Jewish Life Digital Edition February 2013 | Page 14

WHEN G-D IS HIDDEN
The Scroll of Esther – the book that tells of
the miracle of Purim – has the distinction
of being the only book of the Bible that
does not mention the name of G-d. It may
seem strange for an entire book of the
Biblical canon to avoid mention of the
Almighty; after all, if the Bible isn’t about
G-d, what is it about? But that’s the whole
point. The message of the Book of Esther is
that G-d is there even when He doesn’t
seem to be there. G-d’s presence in history
is felt not just when the sea splits or when
Divine fire descends upon a mountaintop
in full view of an entire nation. These
fireworks are nice, but they aren’t the beall-and-end-all of Divine influence in the
world. G-d is present in the everyday
workings of life and history as well.
G-d’s Will is present not just when the
laws of nature are suspended. To the
contrary, the very workings of these laws

A SNIPPET OF WISDOM
ABOUT CELEBRATION
FROM ROSH YESHIVA RABBI AVRAHAM TANZER

ONE OF THE
MESSAGES OF PURIM IS
THAT G-D IS VERY
MUCH AROUND, EVEN
WHEN HE REMAINS
BEHIND THE SCENES.

are manifestations of the Divine. Every
time a falling body adheres to the inverse
square law of gravitational attraction;
every time molecules dissipate in space in
consonance with the second law of thermodynamics; every time a river flows

downstream – every time these things
happen, G-d’s Will is done in the world.
And so it is with history. It is not just when
plagues free the slaves of Egypt that G-d
works in history; G-d’s influence is more
subtle than that. He can be present,
mysteriously, in the smallest and least
obtrusive of ways.
Chekhov once said if a rifle lies above
the mantle in Act I of a play, it had better
go off before Act III. The mark of a good
playwright is that no plot element is
superfluous. Everything, ultimately, gets
used. And the same goes for the Great
Playwright in the Sky. Everything we
humans do “gets used” in the play we call
life. But not necessarily in the way we
imagine, or design.
The king asks Haman how the man the
king wishes to honour should be treated.
Haman, thinking the king wishes to honour him, advises making a royal parade.
Does that advice get used? It surely does.
But it is used to honour Mordechai, not
Haman. Haman constructs a gallows to
hang Mordechai. Does that gallows get
used? It certainly does. But not the way
Ha X[