Tonight is Purim.
The story seems more relevant than ever.
The Jews are in peril as the powers that be conspire to annihilate the Jewish nation forever.
The story is riveting and frightening.
The tragic ending seems inevitable.
Then, when all seems lost, the entire tale is turned on its head.
Those who wished to destroy the Jews are themselves destroyed, the little orphan girl becomes the Queen of Persia.
The Purim story is complicated and messy.
But if you listen to the Megillah being read, the whole story is concluded in a nice,neat bow in about 45 minutes.
Sure, it’s a cliffhanger, but a few grogger turns and before you know it, Mordechai who had been mourning over the fate of his people dressed in sackcloth and ashes, is, instead appearing in a position of authority, arrayed in royal garb.
Forty Five minutes of nail biting suspense we can stand.
But the Purim saga actually took place over the course of nine years.
That’s a long time to wait for a happy ending.
I had the opportunity to listen to Hadas Loewensturn share some insights on Purim.
Hadas is the widow of Elisha.
Elisha Loewenstern was killed in Gaza on December 13 by an anti-tank missile fired by Hamas. He was on a mission to rescue wounded soldiers. Though exempt from reserve army service, Elisha felt that it was his duty to defend the State of Israel and volunteered for service.
Elisha was a high-level Torah scholar, successful software engineer and a devoted father and husband. He is described by friends and family as a pure soul, who never raised his voice and always strove to become a better person. As an ordained rabbi committed to helping others, Elisha was a pillar of the community in Harish, teaching extensively.
He made Aliyah with his family from Highland Park, New Jersey at the age of eight.
He was 38 when he was killed.
Hadas, his widow, is an inspiration. She has a positive view on life despite the challenging reality she lives.
She is a modern day Queen Esther.

Many little girls like to dress up as Queen Esther.
But if you ponder her life for a moment, you might discourage your little princess from that particular costume.
After all, Esther was an orphan who was abducted from her home and forced to stay, against her will, in a cage.
Sound familiar?
Yes her tunnel was a palace, and her cage a gilded one, but she was assaulted and kept against her will.
Even worse, at the end of the Purim story, when the Jews celebrate their victory, Esther must watch from the palace. For the rest of her life she is in golden chains, never allowed to return to her old reality.
Hadas says that is a common prayer we offer.
We want to go back to life as it was before.
She remembers that during Corona, she just kept begging for her old life. And now, there are moments when she wants to return to the life she knew before October 7.
But she has learned that what is really powerful is not to pray to go back, but to pray to go forward, to reach the next level.
Sometimes we are all underground.
The challenges of life may make us feel buried and we can’t breath for the pressure.
A seed is in a similar situation.
It’s buried deep beneath the ground. It’s not an apple tree - yet. It’s just a seed, rotting in the ground.
It’s a seed in the darkness.
But if that seed continues in that environment, it has the potential to grow into the blossoming apple tree.
Hadas teaches us that a person, like the seed has a choice. A person can be buried, or a person can see themselves in the position of being planted.
You choose.
Are we orphans?
Or are we Queen Esthers?
We can choose.
Distress is not something to just get through, rather we need to use it as a modality for a catalyst of growth and then we can be a better person because of the experience.
It’s not about the outcome - it’s about how we will come out. Our story, the drama and plot twists of our lives, doesn’t take just 45 minutes, it will hopefully take many years for the seed to germinate and grow under the cover of darkness.
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, 18th Hasidic master, teaches that the word Purim, sounds like Hebrew word Perurim, which means crumbs. Gd is giving to us all the time. Sometimes it’s in big chunks, sometimes it’s crumb by crumb. But Gd is always giving.
We just have to see the gifts however they come.
This reminded of Agam Berger who shared such a similar thought when asked how she survived the hundreds of days in captivity.
One of things she said was that she gathered little signs of Divine Intervention every day, she called those crumbs, whispers of miracles.
Hadas feels that Gd is giving her those crumbs which are paving the way to the next chapter of her story.
She hopes it will be a long story, with many chapters, and in each one, she follows Queen Esther who taught us to choose.
I may dress up as Queen Esther after all, or perhaps as Hadas, her modern day version.
Who will you be?
Happy Purim 🎉🍹
and Shabbat Shalom with so much love!