Respond With Fascination
Feel fascination instead of frustration. Today, make a commitment to be fascinated with what other people say and do. Particularly, focus on their reactions - and use this to trigger your own sense of fascination.
Love Yehuda
Today is our most animated and fun holidays of our many days of signficace of the year. It lasts only day, we can go to work and watch TV, eat, drink and be merry, yet not forget about the poor and less fortunate. The perfect daily blend.
30-Second History
Set in Persia 2,300 years ago, the Book of Esther – or the "Megillah" as it is commonly called – recounts how a seemingly unrelated series of events spun together to save the Jewish people from annihilation.
King Achashverosh throws a huge six-month party and Queen Vashti refuses to follow orders (and get naked). After a global search, Esther becomes the new queen – but does not reveal her Jewishness. Mordechai, the leader of the Jews, uncovers a plot to assassinate the king – putting him also in a favorable position with the king. All this comes in handy when Haman, the king's top advisor, obtains a decree to have all the Jews destroyed. (Purim is the Persian word for "lottery," used by Haman to determine a date for his planned destruction of the Jews.)
In the end, through a complex twist of events, Esther gets the decree reversed, Haman is hanged on the gallows, and Mordechai becomes prime minister.
The name Megillat Esther (Scroll of Esther) actually mean "revealing the hidden." Unlike every other book in the Bible, Megillat Esther does not mention G-d's name even once. The hidden hand of G-d is revealed through the maze of events.
Megillat Esther teaches us that life's challenges are always for the best, because what appears as an obstacle is really an opportunity to develop ourselves for the better. And it all comes from God's invisible hand that guides our fate, every step of the way.
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