Purim Inspiration: Even You Can Change The World
This shiur was recorded at the Bnei Akiva School in Toronto on 16th March 2016.
K’vod HaRav, Rabbi Grauer, talmidim vetalmidot, beloved friends, it’s an enormous privilege to be able to daven with you, to be in this wonderful school, to say how lucky you are to be in a great school like this, and how lucky the school is to have pupils like you. I just want to share with you a little thought, if I may, about Purim and where we are right now. Chazal ask a strange question: Esther min hatorah minayin? [meaning] “Where do we find a hint in the Torah to the Book of Esther?” – the last book of Tanach to be canonised? (Chullin 139b) In the Dead Sea Scrolls, they found every other book of Tanach except Esther because it was the last to be canonised.
They said, in the words, Anochi haster astir panai – “I will hide my face on that day.” (Devarim 31:18). Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s most fearful warning was, there will come a time when there will be hester panim, when it will look as if, God forbid, Hashem isn’t communicating with us anymore. That is how Chazal found a hint of Esther. Indeed, Esther is one of the only two books in Tanach which don’t contain the name of Hashem, the other one of course being Shir Hahirim. It is a fearful book, because it records the moment when it was resolved, lehashmid laharog ule’abeid et kol hayehudim mina’ar ve’ad zaken taf venashim (Esther 3:13), the first warrant for genocide against the Jewish people. It is the only book in Tanach that is set, Purim is the only festival in the Jewish year set entirely in Galut [exile]. Every other festival is either based on an event that happened in Israel or on the journey toward Israel. Esther alone, Purim alone, is set in the place of hester panim in chutz la’aretz. When we’re out of Israel, it’s hard to feel the presence of God.
That is Esther. It comes from an almost secularised world where we search for Hashem and we can’t find Him, and yet there is one line in the book that to me cuts through me like a knife, because it is the most powerful statement in Judaism, that Hashem has not abandoned us. This is when Mordechai says to Esther after she has told him all the problems there might be in interceding with Achashverosh, he says to her those famous words, im hacharesh tacharishi ba’et hazot, “If you are silent and you do nothing at this time,” revach vehatzalah ya’amod layehudim mimakom acher, “Somebody else will save the Jewish people.” Umi yodeia, “But who knows?” im la’et kazot higa’at lemalchut? “Was it not for just this moment that you became a Queen, with access to Achashverosh in the royal palace?” (Esther 4:14)
The ultimate statement of hashgachah pratit [Divine Providence] that wherever we are, sometimes Hashem is asking us: realise why I put you here, with these gifts, at this time, with these dangers, in this place. Hashgachah pratit is our fundamental belief that God never abandons us, that He puts us here with something to do. Even in the worst hiding of God, if you listen hard enough, you can hear Him calling to us as individuals, saying: Umi yodea… im la’et kazot higa’at lemalchut? “Was it not for this very challenge that you are here in this place at this time?”
That, of course, is the essence of the first word of the book we are about to read, Vayikra. What is special about the way Vayikra is written in the Torah, anyone know? What is it? Yeah?
Audience member: A small aleph.
And what does Rashi say about the small aleph?
[inaudible answer]
Yeah, sort off, yes, very good. (Applause) Because it says, to Hashem it says, exactly sorry, you can be Chief Rabbi, we’ll keep the seat empty for you, okay? Chevrah, Rashi explains that it says Vaykira el Moshe “and God called to Moses” (Vayikra 1:1) but Vayikar el Bilam, “He simply appeared to Bilam as if by chance.” (Bamidbar 23:4). The Hebrew language has two words that sound the same but they’re completely different, they’re even opposite, mikrah and mikreh. Mikreh means something happened accidentally, there’s no Divine Providence at all, and mikrah means you are here because God is calling on you to do something.
Why is the aleph written small? To tell us that sometimes it can be very hard to hear the call. It’s very small, and what is the sound made by an aleph? [crosstalk, “ah?”] That’s made by a vowel, what’s the sound made by an aleph? Nothing. That is called in Hebrew a kol demama daka, a voice. That’s how Hashem appeared to Eliyahu Hanavi in the 19th chapter of Melachim Aleph (Kings I) in a sound of a slender size. A Vayikra with a little aleph, means Hashem is calling on you, but He is calling on you in a voice so small that you can only hear it if you’re listening. Even in the worst hester panim, Hashem is calling on us to do something.
