Keeping the Faith
Ben Goldberg

On Purim, it is a mitzvah for us to read the Megillah. We are required to read the entire scroll, from the beginning until the very end. In fact, if you miss one work in the entire story, we are told that one has not fulfilled his obligation.

A famous question that is asked is what if we read every word, but we don?t read it in the proper order. Let?s say we wanted to change up the usual way of doing things, and decided to read the Megillah backwards. Similar to what some of us might do when reading a novel, skip to the en, and then read back to the front?

The Talmud in Megillah tells us that one who reads the Megillah backwards has not fulfilled his obligation. But why? Didn?t one who did so read every single word?

In life we are sometimes tempted to turn to the ?back of the book.? In times of crisis, we want to find out the ending of our situation before we endure the pain of doubt. We want to make sure that everything will turn out all right, rather then just keep telling ourselves to believe it will.

Likewise on Purim, we want to see that Haman is hung, even before we find out about his rise to power. That is why the Talmud tells us that one who reads the Megillah out of order, one who reads about the happy ending before reading about the pain of Haman?s decree, has not fulfilled his obligation.

It?s no accomplishment to read about Haman?s demise before we read about the danger that he brought upon the Jews. When you know the ending is happy, then you have no need for faith. That is why we need to read about Haman?s rise to power, his evil decree, the helplessness of the Jews and yet despite all those odds, the strong faith those same Jews exhibited. When reading the Megillah, we must exhibit the same faith, that with Ha-Shem?s help we shall prevail against Haman. If one can deal with a painful time by still having faith in Ha-Shem, then they?ve gone through a growth process. When we try to skip the chapters, we also skip the chance to see a test of our faith, and in the search for an immediate outcome, we lost the growth that goes along with doing so.

Unfortunately, we are currently in a time where our faith is tested daily. There is anti-Semitism all around us, and as we hear about all that is going on in the world, it is easy to lose our faith. Indeed, with the recent attack on Mercaz Ha-Rav, it?s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

However, like with the Megillah we must have faith that everything will turn out OK. We must remind ourselves that Ha-Shem has an ultimate plan, and that the back of the book will still have a happy ending.