Page 3 - The Jewish Voice - April '22

The Jewish Voice, Page 3
Our Lives Are a
Giant Jigsaw Puzzle
By Rabbi Dovid Vigler
When the windscreen
is unclear, it’s the rearview
mirror that puts everything
in the proper perspective.
It seems like the world
has lost its mind all over
again. War has broken out
in Europe, millions are
running for their lives. The
Jewish community is fleeing
Ukraine for a second time in
one lifespan. How can we make sense of this madness? plans of Haman. And the Jews live happily ever after as they
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From the rabbis
comprehend why. Stuck in traffic, in an airport, in a dead-end are subsequently allowed to return to the Holy Land to build
In our personal lives, too, we often get stuck and cannot
our Second Temple in Jerusalem.
job, or in an unhealthy relationship. Why are we here? We Though we are commanded to hear each and every single
can’t wait to kill it and move on. word of the reading in order to fulfill our obligation, we struggle
It was on Purim 1984 that the Rebbe delivered a game- to understand the necessity of the first two chapters, which
changing sermon that nourishes our souls with passion and seem to be nothing more than a description of the decadent
purpose for each and every random and meshuge event of and opulent lifestyle of the extravagant monarch, as well as his
our lives: stupidity. At this feast the king is slighted by Queen Vashti and
One of the main mitzvahs of the celebration of Purim promptly executes her. He also issues a decree that all women
is the reading of the Megillah. Set in Ancient Persia 2400 must listen to whatever their husbands tell them to do!
years ago, it’s the story of the salvation of the Jewish People It’s only in the third chapter that the story of Mordechai
from the wicked rule of King Achashverosh (Xerxes) and his and Esther really begins — where they set in motion their plan
chief advisor, Haman. After killing his wife, Vashti, King to save the Jews. Why then are these unnecessary chapters
Achashverosh appoints a Jewish Queen, Esther. She never part of the Megillah and part of the Torah? It’s downright
reveals her Jewish identity to the king until the exact moment embarrassing for us to gather in shul each year to listen to
that she can use it to save her brethren from the murderous this codswallop!
Yet it is precisely in this narrative that the greatness of
Purim comes to light.
Our lives are a giant jigsaw puzzle, where each and every
piece is vital to the bigger picture. If even a single piece is
missing, the entire picture is incomplete. Though we think
we know what’s important in our lives and what isn’t,
Hashem knows better. Like a skilled weaver, the Master of
the Universe brilliantly coordinates each and every detail of
our lives toward the ultimate goal. No detail is irrelevant; no
experience is random.
what we had in mind. Faith is trusting in G-d even when you
Hashem’s timing is perfect even though it’s most often not
don’t understand where He’s taking you, as the wise Yiddish
saying goes: Man plans and G-d laughs.
Photo credits: ©Janine Harris. All rights reserved
Sometimes the bad things that happen to us put us on the
A spectacle of path to the best things that ever happened to us. We can rarely
see the reason in real time, but in hindsight everything tends
pirates, fairies, to fall into sharp focus.
In what is considered one of the most inspirational
mermaids, and speeches of the 21st century, Steve Jobs told the story of his
lost boys for life. He spoke of his being twice rejected at birth, and only
reluctantly being adopted by his parents. He spoke about his
the whole family failures that led him to drop out of college and sleep on the
floor of a friend’s room without having enough money for
food. Yet despite it all, he stood before the graduating class
at Stanford University in 2005 and triumphantly declared that
everything in his life was for a reason. All of his struggles
clearly made him the success that he had become, but that
he could never have known this in real time: “Again, you
can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect
them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots
will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in
something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This
approach has never let me down, and it has made all the
difference in my life.”
RINKER PLAYHOUSE And that’s exactly why we read the seemingly arbitrary
and unnecessary details of the Purim story in the complete
narrative of the Megillah — to put everything into the proper
perspective.
Indeed, even the seemingly irrelevant details of the
decadent celebration of Achashverosh was key to the salvation
of Purim. It was the seemingly random details of the feast of
Achashverosh at the opening of the Purim story that set in
motion the salvation of the Jews, a full nine years prior.
But for Achashverosh’s idiotic decree for men to “control”
their wives, Mordechai would never have brought Esther to
the palace, claiming that he had no idea where she was.
When Achashverosh executed his queen, Vashti, in
his drunken stupor, and then later regretted it, the people
understood how mercurial he was. Thus, when his decree to
destroy the Jews was published, the people did not attack them
immediately, recognizing the high probability of his changing
his mind in the interim and then suffering heavy consequences.
The Hebrew word for coincidence is “mikre,” which can
also be read as “rak MeHashem,” “Guided exclusively by
G-d.” The Megillah of Esther inspires us to find purpose in
We take care of each and every moment of our experience, filling us with
faith and the purpose of our presence. Wherever you are, be
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residents
while
And as we declare in the blessings before the Megillah,
are out of state. If “Thank you G-d….who made miracles for our ancestors in
you are planning those days, in these days too,” we recognize that just as the
to relocate or Purim story was set in Persia 2400 years ago, it could just as
easily have happened in Kiev, Odessa, Tel Aviv, or Palm Beach.
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From the Rabbis on page 4