Page 13 - Issue 21
P. 13

Identity means belonging. A man’s identity is determined
                 by the things to which he belongs. There comes a
                 moment, Mordechai tells Esther, where a man must
                 decide for himself who and what he is. This decision
                 depends on actions, not words. If you do not answer the
                 call to save your people, you will not sustain any physical
                 loss; rather, you will cease being a part of us. You must
                 put yourself at risk, not because the Jewish People will be
                 destroyed without you; rather, because by ignoring our
                 fate you shall cease being a Jewess. Silence at the Jews’
                 hour of peril is your statement to yourself and about
                 yourself.

                 Haman’s decree suddenly disappears from the story or,
                 more accurately, recedes into the background. The
                 decree will be canceled; canceled one way or another.
                 What lies in the balance is not the Jews’ rescue but rather
                 Esther’s personality. All of a sudden, the Book of Esther
                 becomes an existential educational story. Do not think
                 that the world revolves around you and is determined by
                 your decisions, Mordechai tells Esther. The only thing
                 wholly dependent on your decision is your own identity,
                 your personality. If you do not join the struggle, it will be
                 lost. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus would not have
                 put it otherwise.

                 And Esther? She understands the message very well, and
                 answers Mordechai in the same token. Go, gather
                 together all the Jews who are in Shushan, and fast for
                 me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and
                 my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will
                 go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I
                 perish, I perish. Belonging involves mutuality, says Esther
                 to Mordechai. If I really must risk myself in order to
                 belong to my people, then my people must also show—if
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