Shushan Purim in Yerushalayim
It was Haman who cast the lottery for the day (in fact, the day before) that we have celebrated for the last 2,500 years. We did not choose that day. It was the Will of Hashem, but it was Haman’s wicked hand.
Not so the day after that – Shushan Purim.
The Gemara (Megilla 15b) interprets the word hamelech (“the King”), when standing alone (without “achashverosh”) as referring to the King of the Universe. Thus, when Esther (Hadassa) asks, “Im al HaMelech tov, yinasein gam machar la Yehudim asher b’Shushan laasos k’das hayom – If it pleases the King, let the Jews of Shushan be given tomorrow to act as they did today” (Esther 9:13), she is talking to Hashen. She is davening.
Shushan Purim was not given to us through Haman’s wicked hands, but from Esther’s holy lips.
Shushan Purim is a step up. It is more than Hashem running everything through seeming randomness. Prayer is very much a part of the equation. It is no accident that, in our time, Yerushalayim is the ONLY place in the world where only Shushan Purim is celebrated. All our prayers face Yerushalayim, the place called Beis Tefillasi – the House of My prayer.
Yes, Hashem runs the world outwardly like a random lottery. But long ago, David Hamelech praised Hashem in Tehillim, “Atah tomich goral – You support me in my goral” (Tehillim 16:5). With our power of tefillah, we have nothing to fear because אתה תומך גורלי
Source: Hamodia: Inyan, March 14
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