One of my great heroes was a man called Viktor Frankl, I write about him often. Viktor Frankl was a psychotherapist actually working with university students in Vienna and then: Anschluss, World War II, Shoah, he was taken to Auschwitz. There never was in all history greater hester panim than in the Shoah and at Auschwitz. Yet Viktor Frankl was a man of faith, and he knew Hashem was calling on him to do something even there, even at the gates of Hell itself.
He asked himself, what does Hashem want of me, a psychotherapist, in the middle of Auschwitz? He came to the answer, Hashem wants me to give my fellow prisoners, my fellow Jews, a will to live. Because only if they have that will, will they have the strength to survive. And that’s what he did. He went around to each prisoner that he thought was about to fall into ye’ush, despair, and he gave them a role in life, a role that they hadn’t yet fulfilled but must fulfil and therefore must stay alive and survive Auschwitz and be liberated and then go and do that thing. That is what Viktor Frankl heard, even in Auschwitz, Vayikra, a tiny aleph. “Esther min hatorah minayin? Ve’anochi haster astir panai.”
Let me mention a name to you, and ask does anyone know the significance of this name: Eddie Jacobson. Anyone know this name? No? That’s all right, I didn’t either. I’m going to tell you the story.
Eddie Jacobson was an ordinary Jewish guy in the Lower East Side in New York. Ordinary kid who spent his life as a travelling salesman selling clothing. It’s just that when he was a child, his parents moved to Kansas City and there he met a child his own age, they became schoolfriends. The name of his friend was Harry S. Truman. They knew each other as kids, then again when they did military service in 1917 they found one another again and renewed their friendship, and they decided that when the war was over they’d go into business together. So they set up a clothing store in Kansas City together. They weren’t great businessmen, to be totally honest with you, it didn’t thrive as a business, and the two men drifted apart. Eddie Jacobson, as I say, went on being a travelling salesman selling clothes, and Harry S. Truman took a different route and landed up as President of the United States.
Comes ’47, ’48, and the Jews of the world need the support of the United States of America for the State of Israel to be proclaimed and recognised. The State Department is against it. It says to the President: Mr. President, do not support the creation of the State of Israel… So what happens? Jews try to get in to see the President in the White House, and every single person who tries to see the President in the White House is refused admission, including a very special person, the person who campaigned (next year we’ll celebrate the centenary for the Balfour Declaration in 1917 which first created the possibility of the State of Israel) who was then a lecturer at Manchester University in England, his name was Chaim Weizmann. He became the first President of the State of Israel.
Chaim Weizmann, who was the leader of the Zionist movement, tried to get to see the President and met with blank refusal all round. People thought, who can get through? No-one can get through to Harry S. Truman. Then somebody remembers that Harry S. Truman had a childhood friend called Eddie Jacobson, and they got in touch with Eddie Jacobson and said, we need you to go and see the President and get the President to agree to meet Chaim Weizmann, so Eddie phones up Harry Truman, they’re old friends, “Harry!” “Eddie!” “How are you doing?” “Was macht a yid?” etc. The kind of thing American Presidents say. Eddie says to the President of the United States, “Harry, I’ve got to see you,” and all President Truman’s officials say, “Don’t see this man.” Harry said, “This is my old friend, Eddie, from school, Eddie from the Army, Eddie from our shop together!”
He goes to see Eddie, he says, “Eddie, you can talk to me about anything, except Israel.”
Eddie says “Okay”, and he stands there and he cries.
And the President of the United States (this is in the Oval Office) and he says, “Eddie, why are you crying?”
And Eddie says, “That little marble statue there, who is that, Harry?”
He said, “That’s my hero, Andrew Jackson.”
