When Adar Enters, Joy Increases!

Shabbat Zachor

This year, when we entered the month of March, we entered the last month of the Hebrew calendar as well – Chodesh Adar, the month of Purim. In Adar, we have one of those Special Shabbatot that are referred to by a special name: “Shabbat Zachor”. Shabbat Zachor (“Sabbath [of] remembrance שבת זכור) is the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim. On this Shabbat, at the end of the Torah Portion, we read Deuteronomy 25:17-19: “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you went out of Egypt“  

These verses in Deuteronomy refer to an incident in Exodus 17:8-16, after the children of Israel crossed the sea. On the third day of their travelling in the wilderness, the army of Amalek attacked them. Miraculously, the Jewish people defeated the Amalekites; however, what does that have to do with Purim, which happened almost a thousand years later, and what must we remember?

On Shabbat Zachor, we hear the name of Amalek in all the additional readings – both in the Maftir and Haftarah. The Maftir comes from Deuteronomy 25 and speaks about God’s commandment “to blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” and Haftarah – the reading from the prophets – comes from 1 Samuel 15 and tells us about King Saul. Why?

These Scriptures reveal the hidden beginning of the book of Esther. Undoubtedly, it is one more reason to see God behind all the events of Purim; one more reason to know that he is the One who has orchestrated these events.

In the reading from Deuteronomy, God commanded to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven”. Therefore, in 1 Samuel 15, “Samuel also said to Saul….  Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them…”

And Saul attacked the Amalekites, “from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.…  But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them…”[1] 

When Saul spared Agag, he clearly disobeyed God’s commandment. Right after that, he was rejected as king. We read in the same chapter:  Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.”[2]

Now, what was the lineage of Saul?

“There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.  And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul”[3]. 

Now, back to the Book of Esther:

 “After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite”[4]

“In Shushan the citadel there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite”[5]. 

So, actually, the story of Purim started centuries before the events described in the Book of Esther. King Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, from the line of Kish, was commanded to destroy Agag, the king of the Amalekites – but he didn’t do it. We know that Samuel himself had to kill Agag, and at that point, the story seemed to be over. Certain laws exist in the spiritual world, however, that are unseen and therefore often ignored; nonetheless, these laws are just as inviolable as the law of gravity. Therefore, the line of Agag and the line of Kish had to meet again in the future:  Mordecai had to destroy Agag’s descendant, Haman, because Saul didn’t destroy Agag.

Evil Reversed

I suppose, you have all read the book of Esther and would therefore know that Purim commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s intention “to destroy … all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day”. The story goes like this: expelled from the Holy Land, many Jews settled in the different towns of the Persian Empire. Some lived in the capital of Persia, Shushan. The king of the Persian Empire, the emperor Ahasuerus, was looking for a new wife and thus a beautiful and pure Jewish girl, Hadassah, an orphan raised by a godly Jewish man named Mordechai, became a queen of this world empire—Queen Esther.

As the story goes on, Mordechai refuses to bow his head in honor of Haman, who was Prime Minister to the emperor Ahasuerus. Infuriated, Haman pays off the king to decree a genocide of all Jews. The day chosen by Haman’s casting lots (pur) was the 13th of Adar – hence by the way, the name of the holiday, Purim.

We then witness an amazing conversation between Mordechai and Queen Esther: Mordechai tells her about Haman’s plot and the King’s decree, and asks her to save her people. She is full of doubts at first, and then Mordechai speaks these well-known words:

If you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”[6]

Mordechai rallied the Jews to fasting and prayer. Esther also fasted and prayed for three days, and as a result, the miracle happened, and the evil was reversed. Esther was able to convince Ahasuerus to hang Haman and to allow the Jews to defend themselves. On the 13th of Adar, battles were fought throughout the entire empire between the Jews and those who sought to destroy them. The following day, Adar 14, became a day of celebration of the ensuing Jewish victory. Since the battle in Shushan went on for two days, the celebration there was held on Adar 15. Thus, these two days were instituted as the festival of Purim – Adar 14 in unwalled towns and Adar 15 in walled cities. Today, the only city in which Purim is celebrated on the fifteenth of Adar is Jerusalem.

Megillat Esther – the profound name of a profound book

You probably know the most unique feature of this book: it is the only book in the Bible that does not explicitly mention God. Why? We can answer this question as we read through the entire book. The word “God” doesn’t appear openly in the book because oftentimes, God remains hidden in our lives—until we recognize Him and His handwriting in the circumstances and events that unfold.  Oftentimes, it is only in hindsight that we can clearly see God acting in the history of our world or in our lives: more often than not, divine salvation is ‘disguised’ in ordinary events – ‘hidden’ in what can be perceived as a series of ‘coincidences’.

The words, Megillat Esther (the Scroll of Esther), reflect this amazing dynamic:  the name Esther (אסתר) might be related to the word nistar: “hidden” “concealed”; while the word Megillah is related to the word megaleh: “reveal”. So the words  “Megillat Esther” can literally be translated as “the Revelation of the Hidden” – an amazing name for an amazing book!

And now, we can understand why our sages say that when Adar enters, joy increases! The Book of Esther reminds us that we don’t need to be discouraged if we don’t “feel” God’s hand in our lives right now. We shouldn’t ask, “Where is God today?”  His ways are often hidden, but He is still working, even behind the scenes! This is the message of this month —and this is the message of this book!

[1] 1 Sam. 15:9

[2] 1 Sam.15:11

[3] 1 Sam.9:1-2

[4] Est.3:1

[5] Est.2:5

[6] Est.4:14