Hope you’re having a great day.

We just celebrated Purim.

Now on to Passover!

And this Torah Minute is about both.

… It’s something I shared at the CTN Purim celebration.

There happened to be a number of Jews from the formerSoviet Union.

And when I see such Jews taking part in Jewish life?

It gives me “goose bumps”!

Because that empire set out to destroy Judaism.

And we have outlived the Soviet Union!

… Here’s what I said.

I mentioned that there is something unique about the Megilla that we read on Purim.

It does not have G-d’s name in it!

Not what you expect from a book of the Jewish Bible.

And I told a story.

… A high Kremlin official makes a surprise visit to a potato farm.
He says to the supervisor, “So how is the potato crop this year”?
“Sir.  It’s unbelievable.  A real bumper crop.  If we would pile up all the potatoes?
It would literally reach G-d in heaven”!
The official is taken aback.
“Excuse me.  Don’t you know?  This is the Soviet Union!
We’ve outgrown that childish idea.
Here we know that there is no G-d”!
The supervisor looks the communist official right in the eyes and says.
”It’s okay.

Because there were no potatoes”!

… It’s true.

There is no mention of G-d in the Megilla.

But there is also no Ancient Persia.  No Babylonia.  No Greece.  No Rome.

And no Soviet Union!

Because G-d really was in the Purim story.

He was just working behind the scenes. 

… It’s also something to think about as Passover approaches.

The Seder is a great time to think about the miracle of Jewish survival.

About the great empires that tried to destroy us.  And are gone.

Because G-d has always been involved in Jewish history.

He promised that we would be an eternal People.

And He made it happen.

Which is the only way to explain the miracle of our survival!

All the best,