March 4, 2004
WHAT WE CAN SEE AND WHAT WE CAN'T'
The Book of Esther: The Story of Human Importance: In life, it's the DIVINE who's in the details (Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, 3/04/04, Jewish World Review)
[W]hat shall man do? And to what extent is man responsible for his deeds? He is not able to know the ultimate effects of his actions, so where is the distinction between responsibility and pure fate?There can only be one answer to this question: Man is only responsible for those consequences he could clearly have seen in advance. He can only be taken to task for those matters that he can see as the direct outcome of his actions. He is not responsible when unexpected external matters creep into the picture, which he could not have foreseen. More than anything else, it is his intention that counts and not so much the effect.
This is the deeper meaning of the Book of Esther. Looking carefully into the story, one realizes that matters of cause and effect are turned around in a web of surprises that nobody could have predicted. Speaking in terms of pure logic, the story should have ended in the total extermination of the Jewish people. That it did not, was solely dependent on circumstances which were beyond responsible human action and prediction.
It's for this reason the sages remarked that "Esther" symbolizes the "hESTER panim," the hiding of the Divine's "face", which means nothing else than that His direct providence is only noticeable after the event.
What may be perceived by man as an infinite amount of arbitrary incidents, a confusing web of coincidence, is, after all, the result of G-d's active role in history.
The hope implicit in Judeo-Christian morality is that if we were all to behave as if the consequences that we can predict mattered, the unseeable ones would take care of themselves. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 4, 2004 12:47 PM
My problems with Purim (or, at least some of them) stem from the deus ex machina nature of the story plus the sense that, after the Holocaust, there is either something odd about celebrating the happenstance avoidance of an earlier genocide or something macabre about celebrating an earlier instance in which G-d chose to save us.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 4, 2004 1:19 PMBut, even taking cognizance of the horrific slaughter, the Nazis failed.
Posted by: oj at March 4, 2004 1:23 PMThat may be the hope, but the teaching is that you can beat the system.
At least, among Catholics. I well remember how we reacted to the lessons about novenas, partial and plenary indulgences and so on, first presented to us at about age 9.
Whatever message the good sisters thought they were passing down, the one we got was that you could fiddle the rules. All us little spiritual entrepreneurs immediately began handicapping the odds of timing that precious plenary indulgence.
And, of course, the sincere act of contrition at the hour of death is a Get Out of Hell Free card.
If it had any effect on our behavior in the here and now, it couldn't have been good.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 4, 2004 1:54 PMHarry:
No, the teaching is that the system can not be adhered to--we are Fallen.
Posted by: oj at March 4, 2004 2:01 PMGee, Harry, I grew up Catholic, too. I don't remember taking those lessons. In fact, if memory serves, the good sisters reminded us that while even a death-bed penance is a fully effective gift from God, it must be a sincere penance, or it means nothing. They also made clear that you cannot sin with an eye to sincerely repenting later; otherwise, the penance is not sincere.
Posted by: Chris at March 4, 2004 3:27 PMBut, even taking cognizance of the horrific slaughter, the Nazis failed.
That's uncharacteristically optimistic. I prefer to wait and let it play out. The Nazi's reduced the Jewish population to a level that may not be sustainable, led to a crisis in Jewish faith and certainly hasn't quelled antisemitism.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 4, 2004 3:31 PMYes, Jews often seem bent on succeeding where Hitler failed.
Posted by: oj at March 4, 2004 3:34 PMEichmann considered that he had killed enough Jews, even if he missed some, to have destroyed the "race."
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 4, 2004 8:35 PM