It has been two years since the onset of Covid in the world, when I wrote seriously two years ago "Post-Purim Thoughts: Coronavirus Will Be Overturned" and a year later humorously: "What Biden Said to Bibi, A Purim Parody" and now at the same time of year, Purim time, I look back and realize that after a harrowing two years of Covid-Corona mania, the world is no longer focused on the problem that literally killed millions of people everywhere, but is now focused on what is happening in Ukraine as Russia tries to pummel it into submission.
I think to myself how can we joke this Purim when there is so much bloodshed going on in Eastern Europe again, with tens of thousands of soldiers and Ukrainian civilians being killed, millions fleeing as refugees, including tens of thousands of Jews who are running for their lives to safety in nearby countries and, of course, to Israel.
I thought to myself that maybe this is the way we are supposed to appreciate Purim, when a decree of genocide was declared by the Persian government against the Jews following on their exile from the Kingdom of Judah in the Land of Israel that itself was the result of horrible wars that saw so many Jews killed by the Babylonians who then exiled the Jews to Babylon! Shortly thereafter came the fall of Babylon and the rise of Persia which is the point at which the story of Purim begins, with the Jews at the mercy of the Persian king Ahasuerus and his wicked advisor Haman from the seed of Amalek.
So Purim is a sanguine story that starts off with war and exile, and ends up with the surprisingly happy result of Jewish salvation, with Esther crowned as Queen of Persia and her uncle Mordechai as King Ahasuerus's new advisor. It is still to early to know how our own modern-day story of survival will end. All we can rely on is God and the prophecies of the Jewish Prophets that predict a good outcome for the Jewish People in the end, but getting there won't be a cakewalk! There is still the crucible of fire known as the War of Gog and Magog see Ezekiel 38 that we must pass through.
Humanity now has even worse things to worry about, like Russia firing a nuclear missile at its perceived enemies out of primitive frustration, and naturally, sheer stupidity.
Is this what is now unfolding before our eyes? Only Hashem (God) knows! Some say it has already happened during World War Two and the Holocaust, while others say it will yet come to be. No one knows for sure. But it's something to think about as we forget about Corona and start to think about a possible World War Three.
Never before in history, but only until modern times, in 1945 has the world had to face the reality of possible and real nuclear warfare. And never until now has the world heard so much saber rattling by Russia as it openly hints that it may use its nuclear arsenal and in return the president of the United States openly talks of the possible onset of World War Three!
The media hardly mentions Covid or Corona now as it keeps track of each day's war casualties and the rising death toll and the ever-increasing use of more extreme weapons of mass destruction that boggle the mind. Humanity now has even worse things to worry about, like Russia firing a nuclear missile at its perceived enemies out of primitive frustration, and naturally, sheer stupidity.
The question is how did we get into this international disaster so quickly when only a mere few weeks ago we were still wondering about how long Covid would last? and now all we hear about is how Ukraine is resisting the Russian onslaught and of horrendous casualties and refugees. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 that corresponds to the 23rd day of the Hebrew month of Adar 1, 5782. During this Hebrew month, Jews are enjoined to "increase joy" (Marbim Besimcha) but that was not the case for the Jews and the other people of Ukraine as Russia started bombing them and rolling in to take over the rest of the country. What "joy" is there in that?
There are those that say that because many Ukrainians collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust helping the Germans to murder millions of Jews they are now getting what they deserve from God. But by the same token, Russia made a pact with the Nazis and was also an ally of Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War Two and they both invaded Poland together in 1939. So the Russians have their own Nazi skeletons in their closet as much as the Ukrainians do. Both Russia and Ukraine were cruel to the Jews going back many centuries so in a sense they deserve each other.
However, much has changed since the fall of the USSR in 1991. While most of Russia's and Ukraine's Jews fled to Israel and America, those that remained were granted religious freedoms and Judaism began to flourish again. The roughly thirty year period between 1991 and 2022 will be remembered as a sort of miniature "Golden Age" of Jewry in the territories of the former USSR.
