 Ohev Shalom Voice
Adar-March, 5767
Rabbi’s Message
If you persist in keeping silent at a time like this, relief and deliverance
will come to the Jews from some other place and you and your father’s house
will perish. (Esther 4:14)
We learned that everything is predetermined, yet freedom of choice is
granted. (Ethics 3:16) Occurrence of events and their ultimate outcomes
are determined by Divine guidance. When something good is slated to happen
we can bring ourselves merit by being the medium through which it will
happen. We can also by our choice evade the situation and let the meritorious
opportunity slip by.
Conversely, when something bad is decreed to happen, a person can choose
to be the agent of evil and bring upon himself guilt by carrying it out.
He can also by choice avoid himself harm by refraining from such action.
Mordecai’s admonition of Esther and her positive response had the
obvious result of saving Jewry and affected in a positive way the world
as a whole. We should not think that compared with such great people as
Mordcai and Esther, the situations with which we are continuously confronted
are petty and of no importance.
A person is obligated to say: The world was created specifically for my
sake. (Talmud Sanhedrin 37A). No one may minimize one’s own importance
and therefore no one may minimize one’s own responsibilities. The
Talmud (Kiddushin 40B) tells us to look at the possibility that the whole
world is half of merit and half of guilt and that you as an individual
is also so. One thought, word or act on your behalf might tilt the whole
world to merit or guilt. What you do could possibly save the world. If
you do not do the right thing to save the world, someone else will. Do
not let the meritorious opportunity slip by.
A righteous one is the foundation of the world. (Proverbs 10:25)
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