Leonard Grunstein, a retired attorney and banker, founded and served as Chairman of Metropolitan National Bank and then Israel Discount Bank of NY. He also founded Project Ezrah and serves on the Board of Revel at Yeshiva University and the AIPAC National Council. He has published articles in the Banking Law Journal, Real Estate Finance Journal and other fine publications. He is the co-author of "Because It’s Just and Right: The Untold Back-Story of the U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem."
Esther is one of the genuine heroines in Jewish history and her cogent lesson of taking personal risks to defend the Jewish people has stood the test of time.
It is hard to imagine that her striking message and model of personal courage and brilliance, under the most difficult of circumstances, as recorded in the Scroll of Esther, could be so vapidly misconstrued and frankly absurdly misused. Esther put herself in mortal danger to save the Jewish people from peril, by unseating Haman and his cabal of Jew haters.
Who could have imagined a politician cynically invoking the model of Esther to advocate for putting the Jewish people in danger in support of electing to power modern Haman-like enemies? It’s antithetical to Esther’s very essence. Her immutable doctrine and legacy was to protect the Jewish people and eschew self-interest in pursuit of that noble higher purpose.
Haman was an implacable enemy of the Jewish people. Like his ancestors, he sought the utter destruction of the Jewish people and to eradicate their legacy of a Torah system of ethical values, norms and mores. The Talmud (Megillah 13b) notes that even before he was promoted to a position of authority under Achasverosh, the stage was set, by Divine Providence, for the failure of his nefarious plan. Queen Esther and Mordechai were already well placed to frustrate Haman’s malign intentions and to save the Jewish people.
Consider the modern parallels playing out in Michigan and elsewhere in the US, where antisemitic candidates are striving to promote their anti-American/antisemitic/anti-Israel programs. Divine Providence has yet again provided for the cure, in the form of pro-America Jewish and other good people, who detest the scourge of antisemitism, well placed to defeat the malign candidates at the polls and frustrate their noxious vision.
This is a key theme of the Scroll of Esther. We are guided by Divine Providence, the antithesis of Haman’s Amalekite creed that everything is just a matter of chance. This does not mean being passive in the face of the challenges life presents. To the contrary, we are called upon to act properly and to the best of our ability. Thus, Mordechai encouraged Queen Esther to intervene by approaching her husband King Achasverosh, to save the Jewish people from the evil designs of Haman. This was despite the personal risks she would incur by acting so boldly.
He advised, if she kept silent in this pending crisis, then relief and deliverance of the Jews would come from another source. However, he urged she should be cognizant of the fact that perhaps she was put in this position precisely so she would have the opportunity to perform this vital role. Esther responded positively and acted decisively. She recognized the wisdom of Mordechai’s counsel that she had to act now while she enjoyed the King’s favor. Delay was not advisable; because there was no assurance her favored position would continue, especially given Achasverosh’s temperament and fickle nature.
The Megillah records Esther successfully enabled the Jewish people to be saved and victorious defensive battles were fought against the forces Haman had assembled to annihilate the Jews. It should also be noted that she likely saved Achasverosh as well, because he too was presumably on Haman’s target list, in his evil quest for power. This is a lesson that many moderate politicians in both the Democrat and Republican parties would do well to inculcate:
The extremists on the left and right are no one friends; it may begin with Jew hatred and anti-Israel rhetoric, but it’s ultimately also about destroying America and western culture
When Achasverosh asked Esther what else he might do for her, she responded by asking for one more day for the Jews in Shushan to root out their enemies. She was determined fully to defeat the inimical and antithetical influence of Amalekite philosophy, which had not been fully subdued. Haman had many followers and the center for his Amalikite cohorts was in Shushan. Deterring them from attacking the Jews again was also of prime importance.
In essence, Esther’s request was designed to militate against any assertion that somehow the Jewish people’s defensive effort was just some unexpected spontaneous occurrence, which would likely not be repeated. Defeating the malevolent philosophy of Amalek, which had infected so many, required demonstrating that the victory was the result of Divine Providence and not just a quirk of fate. Obtaining a new separate mandate for Shushan helped establish that this was a part of an ongoing program, which was genuinely and determinedly being pursued in earnest by the Jewish Queen Esther.
To carry the analogy forward, it is not enough to win one election against these toxic forces. We must do more to educate people and join together with others who truly believe in doing what’s just and right, as part of a continuing program. Our charge is to preserve America, strengthen the mutually beneficial America-Israel relationship and root out Jew hatred in all of its noxious forms.
We are at a historical inflexion point. As Rabbi Akiva counseled (Brachot 60b), everything that occurs in this world is directed towards achieving some ultimate good, even if it doesn’t appear that way, at the time. The path we chose in response might yield unimagined and wonderful results.
The first step is to get out the vote and defeat all the malign candidates at the polls.