What is Esther all about

In class we discussed the multiple views people take on what the message of Megillat Esther really is.

Firstly, there is an opinion that this period was when the Jews really accepted the Torah. When G-d revealed himself at Har Sinai, the people were too in awe and overhwlemed by his presence to make a real decision. How could they say no when G-d was right there before them? During Purim, the Jews truly accepted the Torah (by making Purim a religious holiday) even when G-d wasn't making himself clear to them. I like this idea. I like the thought that we, the Jewish people, took the Torah upon ourselves because we saw value in it.

Another opinion about the implications of Esther is that it's showing that the Jews were spread out across PErsia instead of going back to Israel, which is obviously a bad thing. Here, the significance of Mordechai becoming second in command at the end of the Megillah is to show the irony in that he could have lead the people back to Israel but he didn't. If someone views the Megillah in such a negative light, how do they explain why it was even included in Tanach? Why would something so bad be a part of our holy books?

Hazoni has a different approach. His whole thing is that Esther is a story about success in the Diaspora. The Jews were right in killing all those people in the end because as Jews living outside of Israel it is crucial that we take a political stand. According to Hazoni, if the Jews didn't take the offensive side, they would have continued to be oppressed by the people around them. In this case, Mordechai rising up to second in command makes a strong statement about our political success in this time. His approach isn't entirely political, however. He also stresses the importance of believing in G-d even though he doesn't reveal himself.

Another idea presented by Rav Eliyahu Dessler in his book, Sanctuaries in Time, is that what seems like a series of remarkable coincidences within the book of Esther are really G-d controlling the events. The fact that every aspect of the story get turned around cannot be explained by anything other than the hand of G-d. The whole book is comprised of G-d's hidden miracles. G-d was intentionally wearing a mask, disguising himself. This is supposed to teach us to uncover G-d's mask and see how he is pulling the strings in our own lives. This is the whole idea behind wearing masks, or costumes on Purim.