Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: HaShem Is Watching Out for Us Every Second, and He Wants Us to Know That

There are currently things going on in the world that are, frankly, scary. I had never personally experienced direct antisemitism until just a few months ago. Walking home from vasikin, while waiting at a light with my wife, a man started screaming at us, "You Jews only care about yourselves! You don't care about anyone!" He was not screaming from across the street, he was standing next to us. The light turned green and we walked on as he continued yelling. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Is anyone watching out for us? The world doesn't seem to care what is done to us, only what we do. I think that is why Purim was particularly poignant this year. Everything in the Purim story seems to be going south. A sworn enemy of the Jewish people is promoted to viceroy out of nowhere. There is a royal decree that gives everyone a whole day to kill Jew with the government's blessing and, presumably, protection. Then everything changes in just a few days. The turning point is when the king can't sleep one night. We all know the story. Two of the king's guards had plotted to assassinate Achashversosh, but that plan was thwarted by Mordechai, who had never been rewarded... you know the rest. But there is an incredible detail that you likely don't know.

When the events are happening, we read (Esther 2:21) that two guards, בגתן ותרש/Bigsan and Seresh were plotting to kill Achashversosh. However, when we read about that night when Achashversosh couldn't sleep, we read (Esther 6:2) that Mordechai has thwarted the plan of בגתנא ותרש/Bigsana and Seresh. (Go ahead and look it up. I was surprised also.) Why did the spelling change? Chazal tell us that the scribe, Shimshi, reading to Achashversosh was one of Haman's sons; who certainly did not want to read anything good about Mordechai to Achashversosh. So Shimshi saw the entry coming up and erased it so he could go on to the next entry. But the angel Gavriel just rewrote it. Shmishi tried to erase it again, but Gavriel just rewrote it again. Seeing it wasn't going, Shimshi tried a different tactic, he changed the entry to say בגתן או תרש/Bigsan or Seresh. If he couldn't erase the entry, at least he could he make it look like Mordechai helped, but he also condemned an innocent man. This time Gavriel just pushed the two letters of או/or apart, so we are left with בגתנא ותרש/Bigsana and Seresh.

Cool, no? First, knowing that ahead of time helped me really follow each word of the megillah reading. But I also wondered: Since Gavriel could push the letters apart (and change the final nun to a regular nun, apparently), why not just erase the א altogether? I don't know, but I have a thought: HaShem wanted that extra א left in the text precisely to let us know what happened. It means that everything looking so bleak was not because HaShem wasn't watching out for us, but because HaShem wanted things to look bleak. And when it was time for things change, they changed. Haman and Achashversosh couldn't make things bad for us, and they couldn't make things good for us. They were unwitting pawns in HaShem's plans -- very, very detailed plans.

Things haven't changed. The nations want to destroy us. Some politicians now seem to want to help us. In Truth, though, they can't hurt us and they can't help us. There is only one source of help, and He is watching and directing every step of the way.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Why Halacha Has "b'di'avad"

There was this Jew who knew every "b'di'avad" (aka, "Biddy Eved", the old spinster librarian) in the book.  When ever he was called on something, his reply was invariably, "biddy eved, it's fine".  When he finally left this world and was welcomed to Olam Haba, he was shown to a little, damp closet with a bare 40W bulb hanging from the ceiling.  He couldn't believe his eyes and said in astonishment, "This is Olam Haba!?!"  "Yes, Reb Biddy Eved,  for you this is Olam Haba." b'di'avad gets used like that; f you don't feel like doing something the best way, do it the next (or less) best way.  But Chazal tell us that "kol ha'omer HaShem vatran, m'vater al chayav" -- anyone who thinks HaShem gives partial credit is fooling himself to death (free translation.  Ok, really, really free translation; but its still true).  HaShem created us and this entire reality for one and only one purpose: for use...
Post a Comment
Read more