Skip to main content

"My Lord, my Lord, why have You abandoned me?"-PSALM OF ESTHER: 22:2: ALSHICH HA-KADOSH“

“My Lord, my Lord, why have You abandoned me; why are You so far from delivering me and from my anguished roaring?” The repetition of the word “my Lord,” has been explained as reflecting Esther’s dismay that the Holy Spirit had departed from her when she entered the king’s throne chamber with its idolatrous images.

 

Her anguish was expressed thus, “my Lord,” if You were my Lord before I was married to this uncircumcised person, You have still remained my Lord even though I have shared his bedroom which was surrounded by idolatrous images. Why, therefore, does Your Holy Spirit forsake me at this critical time?


My outcry, was not concerned with my own safety. If the king refuses to extend his scepter to me and executes me, this is a relatively easy fate to bear. But, Your withdrawal from me makes my people’s deliverance distant, unlikely!


Alternatively, Esther calls “my Lord” twice, to indicate her doubt if the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit is due to the impurity of the Kings quarters, or whether it presages that God will not respond to her pleas for the Jewish people. In case it is the latter, here is my desperate outcry.


By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n''y

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

TAKING IT WITH YOU-MISHPATIM-ALEINU

Our sages teach us, “On the Red Sea, God appeared to them like a young boy, while at Sinai, He appeared like an old man.” At first thought, this is extremely difficult to understand, since it is written, “You have not seen   any image (To see Deuteronomy 4:15).” We can explain this with an example. When a parent loves his child, this great love causes the child’s image to be engraved on the parent’s mind. It is therefore as if the child were actually standing in the presence of the parent. When the child is young, he exists in his parent’s mind in the image of a small child. Later, when he grows, the image in the parent’s thoughts is that of an older person.   It is known that, “Israel rose first in thought.” This means that they are constantly engraved in the Supernal Thought, just as a child is in its parent’s mind. When a child acts properly and does what its parent wishes, this is the image that is engraved in its parent’s thoughts. The same is true when the child goes aga...

Goodness and Blessing

 “May it be Your Will, God, our Lord, and the Lord of our forefathers, that You inaugurate this month upon us for goodness and for blessing.” We pray for Moshe’s third trip even before we receive his report of his second. We pray assuming that we will not only be forgiven, but will be granted even more as Moshe ascends Sinai for a third time. We acknowledge God, that He is our Lord. We call on the merit of our forefathers. By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg

Consistent proportions ....

  Ketores   Ketores reminds me of stoichiometry, which is a fancy word in chemistry for proportions. Let’s take H 2 O (water)—it is a proportion of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen. No matter how much water I have, whether it’s the volume of a swimming pool, or a tiny drop, it has constant molecular proportionality; every water molecule in that pool or in that tiny drop is no more and no less than two hydrogens for every one oxygen. We have proportionality in the ketores: “1) Balsam, 2) onycha, 3) & galbanum 4) frankincense – the weight of 70 maneh each. 5) myrrh, 6) cassia & 7) spikenard & 8) saffron – [each] a weight of 16, 16 maneh. 9) costus – 12 maneh 10) aromatic bark – three [maneh] 11) cinnamon – 9 (maneh) [Added also were] Lye of Carsina – 9 Kavs (a measure), Wine of Cypres – 3 Seahs and 3 kavs- and if one did not find wine of Cypres – he brings old wine. Salt of Sodom – a quarter [of a kav.]… Rabbi Yehuda said “This is the general rule – if it is ...