Adar… Pisces… Fish… Humility…
Adar is the last month in the year’s cycle its watery element depicted by the sign of the unassuming creature of the sea. A pair of fish symbolizes the written and Oral Torah and teaches us that keeping a low profile will keep us out of trouble. The Jews who could not stay away from the flamboyant festivities thrown by the pompous king Achashverosh – where the precious keilim (vessels) from the holy Bais Hamikdash were brazenly defiled to serve his bloated ego – learned this lesson the hard way.
Undercover
Purim celebrates a time of nissim nistarim (hidden miracles). Anyone who has ever entertained the slightest doubt as to whether God runs the world needs but delve behind the scenes of the sweeping saga that unfolded with the unceremonious beheading of Vashti the queen at the impulsive order of an intoxicated king. And thus the stage was divinely set for the eventual reprieve of our people who had temporarily lost their heads.
Feminists repelled by the chauvinistic circumstance that precipitated Vashti’s unseemly demise are well-advised to confront the naked truth: the granddaughter of the nefarious Nebuchadnezzar (who destroyed the first Bais Hamikdash) was subjected to divine retribution on a Shabbos for forcing her Jewish handmaidens to desecrate the Sabbath and for her determinative role in the cessation of the rebuilding of the Holy Temple.
Our heroine sets the hidden tone in the intriguing Purim megillah (disclosure). Her name in and of itself is revealing. Satar its root means hidden while the first letter of Esther the alef stands for the One Who worked His miracles in a veiled manner. From the start when a replacement was sought for Vashti Esther concealed herself. When she eventually was forced to come out of hiding she continued to keep her origin secret. Mordechai feared that the revelation of her blue blood ancestry as a relative of King Shaul would render her an ever more fetching catch for the king.
The fish representative of Pisces illustrate the unpretentiousness that was characteristic of Queen Esther. In the Talmud we are taught that blessing rests only on that which is hidden from the eye (Taanis 8b). The breathtaking out of sight panoramic setting that thrives beneath the deep blue is testimony to the virtue of modesty and private existence of the prolific fish upon which no ayin hara (evil eye) can prevail.
Darkness Dispersed
When the wicked descendent of Amalek – whose relentless goal has always been to obliterate the nation of Israel – threw lots to determine the month that astrologically would best suit his diabolical scheme to annihilate a people he utterly detested he flapped his fins with relish at the sign of Pisces. The big fish he boasted venomously will easily devour the little fish. Smugly he noted that Moses – Moshe Rabbeinu – was lost to us on the seventh of Adar. That Moshe came into being on the same day of the month and was circumcised on the fourteenth escaped hm.
The two Adars of that infamous (leap) year bode well for the Jewish populace. The lot cast by the evil Haman miraculously landed on Adar Sheini. Adept at witchcraft though he was Haman’s wizardry would be rendered ineffective during the month with no sign affiliation.
The Piscean persona is masterful at change. A natural at masquerading s/he is a slick impersonator – temperamental yet compassionate timid yet clever and ever flexible possessed of an inborn strength that can motivate one born under the sign of Adar (adirus – strength) to achieve great heights.
No fewer than 18 500 Jews ignored the admonishments of Mordechai the righteous and succumbed to the lure of the king’s elaborate feasts distancing themselves from God and their Jewish roots in the process. Mordechai and Esther epitomized by the two fish associated with Pisces instinctively nursed the transgressors back to spiritual health. Alef the first letter of Esther and the mem of Mordechai when combined spell em (mother) – as do those of Moshe and Aharon referred to in Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs) as the two sustainers who nurtured Am Yisrael.
