For a long time as we learned Megillas Esther in elementary school we are told baout htese great hidden miracles that Hashem performed. I know that the whole time Hashem hid his face from the Jews and his name was never said and the fact that in all the chaos the Jews were having at that time, they were still saved through a series of events.
In class, as we read through the Megilla in way none of us have ever read before. We're not just seeing the positive side of the story and the greatness of all the characters, we are seeing the negative and the reality of the characters and their behaviors in the story.
As we read about the series of events in the Megilla, I had realized that the things that happened weren't all just coincidences. I was always taught that Achashverosh had woken up in the middle of the night, coincidentally, because he couldn't sleep that night.
As we go through in class, I have realized the truth to that part of the story. Achasheverosh wasn't just unable to sleep that night, he was thinking about why Esther was inviting him to another party and it was making him believe that they were out to kill him and that they were plotting something. Achashverosh didn't just look at his book coincidentally, he was looking in his book and trying to figure out if there would be any reason that Haman and Esther were plotting to kill him.
It makes me question the whole hidden miracles thing, and I hope that later we will see the Hashem aspect in it. What do you think? Do you see it as hidden miracles, or a series of small events that led up to this great big event?
This was a very insightful blog post, Racheli. In response to your question, I think the two can go in tandem. I think the hidden miracles were all under a similar "heading." But the fact that they are in a series makes them "easier" to appreciate, as you are able to see the sequence of events that lead up to the saving of the Jews. When we read the Megillah on Purim, I glanced at the footnotes several times, and on many of these "small miracles," the commentators remarked that they symbolized greater things, which is also an interesting thing to think about.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I think that these were all hidden miracles meant to protect the Jews and show them that G-d was watching out for them. I don't really think these were small events leading to a big event..what would that event be? Us being saved? Us killing 75,000 people? I think this was all about G-d being there for us even in a time of hester panim and making miracle after miracle to flip the situation so we would come out on top.
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