The Silent Lottery

By Sasha Bokor / Class of 2026

When we think of Purim, coincidentally one of my favorite holidays, we tend to think of dressing in costume, the fun activities at HAFTR and, of course, the Jews prevailing over the evil Haman Another big part of Purim are the four main mitzvot of the day; Megillah, Seudah, Mishloach Manot, and Matanot L'evyonim

We do each of these Mitzvot for easily understandable reasons Megillah, to retell the story of Purim, Seudah, to celebrate the Jewish victory, and Mishloach Manot and Matanot L'evyonim to show our Achdut during the time that we prevailed Even the reason for Purim's name seems to be fairly straightforward When Haman tried to destroy us, he cast lots, a Pur This Pur selected the date on which he would destroy the Jews Esther and Mordechai then found out, tried to stop him, and the rest is history But why is Purim named for the method used to select the best day to kill the Jews? Couldn’t a better name be found? Possibly ‘Esther day,’ or ‘Triumph over Persia Day’? In The Queen You Thought You Knew, Rabbi David Fohrman raises this very question.

In the fourth perek of Megillat Esther, Mordechai discovers Haman’s decree, tears his clothes, starts to mourn, and tells Esther what is happening He then asks her to beg Achashverosh to save the Jewish people Esther is reluctant, as she knows that coming before the king without being summoned is punishable by death But even after hearing her hesitation, Mordechai urges Esther to take on the danger and intervene anyway He says, “For if you remain silent at this time rescue will arise for the Jews elsewhere ”

The exact words in Hebrew that are used are, “Im hachareysh tacharishi,” if you remain silent This particular word for silence, used twice in repetition, is repeated as a double verb in Sefer Bamidbar

There, the context is the process of “hatarat nedarim,” the annulment of vows, and specifically how these laws relate to a young girl, or a “na’arah,” who marries Esther too is referred to as a “na’arah” who marries

The word for “annulling” is “yephierna,” which has the shoresh (root) pei, vav, reish This spells out the word Pur, which takes us back to Purim Rashi explains that even just keeping silent when hearing a vow is enough to show support In the context of Purim, after hearing Haman’s evil plan, Esther does not remain silent Instead, she bravely goes to King Achashverosh With her actions, she annuls the decree of Haman and saves the Jews

Esther didn’t remain silent when she realized that Haman’s decree, sealed by the king's signet ring, could not be repealed. Esther went to Achashverosh, and made a new law with his ring, thereby allowing the Jews to defend themselves Even though Achashverosh would have saved Esther and those close to her, Esther couldn’t help but be concerned for all of Bnei Yisroel, and so she took action to save them Her actions worked to annul (with the root of “Pur”) the evil decree put in place by Haman This is perhaps a better reason for this holiday to be named Purim

This is a wonderful lesson for all of us to learn from the story of Purim, and to keep in mind all the time We can’t just sit back and let things take place around us. We need to get involved and be active In this way, we can annul the bad and strive for the good We must “do” these four Mitzvot of Purim and get involved in our community on Purim and every other day.

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