Anyone who talks to ex-CIS citizens in their ninth decade sees the trauma they experience at the sight of refugees fleeing burning Ukraine. Sights and sounds from eighty years ago come back to them.
""That's exactly how it was," they tell their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. "We left our homes, took a suitcase and a backpack with us and fled east, naked and without anything.".
The younger generation can suddenly see in color the black-and-white stories told by World War II refugees.
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Connect the dots
Who would have believed that such sights and sounds could occur in the third decade of the twenty-first century? Who would have guessed that the events that are unfolding now would happen? It is inconceivable how in one moment the world order changes, both in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation. And none of us knows where all this is going and what the future holds.
Sometimes we watch a painter at work and don't understand what he's doing. He draws a line here and a line there, applies a stain here and a stain there. Only in the end do all the pieces of the puzzle come together and the complete picture is revealed. In life too, the perspective of time allows us to see a broader picture, and then it becomes clear that we have a complete process before us.
The story of the Scroll of Esther illustrates well the way in which a sequence of events connects into a single fabric. The story the scroll unfolds over ten years, and its components do not necessarily appear to be connected.
The banquet of Ahasuerus, in which the scroll opens, takes place in the third year of his reign. The next event, the election of Esther as queen, occurs four years later, in the seventh year of his reign. Then another specific event occurs – Mordecai exposes the plot of Bigthan and Teresh to assassinate the king, and the deed is recorded in the Book of Chronicles. More years pass and Haman rises to greatness and becomes chief of the ministers. Nine years after the banquet, the decree of destruction initiated by Haman is proclaimed, and almost another year passes until "and it shall come to pass, that the Jews shall rule over their enemies.".
Those who do not see the whole picture believe that they are faced with a series of unrelated events. We need the story of the Scroll and the connections that our sages, of blessed memory, make for us in order to understand that these are links that make up a complete structure.
Redemption in peace
We too live in a dramatic process. We do not have the tools to see the big picture in real time. There are ups and downs, progress and retreat, sharp changes in direction. There are events that lift the mood, and there are things that arouse concern in our hearts.
But we believe that the hand of providence is guiding events, and it is clear to us that in the end everything will be for the best.
The Jewish people and all of humanity are marching toward complete redemption. We all pray that it will come calmly and peacefully, as the prophet (Isaiah 22:12; 31:15) said, "You shall not go out in haste, nor shall you go in haste," but "you shall return and rest, and be saved," soon in our days. Happy Purim!
