A Purim Torah

The verse at Esther 9:16 reads in Hebrew

וּשְׁאָר הַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בִּמְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ נִקְהֲלוּ וְעָמֹד עַל-נַפְשָׁם,

which is translated as

And the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives,

But as those who read Hebrew can see, while "Jews" is plural, the form of "stood" is actually singular.

To fight the struggle to be Jewish, remain Jewish, to be strong in faith, fulfilling the commandments, in commitment to goals, dedicated to the essence of Judaism and the Jewish people, free in our land, we need many.  We need the men, the women and the children, all in their roles as required.

But, if we are not as one in that dedication, we are not as strong and we might fail.

The many is necessary but without each one, we are, as Haman described us in 3:8-9:

And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus: 'There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they the king's laws; therefore it profiteth not the king to suffer them...

Happy and joyous Purim.

^