What Is the Miracle of Purim?

לְהַשְׁמִיד לַהֲרֹג וּלְאַבֵּד אֶת כָּל הַיְּהוּדִים…

When the wicked Haman sought to annihilate all Jews, young and old…, You in Your infinite mercy thwarted his plans and frustrated his intentions, and caused that which he sought to do to recoil on his own head (prayer on Purim).

According to many authorities, the miracle of Purim surpasses in significance the great Biblical wonders.

Whereas the plagues of Pharaoh and the dividing of the Red Sea were indeed great miracles, leaving no doubt as to the wondrous actions of G-d, they represented supernatural phenomena. People still might have thought that Divine intervention is present only when the laws of nature are abrogated, but when things proceed naturally, they do so according to fixed physical laws, detached from Divine providence.

The miracle of Purim was a happening totally within natural boundaries. A king gets drunk at a party, and in his intoxication orders the queen’s execution. The successor to the queen is a Jewess, a cousin to one of the nobility, who conceals her ethnic origin. A palace plot against the king is discovered by the Jewish nobleman, and this is recorded in the royal chronicles. An anti-Semitic viceroy plots against the Jews, and wishes to execute the Jew who had saved the king’s life. The queen reveals that she is a Jewess, and turns the king against his viceroy.

No flashes from the sky. No upheavals. No suspension of the laws of nature. But at every step, there is G-d’s providence for the salvation of His people.

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Excerpted from Living Each Day; Mesorah Publications Ltd. Reprinted with permission of the copyright holder.

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Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski

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Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, a psychiatrist, rabbi, and founder of the the Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Pennsylvania, is a renowned author of more than fifty titles on self-help issues.

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