Just Our Luck

בס"ד

It would seem that an entire holiday based on random luck is a little ridiculous. As a matter of fact – the whole message of the intricate, hidden plots and sub plots of royal intrigue in ancient Persia teach us that there is no such thing as luck! So why then is our holy holiday of Purim called "Lottery Day"?!

To understand this perplexing conundrum let us examine the other time in the calendar when we rely on a lottery. On the (other) holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, we take two identical sheep and sacrifice them in a ritual fashion. One of them we offer as a korban olah, or ascension offering, so called because it is the highest kind of korban which rises straight to Hashem. The second sheep, we carry out of the city to a remote desert cliff where we fling it off to be ripped to bloody shreds in an apparent offering to the demons that inhabit such a treacherous and fearsome locale.

It would seem that there is no greater contrast than these two offerings which seem to represent the farthest two points on the avodah spectrum. To be "worthy" of being the korban olah on Yom Kippur should seemingly have taken a year if not a lifetime of preparation and to deserve being tossed off into the barren cliffs of Azazel would indicate a comparable time spent in total moral decay. Yet, the Torah teaches us that these two animals must not only be identical in every way but are also chosen by lots, at random! What are we meant to understand from this?!

That even within the blind, random luck, Hashem's guiding hand is always there. If we thought that the lottery of the sheep was fixed and that G-d always insured that the deserving sheep got his fate then we may mistake the world for being one in which G-d is both the director and the behind-the-scenes manager, but that luck was still possible. By taking two identical sheep we declare that even within the randomness of luck Hashem's guiding hand is never off the wheel.

And that's the message of Purim. There is such a thing as random chance. There is luck. But, as with everything else, Hashem has that under control as well. And why? Because of His incredible boundless love for us, his children.

Gosh, we should consider ourselves pretty lucky!

Happy Purim!