miraclemaker jerusalem circle - Tzippi M. -commentary on Esther
At the last circle, I briefly spoke about taking risks, as it relates to the Purim story. I shared
how it seems odd that when Esther finds out about Haman’s sealing of the decree with the
king to kill all the Jews, Mordechai tells her she must go immediately to king Ahashverosh
and try and avert it. A dialogue then ensues in which she says her life will be seriously
endangered if she goes to the king without being called first by him. Some questions are
raised by this:
What’s the big rush if there is about a year before the decree is carried out? Why not just
wait until Esther is called by the king and then present her request? Wouldn’t that make
more sense? After all, even though a whole month has passed since she was last
beckoned, the odds are pretty good, considering her charm, that she’d be called again
pretty soon, don’t you think?
Mordechai reminds Esther that perhaps for just this purpose she was chosen to be queen,
but hey, if that’s the case why endanger her life unnecessarily by rushing? At the same
time, his message is, if you’re killed, don’t think you’re the only one who can do this job.
Help will come from someone else.
It all seems pretty confusing, doesn’t it?
I don’t claim to have all the answers, but here are some thoughts:
When we become aware of a situation, a need, or a crisis, it’s important that we don’t delay
in our response. We have no idea whether even a small lag in our action will cause other
more challenging events to unfold. In other words, act now. It is all too easy to
procrastinate with all kinds of excuses. The timing isn’t right, it might be dangerous, let
someone else take care of things, I’m not the right person for the job.
Sound familiar?
Esther’s intitial response is logical. But Mordechai makes something very clear to her: if
you don’t take action, someone else will, and the Jewish people will be saved. But you and
your father’s house will die. I
I think the deeper message goes beyond the physical. He’s letting her know that by
delaying, by taking the safe logical route, she’s endangering herself on the spiritual level
as well. We all pay an inner price for not acting when opportunities present themselves to
us. We all pay a collective price when we assume the safe route is better, or that someone
else is better equipped than us to do the job. We all pay the price when we convince
ourselves that waiting makes more sense, that we don’t really need to act now.
Remember the terrible story of the Kitty Genovese who screamed for her life, lots of her
neighbors heard, and no one did anything- either from fear or from the assumption that
some else was doing something about it- and she died? Remember the early writing on
the wall about global warming and all the people, scientists included who said, it’s really
not an issue?
There’s another issue as well. The story of Purim, in which God’s name is never mentioned,
is seen as an allegory of how the divine hides in our world. Esther’s name is similar to the
word “hidden.’ The king is often seen as a symbol for God. So what might it mean that
Esther is afraid to approach the king unless she is directly called? What might be the
hidden message for all of us?
Here’s what I think. God calls through us through world events, large and small. God
doesn’t tap most of us on the shoulder and say “hey, I’d like a meeting with you. Come to
my office tomorrow at 9:00.” God invites us to visit through the neighbor who needs help,
through the local foodbank that needs volunteers, through the planet that is screaming
out its fever of global warming. God calls to us through events or people wanting our
attention, our love.
It’s time to listen and answer the call. Will you accept it, or be tempted to delay? We all
need a Mordechai part of ourselves that reminds us to wake up and act, and that the time
for that is now.
Go out and make miracles happen. That’s what the call is about. Let’s get to the place
where our ability to create miracles is so common that the word takes on a new meaning
in the dictionary.
Miracle: the natural ability of the human being to design, create and orchestrate events,
both small and large. Used to be seen as a supernatural act of the divine. Now understood
to be part of human DNA.
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