In moments of real danger, Jewish history reminds us that survival requires both strength against our enemies and responsibility toward one another.

The story of Purim that we are living through right now affirms the necessity of self-defense. When the decree against the Jews could not be undone, the Jews were granted the right to defend themselves. The Megillah does not romanticize vulnerability. It recognizes that when a people faces an enemy who seeks its destruction, courage and self-protection are moral necessities.

Yet even in that moment of justified defense, the deeper drama of Purim is not only about defeating an enemy, but about how a people holds itself together in the face of danger.

Jewish history offers a sobering warning.

The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE did not come only from Roman power. The sages teach that while the First Temple fell because of idolatry, violence, and corruption, the Second Temple was destroyed despite Torah study and acts of kindness because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred among Jews.

Today that baseless hatred can take the form of factionalism, arrogance, and ideological rigidity, fracturing Jewish society from within. Our inability to see one another as part of the same covenantal people becomes our greatest vulnerability. It was not only Rome that destroyed Jerusalem. We weakened ourselves........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)