While Yiddishkeit (Judaism) flourished in Russia, it was Ukraine that became not just a place where its remaining Jews could grow in Torah and Judaism, but it also welcomed tidal waves of Jewish religious pilgrims mainly from Israel to Uman on Rosh HaShanah to the grave-site of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772 - 1810), as well as to other final resting places of famous Hasidic Rebbes such as Chernobyl, Makarov, Skvir, the first and second Rebbes of Lubavitch are buried in Ukraine, Belz, Shpola, Berditchev, Zhitomir, Medzibozh, Polonoe, Bratslav and many, many more too many to mention!
Suffice it to say that hundreds of thousands of Hasidim from America, Europe and Israel visited many of these holy burial sites over the past thirty years with no fears whatsoever. All that is gone now, as Russians and Ukrainians kill each other soaking the earth with their blood and all this in the months of Adar (this year being a Jewish leap year) there are two months of the joyous Adar. It's truly, as Winston Churchill said about Russia a long time ago: that it's a "riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma"! One of the most brilliant quotes ever!
Maybe a message coming out from the mists of this terrible war is that religious Jews should not be spending money on trips to graves in a far off land. Yes, rebuild and protect the grave-sites but how many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on travel and lodging for hundreds of thousands of visitors over the past thirty years that went into the pockets of airlines, travel agencies, hotels and Ukraine's economy when all that money could have gone to alleviate the well-known poverty and emergency appeals in Hasidic and Haredi communities of Israel and even in the United States?
- How many orphans, widows, sick people, could have been helped instead?
- How many simple apartments could have been built for young couples that cannot afford them in Israel?
- How many Yeshivas and Ulpanas and Bais Yaakovs could have been helped with scholarships for students and raising the salaries of Rebbeim and Morahs?
- How many new ones could have been built?
- How much money could have been channeled to Kiruv, Jewish Outreach organizations and to anti-missionary organizations in Israel and America instead of spending the money on joy rides to the graves of rabbis who do not need our help and to whom we can pray from afar?
There are enough graves of great rabbis in America and definitely in Israel, starting with the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Hamachpela) and of other holy sages from the Talmud and other eras buried in the Land of Israel that can become the focal points of Jewish veneration of its past and its sages. There have been rabbis in Israel who have spoken out against tens of thousands of religious Jews travelling to Uman and leaving Israel and their families every year to spend time at the grave of Rebbe Nachman in Uman, Ukraine on Rosh HaShana. Maybe the message is that enough is enough. Stay home and don't go to Ukraine, it's not a place for live Jews.
But then again, who knows? Maybe after the Russian invasion finally stops without a World War Three, religious Jews will be able to go back to Ukraine's Jewish cemeteries to pray at the graves of the Tzadikim (Jewish saints). But please, not before thinking and considering other Tzedaka (Charity) priorities in Klal Yisrael first and foremost.
I cannot resist by ending with something sardonic. I was thinking, who is Achashverosh in this current international imbroglio? and I cannot think of anyone better than dithering Joe Biden who does not seem to know which direction to go in. And the prize for who is Haman clearly goes to Putin of Russia who is so cunning he makes a lion seem dumb. His brazenness and callous disregard for life is so reminiscent of the original Haman. Who is Vashti who gets herself killed for her defiance? that sad prize must go to Ukraine's Zelensky who no matter how many times Putin tries to cut off his head still manages to prance around his bombed out palace and defy both Washington and Moscow.
The brave rabbis and their equally brave wives the Rebbetzins and families of Ukraine, the Lubavitchers, Stoliners, Breslovers and many, many others are the "Mordechais and Esthers" saving their Jewish people by hook or by crook from the jaws of death bringing them to safety. And we the onlookers must sit back and hold our breaths and pray to Hashem (God) not just for the salvation of the Jews of Ukraine and Russia, but that peace will come soon not just to Ukraine but to the entire world and that we will all be spared the nuclear horrors of a World War Three.
Written in honor of my late parents, and on the eve of my 40th anniversary.
Contact Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin at izakrudomin@gmail.com