blogs/brentspodek

Tonight begins the holiday of Purim - we're excited for our Megillah reading and spiel tonight and our Purim Carnival on Sunday.

Beyond the fabulous joy and revelry, there is a hard political reality to Purim. Back in the day, insecure political forces marshaled hate and violence and blamed all the troubles of Shushan on a small minority. The wicked Haman said, " 'There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they the king's laws; therefore it profits not the king to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed."

This happens throughout history - demagogues like Haman marshal popular fear to rise to power and oppress vulnerable minorities. 

In 1965, the massive march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama took place on the eve of Purim - this very day. Courageous men and women of all stripes including including Rabbis Joseph Gumbiner, Saul Berman, Gerald Raiskin, Herbert Teitelbaum and Joseph Weinberg marched and stood for the essential dignity of all humans, particularly the most despised.

Those rabbis were beaten, arrested and spent that Purim in jail. The clergy of Brown Chapel AME Church brought the megillah of Esther to them and they chanted and translated for the incarcerated, speaking of the "redemption which ensued because a few persons had the moral courage to speak up."

Today, in our moment, fear and hatred are again dominating our political scene. A candidate for President of this country, which welcomed so many of our ancestors at moments of fear and persecution, tells us that our problems are the fault of Mexicans, Muslims and others.

Will there be an Esther and a Mordechai in our time? Will there be a few people of moral courage who will speak up and act in the hopes of redemption?

I pray there will.

And as the times comes, I pray that we merit to be counted among their number.