WHICH ERA IS MORE SPECIAL?

It was late at night and I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. When it just wasn’t happening, I decided to share my thoughts with Mendy who was lying in the top bunk. Mendy is two years older than me. He looks very serious but I know him well and know that at certain times he can be mischievous too. Unlike everyone else, I call him Mendele.

“What a pity that I wasn’t born in a special time,” I suddenly said.

“Like which?” asked Mendy, looking up from the book he was reading.

“Ummm, like the time of the holy Avos or maybe Moshe Rabbeinu in Mitzrayim. I don’t know exactly, but some historic time that everyone dreams of and tries to picture how it was and what else happened then.”

“The truth is,” said Mendy after a moment of silence, “that I never gave this any thought. I think it would be interesting if we were able to find a way to visit a historic time of the Jewish people.”

“You know what?” he asked, after another moment, with a glint in his eyes, “I have an idea. It will soon be Purim and I once heard that the dreams you dream at night are about what you think about during the day. Let us try and think really hard about the time of Mordechai and Esther in Shushan HaBira and then maybe we will dream that we are there and we’ll see exactly what went on there!”

“That’s a super idea,” I enthused quietly so as not to wake up my mother. “If we think of the same thing, maybe we’ll meet in the dream. So good night Mendele, Chassidishe dreams …”

“And Purim’dik,” he answered.

Right before I fell asleep, I noticed that Mendy was busy reading a book about Shushan. I suppose that by reading, it upped the chances of his dreaming about it.

When my dream began, I found myself in the center of an unfamiliar city. I was so disappointed. I had so hoped to find myself in Shushan, the capitol of Purim, uh, sorry, of Achashverosh, um, no, actually Persia, if I’m not mistaken.

I looked to the right, left, and right again, but did not see the Shushan I knew. This city looked altogether different.

I decided to ask someone where I was and was surprised to discover that he understood Hebrew! Okay, in a dream, everything is possible.

“You don’t know?!” he asked in amazement. “This is Shushan!”

“Then why don’t I recognize it? I guess the pictures in the story books, from where I knew of Shushan, were not at all accurate.” The stranger had no idea what I was mumbling about and walked on.

I waited for a few minutes where I was, in the hopes that Mendele would show up. When he did not appear I realized he was immersed in his book about Shushan and he was not asleep yet.

I went to look for a Jewish home with a mezuza in the doorway. It was late evening, a little earlier than when I had gone to sleep. After a little wandering around I finally found a house with a mezuza. I hoped they would open the door, despite the late hour. I knocked hesitantly. Inside I could hear sounds of approaching footsteps.

The door opened and a person looked at me quizzically. I said, “Hello, I am Berel and I came to visit Mordechai.”

You probably don’t understand how I knew that their son’s name is Mordechai. It’s very simple. Just like with us, everyone has a Mendy, by them everyone has a Mordechai. Mordechai’s father did not ask me anything. He just brought me in and called loudly, “Mordechai, your friend came to visit you.”

I went to the children’s room and Mordechai, a Shushan child my age, welcomed me with a smile. I looked right, left, and right again, and couldn’t get over it. Mordechai looked at me and did not understand what so surprised me.

“Everything is so ordinary! I was sure that in the Purim era everything would be unusual, special. How can this be?”

“In whose era?” Mordechai asked.

“Look at your clock,” I said, pointing at the clock on the shelf while ignoring his question. “Aside from the fact that it contains sand and has no hands, it looks altogether ordinary. It doesn’t have golden sand or any magical dust. It’s just a plain clock. Your era seems quite ordinary!”

“True,” said Mordechai in astonishment. “What did you think? That in Shushan things are strange? Of course everything is normal!”

“Then how did you have the strength to withstand Haman HaRasha’s evil decree and not convert in order to save yourselves?”

“Ah,” smiled Mordechai, “That is in the z’chus of the Jewish neshama within us and in the merit of Mordechai HaYehudi. What, you haven’t heard of Mordechai, Nasi Ha’dor?

“But if you are talking about a special time,” Mordechai continued, “I always dream of a time long in the future, the time before the Geula. That is definitely a special time, just what you’re looking for. If only I could live or visit that era. In a time like that, every good thing that you do completes the work of the Jewish people throughout the generations and is what leads to greeting Moshiach.”

I listened open-mouthed to what Mordechai said and was struck by a realization. He was right! My era is special! How did I not realize that until now? The time I live in is the time that children throughout the generations longed to live in! So I don’t need to sleep in order to visit a special era. On the contrary, I need to open my eyes, wake up, and realize what a special time this is.

“It’s good that Mendy didn’t fall asleep yet,” I thought in my dream. “I will tell him my thoughts after my visit to Shushan.”

When I woke up in the morning Mendy asked me with a smile, “So how was Shushan? Do you want to dream about it again tonight?”

“No,” I said in all seriousness. “I’d rather live in our special era and dream that in the merit of me and you, the era of the Geula shleima will come immediately.”