Eddie says, “You really admire this man?”
“Yes.”
“He had an influence over you?”
“Yes.”
Eddie said “I have a hero. His name is Chaim Weizmann. Harry, for my sake, see this man.”
And Harry looked at Eddie and he knew that he couldn’t say no to his old friend. That is how Chaim Weizmann got to see President Harry S. Truman. That is how America voted in favour of the creation of the State of Israel. Had they not voted, Israel would not have been brought into being. Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, made the United States the first country in the world to recognise the State when David Ben Gurion pronounced it.
I don’t know exactly how Hashem writes the script of history, but if it can happen to Eddie Jacobson it can happen to you. “Umi yodeia im l’et kazot higa’at lamalchut?” Hashem is calling on each of us, saying: there’s a reason why you are, I have something for you to do, that only you can do. We can hear that voice even in the middle of the hiding of the face of God, even when there’s hester panim, even when Hashem’s call, Vayikra, is written with a little aleph that you can hardly see and hardly hear.
Chevrah, in Hilchot Teshuvah, Perek Gimmel, the Rambam says something. He says, lefichach tzarich kol adam sheyireh atzmo kol hashanah kulah – “We should see ourselves every single day of the year” – ke’ilu chetzyo zakai vechetzyo chayav – “as if we are evenly poised between merits and demerits, as if the world is equally poised between merits and demerits” and since he has said in a previous halachah in Hilchot Teshuvah, “The world and we as individuals are judged” – achar rov hama’aseh – “over the majority of our deeds, our next deed may tilt the balance.” It may tilt the balance of our life, it may tilt the balance of somebody else’s life, it may even tilt the balance of the world.
We never know when an act of ours will have consequences. Did Esther, growing up with Mordechai, a little girl called Hadassah, know that one day the entire future of the Jewish people will rest with her? The entire saving of our nation from a warrant for our genocide would depend on her? I have to tell you, you never know these things. You never know what significance one friendship, one little moment, might have for you and for somebody else, that might just change the world.
You don’t have to change the world to change the world. Let me explain: If we really believe, as the Mishnah in Sanhedrin says, (I’m sorry I’m going to give you the manuscript reading of the Mishnah and not the text of the Mishnah in our printed editions of the Mishnah). The manuscript edition of the Mishnah says: “Nefesh achat k’olam malei.” Our printed editions say: ”Nefesh achat beyisrael k’olam malei.” “A Jewish life is like a universe.” But the original text of the Mishnah said, “A life,” Jewish or non-Jewish, “is like a universe.” Change one life, and you begin to change the universe the only way any of us ever can change the universe, one life at a time, one day at a time, one act at a time.
Chevrah, you’re at a critical moment, reaching towards going to university, going to Sem, going to Yeshiva, and you’re going to have to decide What am I going to do in life? And I’m not going to tell you. Your heart will tell you.
But always ask yourself: what does Hashem want of me in this place, at this time? Because there is always something Hashem wants of us, and we don’t have to think we’re special. We can just be a little Jewish girl called Hadassah, or we can just be a little Jewish kid called Eddie Jacobson, and yet, somehow or another, our acts might have consequences that we can’t even begin to imagine.
So even though you may feel sometimes that this is a world and an age in which there is hester panim, where you look for Hakadosh Baruch Hu and you can’t find Him, He is still saying to us: Umi yodeia im l’et kazot higa’at lamalchut? – “Was it not for this moment that I placed you here on Earth?”
When Hashem calls, may each of us have the courage to say “Hineini”, “Here I am, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, tell me what to do and I will do it.” May we go out into the world, walking tall as Jews, walking unafraid, as Jews, and may we be true to our faith and a blessing to others regardless of their faith. May we hear the call of Hashem and answer it. And may all of you bring blessing to the world. PurimSameach. Thank you very much indeed.
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Rabbi Sacks' Interview at The University of Dallas on Judeo-Christian relationships

