Purim is always a special time of year in terms of simcha – but trying to understand it is mind bending. In fact we have a mitzva to get drunk to clear our minds of the rational categories which interfere with proper understanding.
This year I realized there is a rather obvious way of presenting the complexities of Purim to the modern mind.
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Once upon a time there was a king – we will call him Trump because I like the sound of the name. He was filthy rich and obsessed not only with money and power – but also women. In fact King Trump was married to his third wife when this story opens. Due to his third wife getting a bit uppity – because she was taking the problem of women’s issues too seriously – he got rid of her. He felt it was important not only that his wife but all women realize that they are inferior and subordinate to their husbands. So he sacrified her for the common good.
However after she was disposed of – he realized he needed a new wife.
He was advised that this time he should only take the best wife in his kingdom and therefore he encouraged all the unmarried women in the kingdom to apply. He was to interview all of them – sort of like trying out an apprentice – and pick the finalist as his wife.
At that time there was a problem for the Jews of “left wingers”. Mamash Satan incarnated. Satan had a number of manifestations – sometimes he was known as Obama while other times he was known as the Clintons! They planned the Final Solution of the Jews in the Kingdom with the help of Deep Government forces.
The Gadol HaDor at that time was a tzadik by the name of Rav Shmuel. He had the assistance (some say he was manipulated) of his son Shalom. When they realized the danger the Jews were in they devised a plan that was not only pure genius but also was truly inspired by ruach hakodesh. Rav Shmuel told his wife to apply to the contest to be Achashverous wife. She initially resisted – after all it was violently against the Torah and her Beis Yakov education – and it was clearly against her inherent feelings and sensitivities of modesty. Besides she had a very good marriage to the gadol hador – why would anyone trade that to be the wife of that buffon and lecher – Achashverous?
However her husband told her that it was Daas Torah that she had to commit adultery to save the Jewish people and of course she eventually accepted her fate – as any true Baas Yisroel would do. He told her that this was true hishtadlus. She tried to convince him that segulos such as magnets and crystals would works better - but he put his foot down and told her this was what G-d wanted! [To be continued - feel free to submit your own version]
So you avoid the issue of are you overdoing the trump thing, and its effect on the "heter" by (shushan) Purim Torah.
ReplyDeleteA few posts ago you asked about folks reacting to your criticisms of Trump.
ReplyDeleteHere's the deal: you are a talmid chacham of the first order. This blog, on its best days, provides great Torah sources on a variety of subjects. I don't just read, I learn. Even when you get onto a social crusade it's clear you're doing it through the lens of the Torah you are intimately acquainted with.
But with Trump it's just the opposite. You're just another one of the whigning "See! See how bad Trump is" activists of which there are way too many. It's like tuning into a lecture by Albert Einstein expecting to learn about the secret relationship between time and space and instead hearing him kvetch about how his soup was too cold at lunch.
what's this nonsense?
ReplyDeleteCould be a lead in to a discussion of "entropy".
ReplyDeleteI think Rabbi Eidensohn feels confident that Mr. Trump's presidency is going to crash & burn. In that context, these kind of posts will, in retrospect, be prescient.
“He was filthy rich and obsessed not only with money and power – but also women.”
ReplyDelete“Thereupon Memucan declared in the presence of the king and the ministers: Queen Vashti has committed an offense not only against Your Majesty but also against all the officials and against all the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the Queen’s behavior will make all wives despise their husbands, as they reflect that King Ahasuerus himself ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. This very day the ladies of Persia and Media, who have heard of the queen’s behavior, will cite it to all Your Majesty’s officials, and there will be no end of scorn and provocation! If it please Your Majesty, let a royal edict be issued by you, and let it be written into the laws of Persia and Media, so that it cannot be abrogated, that Vashti shall never enter the presence of King Ahasuerus. And let Your Majesty bestow her royal state upon another who is more worthy than she. Then will the judgment executed by Your Majesty resound throughout your realm, vast though it is; and all wives will treat their husbands with respect, high and low alike.” (Ester 1: 16-20)
אסתר פרק א פסוק כ
וְנִשְׁמַע פִּתְגָם הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה בְּכָל מַלְכוּתוֹ כִּי רַבָּה הִיא וְכָל הַנָּשִׁים יִתְּנוּ יְקָר לְבַעְלֵיהֶן לְמִגָּדוֹל וְעַד קָטָן:
מלבי"ם אסתר פרק א פסוק כ
ונשמע, עתה באר איך עי"ז ירויח לתקן כל מה שנעוות עתה, כי על ידי שישים חוק שמעתה יצא דבר מלכות מלפניו בלי עצת הסגנים, עי"ז מעתה ונשמע פתגם המלך אשר יעשה, מה שיעשה המלך בעצמו גם בלי עצת השרים ישמע בכל מלכותו ואין מי שימרה את פיו יען כי רבה היא, כי פתגם המלך היא עצמו יהיה דת קבוע ולא יעבור, ובזה תרויח למשול ממלכה הבלתי מוגבלת. ב) וע"י שישים משפט בושתי ירויח שכל הנשים יתנו יקר לבעליהן, הגם שהאחד גדול והאחד קטן, ר"ל שגם כשהיא גדולה ממנו ביחוס תתן לו יקר:
The Malbim says, this will a king’s rule which will correct the distortion now. By making this a law, then will go out…without advisors…when people hear a king’s rule, must be done. A king will do without advise from counsellors, …a king’s rule is like a fixed religion, not to transfgress. This will gain by ruling over limited sovereigns…the Vashti law will gain that all wives will respect their husbands, even one big and one small, that is, even if she is bigger than he, she’ll give him respect.
King Ahasuerus and Memucan [Hamen] were filthy rich and obsessed with money and power especially power over their wives. The advice to me, a Jewish husband, with a wife I love, with children I love ---- not to make money important [money is not important beyond a living], not to make power important [being the boss is not important], especially not to make power over one’s wife important [let the wife be the boss in the house---it’s sexier].