The Victory of Purim

Purim Sameach Everyone! Welcome to the happiest time of the year! Singing and Drinking and Dancing and Drinking and Eating and Drinking and Drinking and Drinking! Man, what an amazing time...

But of course, in the midst of our revelry we must remember what makes Purim such a happy time for Am Yisrael: Victory over our Enemies. Way back When over 2000 years ago in Shushan, the capital of the Persian Empire, an evil vizier rose to power with the same political platform that has subsequently been used by so many other horrible leaders—Blame the Jews! Is it because we Jews control the world’s economy, poisoned your wells, and gave you chewing gum that caused childhood cancers, or just because we are Jews? (NOTE: The PLO regularly accuses the Jewish People of these charges, including one about chewing gum). Facing the Genocidal Maniac Haman—yamak sh’mo—the Jews rallied around their leaders, Mordechai ben Yair and his niece Ester Hadassah. Then on the very day that had been slated for their destruction, The Jews arose and crushed their enemies in the streets of cities and towns all throughout the Persian Empire in a day-long (or two day-long in Shushan) battle royale.

Mordechai is compared to King David and to Moshe Rabenu Himself for his ability to unite the Jewish People. These three most hallowed Jewish Generals were all wary of the fact that our strength lies not in our numbers (yes as a Jew you are a minority so stop filling out “Caucasian” on your standardized tests) nor in our physical might (besides Boxing Champion Dangerous Dana Rosenblatt). The strength of Am Yisrael is in our Unity and our Spiritual Purity which is why on the day before battle, a Jewish Army observes a communal fast (observed yesterday as Ta’anit Esther).

If our strength is in unity then our weakness is in its absence—whether the lack of cooperation between Jews or the physical loss of even a single Jewish Soul. That is what makes the tragedy of Erez Levanon such a disastrous loss for the Jewish People. Erez, a forty-year-old Breslover Hasid, lived with his wife and three children in Bat Ayin (an amazing community located between Yerushalayim and Hevron). Erez was a musician and a torah scholar whose entire life was dedicated to bringing The Jewish People together. He was constantly involved in reaching out to his fellow Jews even when it took him all the way to the Himalayas where he went every summer to find lost Israeli souls and to bring them back to their own beautiful tradition. The only time that Erez would take for himself was a daily walk into the orchard near his home for an hour of solitude, and hitbodedut/meditation.

Earlier this week Erez Levanon did not return from his daily meditation. His body was found slashed to pieces in the orchard that had provided him with countless hours of clarity and peace. Later that day two Arab men were arrested in the nearby village of Beit Omar. They confessed to sneaking up upon Erez during his silent prayers and brutally attacking him. According to the police report, the two murderers, “were not motivated to kill Erez for any reason other than the fact that he was Jewish.”


So here we are on Purim 5767 and the story repeats itself: Genocidal Enemies seek to destroy us only because we are Jewish. And how much harder is it now to find strength as a nation when we are scattered across the Earth? How much harder to unite without a leader like Mordechai to guide us? How much harder to remain in the spirit of Purim following the tragic loss our fellow Jew, Erez Levanon? Such horrifying chaos and brutality breeds disillusionment, but in all of this there is undoubtedly hope. Though we Jews are separated by all sorts of barriers—language, politics, time zones—we are united as we shed tears for our fallen brother. As we learn more about this amazing man—who awoke every morning to sing songs with the local children on their way to school—we are inspired to live by his example and are strengthened in our resolve to work together to heal our fractured people. And as we remember Erez Levanon and look at pictures of the man who loved Hashem and Hashem’s people so much that he couldn’t stop smiling, we know that no matter what our enemy might try, they will never extinguish the fire of Am Yisrael, and we too will smile.

May his Neshama have an Aliyah and may we all celebrate Purim with the Simcha of Victory in memory of Erez ben Mordecai Levanon.