Nes
Posted by Dasi
As we break in the month of Adar, we begin to think about celebrating another holiday. We make preparations, think about the food and the plans, and invite the family. We also(hopefully) consider the meaning of the holiday. This year, during the Purim Megillah reading we see Nes Nistar, hidden miracles, occurring right and left.
Although it became part of the Bible, known in English as the Book of Esther, the account never mentions the name of God, though there are veiled allusions. This surprising omission actually reflects a central theme of this holiday. On Purim we celebrate the fact that the hand of God guides us, even at times when we do not see open miracles or obvious Divine intervention. When we read the Megillah, we are not awestruck by dramatic changes in the laws of nature, but by a series of seemingly disconnected events that ultimately resulted in the salvation of the Jewish people. Achashverosh executed his first wife and chose the beautiful Esther as his new queen. These are not miracles, but behavior to be expected from a despotic king. Nor was it a miracle that Mordechai once saved the king from an assassination plot, thereby earning his gratitude. Each event, in and of itself, was not miraculous or even exceptional. When seen in retrospect however, the series of events is seen as engineered from Above for the purpose of evoking repentance from the Jewish people and then saving them from danger.
Rabbi Mordechai Becher, March 1st, 2006
Thoguh the miracles are not of “sea splitting” magnitude, we feel the need to acknowledge the importance, the “central theme” of Nes, miracle in the holiday of Purim. Earlier during the year, during our unit about different types of Hashgachot, we learned many ways in which to look at the methods Hashem chooses to control the world. Among them were Nes Nistar, hidden miracles, and Nes Niglah, an obvious miracle. In addition, however, were more general ways in which Hashem could control the world. For example, Hashem controls events which affect just the Jewish nation, or Hashem controls the life of every individual Jew. Why aren’t these reasons or central themes for the story of Purim? Why are the majority of Jewish holidays centered on a Nes? Sukkot is centered on the Annenei Hakoavod; Passover the miraculous exodus. Shavuot is the divine incident at Mount Sinai. There are other elements of the holidays,(e.g. social factors, cultural occurances) but the focus tends to be on the Nes. We learned with Nevuah that the miracles are not meant to be the basis of our belief, rather their role is enforce our belief of the Nevuah.
So why so much with the Nes on all Jewish holidays?