Give it all you’ve got!

How much is enough? How much is too much? How much is not enough?

At the very opening of the Megillah – (yup it’s next week! chabadintown.org/purim) – we read a lengthy description of the royal feast that the King threw. The Megillah tells us that the party lasted 180 days (you think you know how to party!) and “there were hangings of white, green and blue, held by cords of linen and purple wool to silver rods and marble pillars. There were divans of gold and silver on a floor of alabaster and marble [arranged in patterns of] rows and circles.”

At first glance the Megillah is setting the stage for the events that were to transpire to help us understand how it is that Esther ends up in the palace. That is, that during this feast the King gets drunk and has his wife Vashti murdered for her refusal to appear for him at the party. In her absence a new queen is needed and through the events that follow Esther becomes the new queen.

Seemingly the Megillah could have abbreviated the story and just told us that the king had a feast, got drunk and had his wife killed. Maybe we could have abbreviated the entire Megillah, “They wanted to kill us, we won, let’s eat and drink!”.

Surely, the details of the divans and floors and other decorations are unnecessary to the stories narrative!

***

Indeed the Megillah is not a book of the past but of the very present. Not only because “in every generation, they rise to destroy us” but also because the Megillah itself tells us that “these days should be remembered and reenacted”. This means that we are to internalize the messages of the Megillah and read the book in a manner that is relevant to us in the here and now.

***

If you are a King, the Megillah is telling us, it is not enough to throw a party for less than 180 days. Anything less is unkingly! If the floor at your party is not covered in alabaster or marble and your divans are not from gold and silver, then you are failing as a King to throw a real party!

The Megillah is calling to each of us and asking, are we living up to our kingly potential? Or the potential that each of us has been given from Above. If you are a writer, then write. If you are an artist then do your art. If you gifted to serve community than go and serve the community to the best of your inner potential. And if you are in a position to give, then give so much that you have accessed the deepest recesses of your giving ability.

Each of us, whatever G-d has given us, need to be like the King of the Purim story and maximize our potential. Anything less is unkingly!

So, How much is enough? How much is too much? How much is not enough?

Look inside and see the gifts that you have been given and make sure you are doing everything in His book that you can be doing so that He’ll call it enough!

Good Shabbos and Happy Purim!