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