On the annual Day of Judgment, each person is judged both as an individual and as part of a nation. We live our lives not only to perfect our souls in this world but also to advance the goals of the Creator. If our personal judgments are enigmatic, then our judgment insofar as we are part of a nation is even more impenetrable. Those are the mysteries of life and are the exclusive domain of the Judge of all mankind. We can never comprehend why some lives were snuffed out by the godless forces of evil and other lives were spared. All we can do is thank Hashem for His blessings and commit our lives and resources to living in broad, historical terms and not just in the mundane matters of daily life.
The Gemara states (Sanhedrin 97b): “R. Eliezer said: ‘If the Jewish people repent they will be redeemed, and if not, they will not be redeemed.’ R. Yehoshua said to him: ‘If they don’t repent, they won’t be redeemed? Rather the Holy One, Blessed be He, will cause a king to rise over them whose decrees are as harsh as those of Haman, and they will repent and be restored to the good.”
The king whose decrees will spur our repentance is not someone like Nimrod, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, or Titus; it is someone like Haman – a Persian descendant of Amalek who harbored genocidal ambitions against the people of Israel.
Some things never change.
And some things can change. When we realize our individual vulnerabilities, the opportunities we have been given, and the great stakes before us, the moment for both individual and national teshuvah beckons.
May we all be worthy of inscription in the Book of Life, and may the current turmoil and our response to it prepare us for redemption and the coming of Mashiach.
