first is the famous image of Ya'acov at the Yabok, preparing for the encounter with Esav and, having crossed his family safely over the river, goes back for pachim ketanim , little flasks, seeming worthless given the danger hovering over Ya'acov, yet, as we are told, the righteous prize their few possessions, since they attest to the fact that they have studiously avoided theft. Variants of that Midrash tell us that the contents of those small vials was olive oil from the branch presented by the dove to Noach and preserved during all the intervening generations. The o...
Post a Comment
Read more