Let us return to our original text :
“… there was gladness and joy among the Jews , a feast and a holiday . And many of the people of the land became Jews , for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them ” 29
They tried to kill us . They failed . We ate .
But how ? How did they fail ? Because we gained power . Esther manipulated her husband the king and Mordechai used his gifts to replace an evil vizier .
Jewish power is a complicated assertion , one that demands serious reflection and moral courage no less than does Jewish powerlessness . But it is necessary . History has demonstrated that we ignore this at our communal peril . As Rabbi Irving “ Yitz ” Greenberg put it , “ the alternative to power would be death .” He follows this with the reminder that ,
“ The truly moral do not avoid stain by not exercising power . They act , but only when necessary and they seek to reduce suffering caused by their actions to the minimum . The firm moral principle is that given the evil that cannot be avoided , there is still an ideal way of exercising power .” 30
There are varying responses to the unavoidable evils of the world . Building stronger doors is one . Another is building bridges . The importance of wedging our pain into the relational consciousness of others in a free society is a sound tactic and can be a deeply rewarding experience . But it is not sufficient . The aftermath on the streets of Europe and
29
Esther 8:17
30
Greenberg , The Ethics of Jewish Power in “ Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality : A Reader ” ( 1995 , ed . Dorff and Newman ) p . 403-421
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