"Megilat
Esther"- Scroll of Esther Introduction Purim is
known as the Holiday of the "nes nistar," the "hidden
miracle." This is because HaShem
saved the Jewish People without splitting any seas, or making mountains
dance and catch fire, as he had done with Mt. Sinai, when he gave His
Torah to the Jewish People there some thirty three hundred years ago.
In the miracle of Purim, nothing
that strange happened.
Megilat
Esther is the story of men and women, some very righteous, some terribly
wicked, and how they interacted - with the Holy One, the Producer and
Director of the Play, Who miraculously allows freedom of choice, watching
from behind the scenes. The End of the Babylonian Empire In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5, we find the scene of the last Babylonian ruler, Belshazzar, the son of Nevuchadnezzar, at the center of a party. The purpose of the great feast is to celebrate the abandonment of the Jewish People by their G-d. For the Prophet Yirmiyahu had prophesied that the Jewish People would be in Exile in Babylonia for seventy years, following which they would be redeemed. Belshazzar had calculated the seventy years, he thought, and no redemption had come for the Jews. Hence he thought it safe to take out the vessels that were taken from the Temple by his father, and they could be used and abused by the party-goers. Then a hand had appeared and had written upon a wall the enigmatic phrase "Mene Mene, Tekel Upharsin." Not one of his magicians or advisors had been able to read, let alone decipher those words. But Belshazzar's wife had reminded him of the presence in the palace of a Jew from the Captivity of Judea, Daniel, who was able to interpret things that were above the comprehension of other men. Daniel was summoned and told him that the words were a message from the L-rd that the time of the Kingdom of Babylonia had ended. And indeed, that night, there was an invasion by the Persians and Medes, and Belshazzar was slain. Persia and Media were the new ruling nations of the World, and Darius the Mede was the first King of the new Empire. The
Beginning of the Megilah - Another Feast!
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It was
rather the way that events were tied together - overheard conversations, the
pride of a tyrant that "went before his fall," the sleeplessness
of a King, the watchfulness of
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