A Purim Torah for the day:
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 and remain Jewish, to be strong in faith and belief and performance, by fulfilling the commandments in commitment to goals with dedicated to the essence of Judaism and the Jewish people, free in our land, all this requires that we need th many.
We need the men, the women and the children, all in their roles as required. And we need allies and lovers of Zion.
But, if we are not as one in that dedication, we are not as strong as we should or could be - and we might fail.
The many is necessary, true, but without each one as one, with each individual''s special contribution, we are then, 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;...
We cannot afford to be scattered - in devotion, in consciousness, in recognition of our goals.
Happy and joyous Purim.