A Purim Lesson: Be the Good You Wish to See in the World

This week, I am teaching my students about the commandment that we read about in I Samuel 15 to destroy Amalek. A challenging moral and ethical question, my 7th graders and I have come to understand Amalek as the symbol of an ideology of hatred, violence, and evil that we are obligated to remember and to work to eradicate from our world. 

This past Shabbat we celebrated a special Shabbat that precedes Purim- Shabbat Zachor (Shabbat of Remembering). Purim is the holiday that commemorates the Jewish people's survival of persecution under King Achashverosh and Haman, thanks to the bravery and Heroism of Esther. This past Shabbat, in order ready ourselves to celebrate Purim this coming Thursday, we added a reading of Deuteronomy 25: 17-19 to our regular Torah reading. We also read the chapter that I am teaching to my 7th grade students, I Samuel 15, as our Haftarah. In both sections of text, we are told to remember how Amalek came up from behind us on our exit from Egypt and attacked us from behind, while we were at our weakest and our most vulnerable. This kind of attack symbolizes the lowest form of baseless hatred. 

We are commanded to read this section of Deuteronomy at least once every year, and do it customarily on the Shabbat before Purim, in order to remind ourselves that we are responsible to eradicate the hate that we see in the world- both hate directed at us as well as hate directed at our brothers and sisters. 

This past Shabbat, my heart was with my Muslim brothers and sisters. Rabbi Shalom Kantor, whose lovely family has become like my own while I am living here in Michigan, taught me this evening that there are four commandments associated with the holiday of Purim. Hearing the Megillah, having a seudah (festive meal), giving Matanot L'eviyonim (gifts for the needy), and Mishloach Manot (gifts for our friends). He explained that giving gifts to our friends requires us to check in on them, to see them face to face and to ask them how they are, and what we can do to help. Check in with your Muslim friends this week. Remind them that you are here for them, and that you are with them in their heartbreak. 

As I write this week, I am especially remembering my little cousin Conan, who was a light and an example of what it means to bring goodness and kindness into the world. While in line at McDonalds, Conan would beg my Aunt, Cori, for some change to buy burgers for the hungry who sat shivering outside. At only 14, Conan would use up all his lunch money on his mission to feed all those who he saw hungry. Conan knew how to wipe out hatred from the world- he knew to do it by adding more love.

I was teaching a two week crash course on tefillah (prayer) this week and last for a group of teens here in Michigan. We spoke about the challenges of structure, form, and communal participation versus intention, spontaneity, and personal meaning. We also talked about those prayers which we don't agree with. We were challenged by some of the liturgy that we say by rote, but may not agree with because we don't see it actualized in the world. There is one prayer in particular that really challenges me. At the end of Birkat Hamazon, the Blessing over the Meal, we sing "נַעַר הָיִיתִי גַּם זָקַנְתִּי, וְלֹא רָאִיתִי צַדִּיק נֶעֱזָב", or in English, "I have been young and now I am old; yet have I not seen any righteous man begging for bread". I know this not yet true because I have seen those that are hungry in this world, just as Conan did. A teacher of mine, Rabbi Leon Morris, once suggested to me that perhaps this is an aspirational prayer. Perhaps every time we thank God that we are full and satisfied, we are reminded that there are those who are hungry, and it is our job to change that through acts of goodness and kindness. 

May this week- both its Torah and its tragedies- serve as a reminder that we should continue to work together to eradicate such hatred from our world. May we all be like Esther and like Conan, seeking to do what is right, to bring goodness and kindness into the world, and to wipe out what is wrong and hateful from among us. 

May our prayers and the prayers of our brothers and sisters be answered, speedily and in good time.