Rabbi Danny Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Reversal of Fortune

A common belief in ancient times, and still finding its adherents today, is that our lives are governed by a Wheel of Fortune (Rota Fortunae); one who is ‘on top of the world’ today is exchanging places with one on the bottom, tomorrow. Similarly, the Talmudic Rabbis spoke of a Galgal Chozer, an Ever-Revolving Wheel, continuously reversing fortunes, good and bad.

This is a central motif of our Purim story. Haman lauding it over Mordechai one day is humbly leading him through the streets as royalty the next. The gallows intended for the protagonist soon serves as the tree upon which the antagonist finds his end. The days the Jews are to face their demise at the hand of their enemies is instead the day of triumphant celebration over those scheming against them.

And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is the month of Adar, when the king’s command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to gain power over them, the reverse happened (ve-nahafokh hu) and the Jews gained power over their enemy …The days…which were reversed for them (nepakh lahem) from those of grief and mourning to one of festive joy. 

(Megilat Ester 9:1, 22)

In the words of the Rabbinic midrash, VaYikra Rabbah: “The world is like pump wheels whereby the full become empty that the empty shall be come full”.

Must it truly be a zero sum game?

I was watching 2 of our students playing a one-on-one basketball game. With the winning point scored, the student called out, “You lose. I win”.

In a joint study by the universities of Carnegie Mellon, Harvard and Virginia, it was found that our happiness increases when we get a raise but someone else doesn’t, but not when everyone gets the raise. We become a ‘winner’ in light of a ‘loser’.

Significantly, our Jewish tradition teaches that to fully celebrate Purim we are to attain the stage of “ad lo yada..” when we can no longer distinguish between the protagonist and  antagonist, one who needs to lose for one to win. Indeed, reversal of fortune cannot be other than a shared experience. We are partners, we win or lose together. 

In celebrating Purim of the past we, at the same time, must look to Purim of the future, beyond the narrative of either/or to both/and. As the Hasidic tradition understands “ad lo yada”, we are challenged to move beyond the limiting Tree of Good and Bad to a holistic and unifying view of collective fortune – what our ancient tradition would call The Tree of Life.