The Relevance of the Bible for Law and Ethics in Society Today

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Prof Oz-Salzberger
Hosted by Makom

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty - 2014 Canterbury Medalist

The Stewardship Paradigm (video)
A Thought for Tu BiShvat

Kiddush Hashem in a Complicated World
Beit Knesset Feigenson, Beit Shemesh, Israel

A Judaism Engaged with the World
Lecture at The Great Synagogue, Jerusalem

Vision-Driven Leadership in the 21st Century
An Analysis of The Pew Report

The Dignity of Difference (video)
The Mandel Leadership Institute

On Creative Minorities
Erasmus Lecture

How Forgiveness Can Change the World
Midnight Selichot 5773

A Judaism Engaged with the World

Gala Tribute Dinner for Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

Our Journey with the Chief...

What was the Rambam controversy?
Question 13

What is Jewish leadership all about?
Question 12

The Controversy of the Omer
A Shiur at Bnei Akiva

Would the world be better without any religion?
Question 11

What is a Rabbi?
Question 10

Why do bad things happen to good people?
Question 9

What do Jews believe about the afterlife?
Question 8

What's the purpose of life?
Question 7

What does the term ‘Chosen People’ mean?
Question 6

If you could ask God one question, what would you ask?
Question 5

How can the belief in God be reconciled with science, especially evolution?
Question 4

How can the Torah be trusted?
Question 3

How do you know there is a God?
Question 2

What are the basic beliefs in Judaism?
Question One

Yom HaZikaron / Yom Ha'atzmaut address
Keynote speech at Finchley Synagogue, Kinloss Gardens

Address at National Yom HaShoah Commemoration Ceremony

From Freedom to Responsibility
A Shiur for Pesach

The Will to Life
Speech to the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference

Trust and Trustworthiness
Lecture at the Woolf Institute

Jerusalem Launch of Radical Responsibility
The International Jerusalem Book Fair

The 21st Century Challenge for Jews and Israel
Tel Hai College, Israel

Communities Together: Build a Bridge
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

The Future of Judaism
2012-13 Robbins Collection Lecture in Jewish Law and Thought at Berkeley Law

The Hidden Story of Chanukah

Role of religion in society

Universalism and Particularism
Finding your Jewish identity in a secular world

Is the Bible a Work of Philosophy?

Child development in the UK and national wellbeing

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Richard Dawkins
REThink Festival

To Live and Act as a Jew
Midnight Selichot 5772

Science vs. Religion (2012)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5773

The Revolutionary Power and Importance of Talmud Study

A Vision for Global Jewish Peoplehood

In conversation with Prof. Ron Heifetz
Highlights: On Jewish Leadership

Faith Communities and the Diamond Jubilee

Address for Yom Ha'Atzmaut 5772
Bnei Akiva service at Finchley Synagogue, Kinloss Gardens

Music: Did the Rabbis Make a Mistake?

Torah in Motion 10th Anniversary
Future Tense: Where Are Judaism and the Jewish People Headed?

Desert Island Texts
The Chief Rabbi’s seven favourite verses in Tanakh

Religion and Science
Jewish Book Week 2012

The Face of the Other: The Curious Nature of Biblical Narrative
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Humanitas Lecture 3

Truth and translatability
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Humanitas Lecture 2

After Babel: A Jewish theology of interfaith
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Lecture 1

Message for Holocaust Memorial Day (2012)

Has Europe Lost Its Soul?
Lecture at The Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

The Chief Rabbi meeting Pope Benedict XVI

Christians in the Middle East

Graduation Address at the University of Aberdeen

Address to the International Conference of Chabad Shluchim

The Great Partnership
Religion and the Moral Sense

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks at the Young Israel of Scarsdale

