Weekly Torah Portion

I’m not usually a gambler. But when we planned a high school production and left one scene in the script blank for the ninth-grade actress to improv as she saw fit…I started to wonder if my appetite for risk had grown a bit too large and if the stakes were maybe just a bit too high for the play director (me) to let her literally make up her lines live on stage. Despite some misgivings, we kept the script blank and allowed her to perform freestyle.

Why did I do it? I like to think of myself as a responsible adult, yet here I was, allowing one student to totally improv a whole scene in a play representing a young school trying to make a good impression. What was I thinking?!

I’ll tell you. I  was thinking that when it comes to acting, this girl is good. Really good. And we worked on an outline; a strong outline mapping out what had to happen in her scene in order for the play to progress properly. With her talents she was able to truly get into character and take our outline to the next level, speaking, singing and interacting with the audience in a way that would have been more difficult had the lines been perfectly scripted and memorized accordingly.

When Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, found herself in the palace of the king of Persia, in a forced marriage to a man with a very different value system than hers, she must have been confused, perplexed and scared. She had no way of knowing why Hashem placed her there or what would happen next. But she had an outline. It was by following that outline, utilizing our shared Torah wisdom, that Esther had the courage to do what had to be done in very difficult circumstances.

The Torah acts as a guidebook. Although it does not give us an explicit script, it does serve as an outline that we, the greatest improv actors ever, can use to ensure we speak lines that will serve us well in the future. This is, of course, with the Director’s instructions on how to move the plot forward.

We don’t always know what to expect in the next scene; often I can barely figure out how the current scene will conclude. But I know that the Director put me here because He trusts me. He knows that I am good. Really good. And using the outline He gave me, I can be the star of the show. In referring to our Torah as an outline of what I need to do next, I am propelling the plot towards its final conclusion, a scene that is unquestionably good.

My best moments are when I remember that if the ultimate Director placed me here, it is because He knows that I can. Here’s wishing you a beautiful Shabbos, a joyous Purim, and ongoing belief in yourself.