This article featured in Arutz7 highlights the central role that Jewish Unity plays throughout the Purim story.
Let us know what you think… and enjoy the pictures that follow!
“Haman presented his case before Achashveirosh to get royal permission to kill all the Jews of the kingdom, the nation of Mordechai. One of his main points was that the people were scattered throughout the kingdom.
They posed no threat of fighting back, because they lacked unity. Haman offered a large sum of money to the king for his permission to do as he wanted. The king decided to grant Haman the royal permission to kill all the Jews and waived the offer of the 10,000 silver talents. Shows you that Haman is not the only villain of the Purim story.
Having successfully been saved, the holiday of Purim was declared and the different ways that it is celebrated are considered refutations of Haman’s claim the the Jewish people lacked unity. This includes SEUDAT PURIM, MISHLO’ACH MANOT, and MATANOT LA’EVYONIM, all of which put a lie to Haman’s claim.
Commemorating the mitzva of MACHATZIT HASHEKEL by reading Parshat Sh’kalim on or before Rosh Chodesh Adar, and giving ZEICHER L’MACHATZIT HASHEKEL before Megila reading, brings into the picture our mitzva that represents Jewish Unity, because everyone gave MACHATZIT HASHEKEL equally, because the amount of HALF makes the statement that we are all part of something together.
But the nagging question that we each must grapple with, is – Was Haman right?