Religion and Democracy in America and Europe

Three Responses to Crisis
Midnight Selichot 5771

Where Will We Find God?
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

The Courage to Hope - the Greatest Courage of All
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Undoing the Knots We Tie Ourselves Into
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Where Our Speaking... Meets God’s Listening
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

How do you learn to live? By not taking life for granted.
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

When God Sheds A Tear…
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

To Be Free, You Have To Forgive
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

The Holy Place…is where you are
Preparing for the Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Don’t Get Angry… There’s A Better Way
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

St Mary's 2011 Pope Benedict XVI Lecture

Improving Interfaith Dialogue in Multicultural Britain

What's the point of religion? (2011)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5772

The One Word That Can Change your Life
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Chief Rabbi's 11th Annual Ellul Lecture at LSJS
Ellul Lecture 2011 at LSJS

Looking Towards Tomorrow: Trends, Challenges and Decisions
The Israeli Presidential Conference 2011

Address for Yom Ha’atzmaut 5771
Bnei Akiva service at Finchley Synagogue, Kinloss Gardens

Hamas and the Peace Process

The future of marriage in Britain

Human Rights

In the Room with Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom
On Being with Krista Tippett

Interfaith Summit on Happiness with the Dalai Lama
On Understanding and Promoting Happiness in Today’s Society, at Emory University

Rabbi Sacks welcomes Pope Benedict XVI to Britain on behalf of the faith communities

The Case for God (2010)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5771

Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Narrative
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: 2
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Universal Jewish Story
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Eco-Judaism Roots
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Peoplehood
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on an Engaged Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Charity Priorities
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Reconciliation
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Community Conflict
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Particularism vs Universalism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Culture of Hope
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Hatikvah
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Israel and Jewish Society
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Torah in Today's World
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Prayer
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Indifference
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Role in the World
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Torah and the Real World
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Free Market and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Love as Deed
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Combatting Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Material Loss
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Antidote to Materialism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Parenting
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Tzedakah Tale
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Family Story
JInsider (March 2010)

On the Internet and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Plato's Ghost
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Optimism vs. Hope
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Victim Mentality
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Jerusalem
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Advice for our Times
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Fundamentalism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Time
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Chosen People
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on 21st Century Israel
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Origins of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Understanding Jewish Exile
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Anger
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Historical Evolution of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Interfaith Relations
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Coincidence and Providence
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Free Will
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Family and Marriage
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Tzedakah Defined
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Daily Life
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Being Jewish
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Rebbe, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Connecting to God
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on God and Evil
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Dialogue with Atheists
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Doubt
Jinsider (March 2010)

On Tikkun Olam
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Response to Atheism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Finding Purpose
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life - Example
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 2
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)

Passover: A More Meaningful Holiday

Inaugural Norman Lamm Prize Lecture
Award Acceptance Speech at Yeshiva University

Introduction to the House of Lords

How to Evolve
Midnight Selichot 5769

A More Gracious Future (2009)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5770

Faith in the Family (2008)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5769

Faith and Fate: The Lambeth Conference Address

Oseh Shalom from "Israel - Home of Hope"

Keeping Faith (2007)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5768

The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
2007 Kenan Institute for Ethics Distinguished Lecture

In a Strange Land (2006)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5767

My Brother's Keeper (2005)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5766

Agents of Hope (2003)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5764

A Message for the Jewish New Year (2001)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5762

Does God Have a Place in the Marketplace? (2000)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5761

Guardians of the World (1999)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5760

More than a FunFair (1998)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5759

A Single Gesture (1997)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5758

The Tough Questions (1996)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5757

Remember us for Life (1995)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5756

Time for Caring (1994)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5755

Please Forgive Us (1993)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5754

Beginning Again (1992)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5753

The Chief Rabbi's Induction

The Unwritten Ending (1991)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5752