It is vital that we remember at these difficult times that standing alone should not be seen as a threat to Jews. It is something that we have come to expect –even as a point of pride prophetically predicted by our great biblical adversary Bilaam (and echoed later by Haman):
“it is a nation that will dwell alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations.” [Bemidbar 23:9]
Israel is seen as separate and apart whether in exile among the nations or dwelling in its homeland. Amos Oz famously commented that:
“When my father was a young man in Vilna, every wall in Europe said, "Jews go home to Palestine." Fifty years later, when he went back to Europe on a visit, the walls all screamed, "Jews get out of Palestine.”
A resounding message which emerges from the tense discussion between Mordechai and Esther at the darkest moments of the Purim story is that God has a covenant with us – revach vehatzalah (divine salvation) will always arise from somewhere. We may not know where or how it will be achieved but we have relied upon God’s promise for thousands of years. Our strength has not come from being popular or great in number:
“Not because you are more numerous than any people did God delight in you and choose you, for you are the least of all the peoples. But because of God’s love for you…” [Devarim 7:7]
This is the message we must recall as we seek to secure our borders after the brutal unprovoked attacks of October 7. As we are lectured by human rights luminaries such as Russia, China and the Arab world – Nations United in their horror of seeing Jews defend themselves as the West did during the Second World War against Nazi Germany. The ideology of Amalek – those who delight in targeting and brutalizing the weak and innocent – must be utterly destroyed from our borders. If we must stand alone in the moral clarity of defeating evil then so be it. Lo Tishkach.
It is poignant when reading in the Megillah of past efforts to destroy the Jewish people to bear in mind the words of Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to America, last week:
“When I was Israel's Ambassador to Washington, I must have met more than 160 other Ambassadors. I never met the Ambassador of Babylon, never met the Ambassador of Imperial Rome and I didn't meet the Ambassador of the 1,000-Year Reich. But there is an Ambassador of Israel. We will survive this enemy.”
