Who are you going to be on Purim? Mordecai? Esther? King Ahasuerus? The Courtiers? or Haman? Each of the characters in this tale always seems to be in the right place at the right time, to move the story along at exactly the right pace to (spoiler alert) save the Jews from disaster!
Everything in this tale in Persia seems to be happening by chance, without any hint that there’s a distinctly concealed flow of movement throughout this whole Megillah. But when we look more closely, we get to see that all of these seemingly coincidental happenings were clearly going through a synchronistic process to save the Jews, just in time, from a deadly fate. Only then can we notice that these coincidences were really no coincidence at all—they were actually part of an ingenious divine plan.
Fast forward to now, to modern day Persia—Iran. Just like it was in the days of the Purim story, Iran is menacingly threatening the Jews. And just as it was then, it’s up to us to save ourselves. Just as before, we need to know that God hasn’t left us alone in the world to fend for ourselves. We need to remember that divine wisdom is still here, forever present within us at every moment, to support us on our way. Every one of us has to summon up the courage of Queen Esther and bravely face present day challenges. Clearly, we have to take care of whatever we physically can, but once we come to realize that the ancient teachings in the Megillah are still true today—that there really is a greater wisdom beneath the surface of our physical, material world—we’ll be able to notice, and gradually accept, that the greater, underlying source of all life is protecting every one of us, and will give us the insights we need to prevail.
The prophet Malachi explained it so well: “For I, God, have not changed; and you, children of Jacob, have not ceased to be … Return to Me and I will return to you, says God … and I shall have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.” (Malachi 3:6-7, 17)
When we’re ready to deeply contemplate this reality with all of our heart, soul, and might, we can begin to discover the serendipitous flow of life that can give us the profound support we each need.
So whichever character we decide to portray this Purim, we’ll be able to recognize who we really are: every single one of us is the star of our own Megillah.