We continue in chapter 4 of Megilat Esther. After Mordechai convinced Esther that it was her job to save the Jewish people, bring down Haman, and fix the sin of Shaul, her response was, “Gather all of the Jews of Shushan and fast for me for three days and three nights, and we will fast as well.”
Why was that her answer? Why was this her Teshuva approach?
The rabbis explain with a fundamental from a Rishon, the Maharam of Rottenberg, brought down in the Bach:
Anytime there is a gezerah brought on the Jewish people, it goes a certain way.
It starts with weakness in a certain area. Then, due to the weakness in that area, God makes a decree. After the decree, the Jewish people have to do to teshuva. Then, once they do teshuva, they are saved in the area of the decree. Finally, they make a holiday to commemorate it.
For example, on Hanukah, there was a weakness in their service to God. Therefore, the decree came against service to God, and the Yevanim attacked the Bet HaMikdash. They didn’t attack the bodies of the Jewish people, they attacked their spirituality. They attacked their Avodat Hashem. They weren’t killing Jews, they were just interfering with their praying, their learning and their fulfillment of Mitzvot. So what happened? The Kohanim risked their lives for Avodat Hashem, in order to restore the service of the Bet HaMikdash. Then, God made a miracle with the Menorah, which symbolizes service of Hashem, and we commemorate it with Hallel and Hodot, Avodat Halev, service of the heart, with praising Hashem. There is one theme running through all of this.
Similarly, we see this on Purim. The sin started when they went to the party. So the decree came against our bodies, because we went to the party. We fixed it by fasting, and then God saved our bodies. Therefore, we commemorate it with eating and drinking, and our bodies celebrate.
It’s important to realize that anytime we see something going wrong, we have to do the right form of hishtadlut. The Bet HaLevi says, based on the Gemarah in Berachot, that the first thing we have to do is look into our deeds, because the first way to get things going is to find out what you did wrong, and try to fix that. Once you have fixed that, everything else falls into place.
Furthermore, Esther said to gather the Jewish people, because the sin of the party caused dispersion of the Jewish people.
Haman said they were a nation that was dispersed and spread out. The party was what caused the dispersion.
Rabbenu Yonah says, on a pasuk in Mishleh,
“One who chases after desire becomes separate.” When people have common ideals or goals, such as Torah learning or Mitzvot, that unites us.
For example, the Mishkan was in the center of the Jewish people, surrounded by the twelve tribes, because the Mishkan was the uniting force.
One force, one ideal, that unites us.
Once a person is on the desire/lust track, that is what they base their unity on, but they aren’t really together. They don’t have a common goal, they have a common desire. I like to use the mashal of an ice cream truck. When all the children go running to the ice cream truck, is that unity? They aren’t united. They are just all chasing after the same desire. There is no unity there, just a common desire. Common desires do not create unity. Common desires create dissension. That is why, when the Jewish people were dispersed after the party, they had to be gathered.
And how would they be gathered? Not by a party, but rather, by fasting. That would bring them together. And that is why we do the same thing every year. Purim is all about unity, love, Mishloach Manot and Matanot LaEvyonim.
But what do we do first? We have Taanit Esther. We fast. Because the only way to get to unity is by breaking your desire, and having a common goal. That’s what gets people together.
So the lesson here is that you can fix a problem by getting to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is the weakness in your service to God that brought it about.
Have a wonderful day.