The Pride and Joy of Being Jewish
A pivotal moment in the Purim story is Esther’s awakening and acceptance of being part of the Jewish people. Mordechai sends her a message to intervene with the king to save the Jews of Persia and all of Achashveyrosh’s 127 provinces. Esther responds, thinking of her own safety: “All the king’s courtiers and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any person, man or woman, enters the king’s presence in the inner court without having been summoned, there is but one law for him—that he be put to death.” (Esther 4:11) Mordechai informs Esther that if Haman’s plot comes to fruition, she will be killed with all the Jews. Her silence will not protect her; rather, he says: “And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.” (Esther 4:14) The scholar Adin Steinsaltz teaches that Mordechai tries to convince Esther that the significance of her rise to queen is not a coincidence; it might even be a sign from Heaven. When Esther understood the urgency, she took action for herself and her community. She declared her Jewishness and secured her people’s survival.
After October 7th, many Jews in this country did the same. Here, too, at Temple Beth Am, we stood up proudly. I noticed that our teens were more verbally and visibly Jewish. Those who were active became more active, and some who did not participate began to show up. They were open and honest about the challenges they faced in school and their commitment to their Jewish identity. All around the temple, attendance at prayers and classes increased. Families came to Shabbat together. Where do we stand now? Some participate more frequently, others have waxed and waned. Fear, sadness, and the uncertainty that we feel when antisemitism increases might have brought us together. We have learned that community is how we cope; it has always been how we cope. We have learned that for the success of our Jewish community and the State of Israel, we must be confident in who we are and how we live as Jews. Ahad Ha’am, an early 20th-century proponent of a cultural Zionism that sought to strengthen the totality of Jewish culture and creativity of the Jewish people, wrote in a 1898 article, “More than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel.” He is saying that it is through celebration rituals and the breadth of Jewish cultural life that we find our unique meaning in this world.
There is joy in Shabbat. Friday nights at Kabbalat Shabbat, en Español, in costume at How ‘bout Shabbat, with your child or grandchild’s class, on Saturday mornings in the Reform or bi-monthly Conservative Minyan at a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Soon we will celebrate Purim and then Passover. How can we ever learn to be an Esther, a Mordechai, a Moses, or a Miriam, until we make the joy of being Jewish our own?
Rabbi Jaime Aklepi