March 2006 Inseparable Partners By Rabbi Alvin Kass So many joys of life are tinged with sorrow. We may attain success but too late for our parents to see it. We may become materially comfortable when we are too old to enjoy it. The joy of parenthood may be muted by the problems and frustrations of our children. Perhaps that is why so many joyous Jewish holidays have their solemn dimension. On Passover, the celebration of our national independence is mingled with painful recollection of the bitter lot of our ancestors. During the happy harvest of Sukkot, Jews leave the comforts of their homes to dwell in flimsy huts subject to the vagaries of weather. The delights of ushering in a new year on Rosh Hashanah are restrained by the necessity of engaging in a searching and painful self-examination. The festivities of Purim, which will soon be upon us, are also mixed with the sadness of having to recall hated enemies of the Jewish people. On the Sabbath before Purim, we read in the synagogue about Amalek and how he tried to exterminate the Israelites who wandered about in the wilderness. The Megillah which we read in the synagogue on Purim night tells how Haman, a descendant of Amalek, tried to obliterate the Jewish community of Persia. At the same time, our thoughts turn to the foes and enemies which our people faced in every generation. In our day too the celebration of Purim must be coupled with a remembrance of the anxieties and fears of fellow Jews. The State of Israel now is especially wondering about what the victory of Hamas at the ballot box in the West Bank and Gaza portends about the days ahead. Hamas is committed to the destruction of the Jewish State and has been responsible for multitudes of terrorist acts against Israelis. Does this mean that peace negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs are at an end, and there is no hope for a resolution of the hostilities between Israel and its neighbors for the foreseeable future? Perhaps even more ominous is the rumbling rhetoric that currently emanates from Iran, the very geographical site where the events of Purim played out thousands of years ago. The leaders of this fanatical, oil-rich theocracy proclaim day in and day out their intention to demolish the Jewish State. They also deny that Jews were ever victimized by the Holocaust in World War II. The Muslim mullahs are likewise defying world opinion which opposes their determination to acquire nuclear weapons. What would it mean for Israel and for Jews elsewhere in the world if a blatantly and aggressively anti-Semitic regime were to acquire an atomic bomb? So even while we eat and drink and make merry on this Purim, let us not forget the concerns and apprehensions of almost six million of our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel who are struggling to survive in a hostile universe which rejects their very right to exist. No amount of rejoicing can change the brutal reality that Amalek still lives, that Haman still lives! On Purim, as on most other occasions in our lives, joy and sorrow remain inseparable partners.