“Perhaps It Was Precisely for This Kind of Moment That You Have Risen to Your Position of Authority!” (Esther 4:14)

Purim is approaching, and at this time of year, we say to one another, “Be happy, it’s Adar” and wish for everyone days of ‘exhilaration, joy, rejoicing, and glory’ (Esther 8:16). Purim is, of course, our holiday celebrating the biblical story of Persia’s ancient Jewish community, which had confronted antisemitism and the threat of annihilation, and was ultimately victorious.

Today’s Purim parties, shpiels, and synagogue carnivals teach many of the holiday’s messages: We jeer the villain Haman, we elevate the heroes Esther and Mordechai, and we feast and make merry just as Esther did at the climax of her story. Through our celebrations, we transmit the message that Jewish identity will survive, as it always has, despite the roadblocks and threats.

There is one critical moment of the Purim story that should move us. It occurs at a time of great anxiety about Haman’s murderous plot, when Mordechai challenges Esther – because of her position as Queen – to approach the King and reveal to him Haman’s genocidal plan to destroy the Jews. She was a Jew in a position of influence – if not power – and she might have the means to save her people. Mordechai puts it this way: “Perhaps it was precisely for this kind of moment that you have risen to your position of authority!” (Esther 4:14)

Esther rises to this challenge by inviting the King and Haman to attend a banquet together, where she ultimately discloses one ramification of Haman’s plot – her own death – and identifies Haman as the culprit. The King is enraged, Haman is impaled, and Esther and Mordechai move to undo Haman’s wicked plan and save the Jews in Persia.

Mordechai’s challenge and Esther’s successful strategy remind us that fate can place any of us in positions of significant opportunity – or maybe even influence. We must recognize those moments, take advantage of the situation, and respond. We need to remember that perhaps it was for this kind of moment that we rose to our positions of authority.

I think about those Jews in modern history who have risen to influential positions and have created positive change in the world. This is just a sampling: Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, who helped to establish the American Civil Liberties Union; Rabbi Emil G Hirsch, who helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; or Rabbi David Saperstein, former director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, who later was appointed by President Obama as the first non-Christian to hold the post of United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. In their day, they took advantage of their positions and promoted positive social change.

I think also about Jews in our world who have risen to positions of influence and leadership, yet have not responded to the Mordechai Challenge, to use their position to move the arc of history further along its trajectory toward justice. Even though I am pessimistic, I still have hope that they will.

I challenge you, Stephen Miller. You are the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and architect of the anti-immigrant enforcement mission that the current administration has unleashed upon our nation. Through governmental agencies, you have searched for and arrested immigrants regardless of status or severity of violation, and treated them outside of the established legal system. Yet, as a Jew, you are mandated to remember and care for the stranger and the stranger’s needs, for we know the heart and feelings of the stranger, having ourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.

Therefore, what will you do to improve the way we act toward immigrants into this country, without resorting to deceptive, cruel, and violent methods that you have advocated and employed so far? How will you treat with humanity those whom you accuse of violations of law, and not turn our justice system into an instrument of torture and punishment? What will you do, as an officer of this nation of freedom, to ensure due process – a bedrock value of American tradition and law – for all those whom you believe to be deportable? How will you universalize the message of Passover, occurring in just a few weeks, so that we have empathy for the stranger and the immigrant? What will you teach your own children about their Jewish heritage of loving the stranger?

I also challenge you, Lee Zeldin. You are the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Though your authority and responsibilities are plainly evident in your agency’s name, you have officially terminated the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the legal judgment that classified greenhouse gases as a threat to public health. In fact, you have exultantly called this decision the “single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history”. You have removed our nation from the Paris climate accord a second time, again distancing us from other nations in the international effort to slow the pace of global warming. Yet, as Jews, we believe the Earth to be God’s possession, and we are to serve as responsible caretakers for the safety and sanctity of the world. We are called by Torah to be ‘stewards of God’s creation’, mandated to care for the Earth’s condition and all its resources.

Therefore, what will you do to assert the value of planetary health and wellbeing, and work with international scientists and climate advocates to preserve the air and water, and wisely and carefully use the Earth’s resources? When will you stop promoting fossil fuel and its development as a moral and economic good, especially when most of the world’s scientists have repeatedly determined fossil fuels to be disastrous to the world’s climate and people?

And I challenge you, Benjamin Netanyahu. You have served Israel as its Prime Minister for 18 years, five years longer than any of your predecessors, and the welfare of the state of Israel obviously resides in your very soul. Yet you and your conservative coalition have recently moved to undermine the rightful authority of Israel’s High Court of Justice by attempting to cede its authority to the Knesset. You have denied the nation of an independent board of inquiry into the background, causes, and execution of the nation’s response to the October 7, 2023 massacre. You have denied, for the last ten years, the equality and dignity of liberal Jewish women worshipers at the Western Wall by ignoring a 2016 High Court ruling that such an egalitarian approach be taken at that sacred location. And you have allowed – maybe even encouraged – your cabinet ministers to make racist statements which have brought ridicule and rebuke from the international community, strengthening the canard that Israel supports racist moves against Palestinians and Gazans.

Therefore, what will you do to permit an honest and truly objective examination of the recent war, and vow to accept its findings? Will you stop your attempt to modify the separation of powers and support the High Court of Justice as a partner in governing the state? What will you do to fulfill your commitment to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall plaza, equal in size and standing with the current Orthodox area there? And what will you do to rein in your cabinet ministers who speak of population transfer of Gazans and Palestinians from the areas where they live? How will you support coexistence in your country and the areas surrounding it?

The Mordechai Challenge is not an easy one, yet Jews of every variety need to step up to it and be engaged. When we realize the goal of understanding our positions of power and influence, we will indeed be able to change the world around us for good. At that point, we will, indeed, have days of exhilaration, joy, rejoicing, and glory.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)