"The market hates uncertainty" is a phrase investors in the stock market often here. People can adjust to economic bad news but when one has little notion of what to expect next one worries that it however bad it is it might get worse. Indecision sets in and people don’t know what to do next. For investors this usually means sell, sell, sell.
It is not only the markets that hate uncertainty. The need for clarity – total certainty is never possible – impacts on so much of what we do. We buy life insurance, car insurance, home insurance, liability insurance – the list is endless – to protect against the uncertainties of life. And that is all good and necessary. One cannot live without a certain degree of relying on things goings as planned. It is what allows us to cross the street, get in a car or plane and go about the routine of life.
Yet as unsettling as uncertainty may be, it is a necessary component for religious growth[1]. Imagine if we knew what G-d inscribed in His book on Rosh Hashanah. We would be frozen, with no motivation or even ability to act. It would render life meaningless.
Uncertainty means lack of control. The less control one has the more one needs others to help, and the more one needs to help others. That is a good thing. Give man too much control the greater the arrogance, hubris and ego. If we could be certain of desired outcomes there would be little reason to pray. Fear of the unknown serves as a great and necessary motivator. The uncertainties of life require man to prepare, to take precautions and to not take undo risks.
Purim is the holiday of uncertainty. The Jewish people were threatened with annihilation. The decree was signed and sealed on the 13th of Nisan, the first month of the year, with the massacre to take place on the 13th of Adar, the last month of the year. Imagine the fear the engulfed the Jewish people that year. “And in every province, wherever the king's word and his edict arrived, there was great mourning for the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; sackcloth and ashes covered the multitude” (Esther 4:3).
With the historical period of prophecy over the people would have to determine on their own how to respond. No longer would G-d communicate to us what we need to do to ensure success. And Mordechai and Esther, the two most powerful Jews[2], disagreed, at least initially, on the way forward. Even as Mordechai urged Esther to risk her life on behalf of her people there was great uncertainty. “Mee yodeah, who knows, if for this moment you have attained royalty” (Esther 4:13). Jewish history hangs in the balance and “who knows” what to do.
The very last verse of the Megillah notes that Mordechai was beloved by a majority of the Jews. He would have been “re-elected” with, perhaps 70% of the vote. A landslide but far from unanimous. Considering that he averted the genocide of the Jewish people it is rather surprising not all were supportive. Our Sages go so far to say that some of the members of the Sanhedrin “separated from him” (Megillah 16b). After all, it was his refusing the bow to Haman that led to the massacre edict in the first place. And it was Esther not Mordechai, they must have argued, who deserves all the credit.
One of the many strange aspects of the Megillah is the fact that it has no context. We have never before heard of Haman, Mordechai, Esther and pretty much all the characters of the Megillah. Achaverosh is mentioned once in the book of Ezra but we do not know which actual Persian king he was and there is no clarity as to when the story takes place. What and where exactly the 127 provinces he ruled over are a mystery.
Moreover, the story of Megillat Esther did not only happen some 2,500 years ago. It is, as Rav Soloveitchik noted long ago, the story of the Jew in the period of exile. It repeats itself in every generation; the names, dates, places and some details here and there may change but it is a plot we have seem many times over. At times Haman is more successful and other times Mordechai is, but the battle with evil is “a war for G-d from generation to generation”.
The Megillah itself is an adaptation of the Yosef story[3]. A young good-looking Jew rises to power in a foreign palace. The inability of the king to sleep marks the turning point of the story. And yet the story ends with much left to be done. By the time Yosef dies he has lost all power and is buried in Egypt with his descendants soon to be slaves. The Megillah ends with Achahsverosh raising taxes and the Jews still his slaves.
For those who did not realize that the Megillah is not a one-time historical event the events of this past week have dispelled such a notion. As we read the Megillah of 5786 we are somewhere towards the beginning of chapter eight. “Haman” has been killed but the ruling of the modern Persian Empire to “destroy, massacre, and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, children and women” has not been rescinded.
What will be? There is much uncertainty as to how the current version of the Megillah will end. But one thing we do, that which the Megillah and Jewish history has taught us, is that when Jews are threatened we must come together. “Go gather all the Jews”, “observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor”. Our enemies do not distinguish between different types of Jews and we must do the same. Even from our enemies there is much to learn.
If we focus on what we share as opposed to our divisions, then it is possible the current Megillah will have an even better ending than the original one.
[1] It also provides wonderful opportunities for the astute investor.
[2] While the Megillah does not note that Mordechai had an official position in the kingdom the fact that Mordechai “sat at the kings’ gate” makes clear he held an important position. He was after all the only one of “king’s servants” who refused to bow to Haman.
[3] For further development of the many comparisons to the Yosef story see the introduction of the Da’at Mikra Tanach to Esther. There are also many references to other prior Biblical texts; it is most likely the number 127 is meant to link Esther and Sarah, whose name actually means a princess.
