A Message about Purim, the book of Esther, and the situation in Ukraine
By Rabbi Boris Dolin
Rabbi Boris serves our sister congregation Dorshei Emet in Montreal. Prior to moving to Montreal in 2016, he and his family lived in Warsaw where he was the rabbi of Beit Warszawa, a progressive synagogue.
THE WORLD TURNED AROUND 3/7/2022 (excerpts)
After two years of a pandemic that has disrupted nearly every aspect of our lives, and created the greatest societal shift in generations, the war in Ukraine has done something that even the pandemic could not. We have been brought back to a world that so many of us didn’t think even exist anymore, where true evil has once again been brought out into the open, with a dictator sending his troops into a neighboring democratic country.
What we are seeing truly feels like the world is deeply broken in an entirely new way. I simply am not sure how this can be repaired. But there is always hope.
While this is the time of year when we’re meant to do our best to put smiles on our faces, one of the core experiences of Purim is to “turn things around.” We are asked to make what is unexpected the expected and to acknowledge that what we never thought would happen is now happening in front of our eyes. Remember, the sense of the topsy-turvy is so strong that there is a commandment to drink so heavily that we can no longer tell the difference between the hero Mordechai, and the enemy Haman.
The origins of this notion of everything being upside down is drawn from Megillat Esther, the story of Esther:
וּבִשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ הוּא־חֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם בּוֹ אֲשֶׁר הִגִּיעַ דְּבַר־הַמֶּלֶךְ וְדָתוֹ לְהֵעָשׂוֹת בַּיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר שִׂבְּרוּ אֹיְבֵי הַיְּהוּדִים לִשְׁלוֹט בָּהֶם וְנַהֲפוֹךְ הוּא אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁלְטוּ הַיְּהוּדִים הֵמָּה בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶם
And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—when the king’s command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened, and the Jews got their enemies in their power. (Esther 9:1)
While we often use וְנַהֲפ֣וֹךְ ה֔וּא, “The opposite happened,” to describe Purim and its strangeness, in the Megillah it more literally means “the unexpected scenario came to be.”
There's so much about the war in Ukraine that is so unexpected, that it seems like it just could no longer happen. With the internet and all the technology that we now have at our disposal, these events are being played out on our screens and on our smartphones at a level of detail that hides very little. Now we can see the horror and the challenges play out live in front of us each day. And for Putin, the only way that he can continue to have his people support him is by literally turning off the internet, closing down the free press and spouting nothing but lies to his people. This is scary stuff.
But then we have the heroes of the story. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Ukrainian people themselves. Seeing their heroism, we see the hope. And talk about the unexpected! A Jewish comedian, rising to power with nearly 75% of the vote, in a country where his own ancestors were prohibited from celebrating their holidays or living freely as Jews. Now this man is leading his country's fight against an evil dictator who has vowed to destroy them. He's standing proudly in news conferences, and he’s speaking to his people saying those familiar words, that we cannot let anyone destroy our culture, our identity, or take our lives anymore.
Going back to the Megillah, the same word verb נַהֲפ֣וֹךְ (the opposite happened) that is used in the Megillah is also used in a teaching from Avot D’Rabbi Natan 24:4:
אדם שיש בו מעשים טובים ולמד תורה הרבה דומה לכוס שיש לו פיספס שכיון שמניח אותו מידו אע”פ שנהפך על צידו אין נשפך כל מה שיש בו
A person who has done good deeds and has learned a lot of Torah is like a cup with a flat base. When one sets it down, even if it is knocked over, not all of its contents will spill.
In this case, na’hafoch means “to be knocked over.” In the sense that it's used, it's an idea of stability even when encountering challenges. As Jews, we have been able to right ourselves and stay strong through fighting, through learning, and above all through a pride in our identity and our people.
These past few weeks can give us pause and remind us what we are meant to do in this world as individuals, as Jews and as a world community. On Purim we get an annual reminder of a story of strength amid tyranny, but now we get a similar reminder from the Ukrainians. Zelensky himself, in recent speech to the European Union, said:
Our people are very much motivated. Very much so. We are fighting for our rights. For our freedoms. For life. For our life. And now, we’re fighting for survival. And this is the highest of our motivation.
As we get ready in just a few days to celebrate one of our communal stories of fighting for our freedom, of a people who turn the tables to fight against Haman and his evil plan, we of course hope that the story of Ukraine under the leadership of President Zelensky will have a similar outcome. Maybe Putin can suffer the fate as Haman, who as any evil dictator should be, can be symbolically paraded through the streets, publicly ridiculed, shamed and forced to give back his power to the people who deserve it, the people he is meant to serve.
At this point, this seems nearly impossible to even imagine. But if the story of Purim and the story of the Jewish people can teach us anything, it is the power of community, and the power of the idea of freedom that can turn things around even when things seem hopeless. Let us all do what we can to hold on to this hope and step up to help Ukraine and all the people of the world who need to hold onto their pride, their freedom, and their lives. Maybe this can be a story with a good ending worth telling future generations.
Rabbi Boris Dolin
