Power can intoxicate not only the powerful but those around them. Just three weeks ago, I attended a political function at which then-Governor Spitzer appeared and offered remarks. He was greeted with the expected oohs and awe, and I admit that I myself was tickled to meet him. (I had actually met him once before at a law school function where his erudite, notecard-free address left me duly impressed.) And now! How much can change so quickly.
Perhaps there is a positive message here, another truth demonstrated by Megillat Esther: Even the direst situation can turn around in the blink of an eye. What (and who) seems fixed in place one day may be uprooted the next; what’s up may come down, and down up. True in politics, and true in life. The Jewish people can attest to that. And this Purim, we pray for our own miraculous upheaval – the fall of those trying with all their might to destroy us, and the ascent of true Jewish leaders in the model of Mordechai and Esther.