Enemies in the Torah

Since today was Purim, I thought it would be nice to connect a new idea between Chumash and Purim (also, I have absolutely no clue what has been going on in class since I was never here so this works!) We learn the story we all know well: there is a beautiful queen, she has a pious uncle, there is a wicked man who wants to destroy the Jewish people, the queen saves the day! This tale, as simple and cliche as it may sound from a childish perspective, can really be seen as a multifaceted piece of Tanach that can be interpreted in many different and complex ways. However, the recurring theme that I see is the idea of the enemy, which can be applied to almost any story in Tanach.

Even the beginning of Bereshit begins with a story between the good and the evil, or in this case man vs. animal. The snake represents "evil" or the enemy, allowing room for stretching here, and ultimately what it comes down to is good vs. evil. Almost every story, from Yitzchak vs. Yishmael and Yaakov vs. Esev all the way through Moshe vs. Pharaoh and eventually the Jewish people vs. the variety of nations that they fight and eventually conquer throughout the nevi'im, has the classic villain. We celebrate when we conquer the villain, Chanukah and Purim, and we mourn when the villain conquers us, such as Tisha Ba'av. But perhaps we can see all of these "enemies" as a part of us that we have to conquer or our Yetzer Hara. In all of these instances, the enemy is there to present some sort of threat or opposite characteristic. It is the challenge to not give in to the enemy and stand up for our own ideas and principles in Judaism. Mordechai refused to give in to Haman and did not bow down to him, even if it did mean that he inadvertently caused the proposed plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Some may ask, why couldn't Mordechai just bow down once in order to save all of his people? Wouldn't it have made more sense to forget your principles in order to save your life and the lives of the entire Jewish nation? But I see this, as ultimately a battle between good and evil. Purim is a time where good prevails and we can see how the enemy was defeated.

Perhaps this does not connect with what we are currently learning, but if we stretch things just a tad, we can see how prevalent certain themes are throughout the Tanach!