In Shushan’s courts where ivory pillars shone,
An orphan star rose trembling to the Throne;
Hadassah, myrtle in the exile’s night,
Called Esther when she walked in borrowed light;
She hid her people’s name beneath her breath,
And danced on narrow ledges close to death,
While Heaven traced her path through foreign lands.

Mordechai taught her songs of Zion’s fire,
Of veiled decrees and covenantal desire;
He whispered, “When the Holy Face seems veiled,
The faithful heart stands armored, never failed;”
“Remember, child, in palaces of stone,
The Hidden One still claims you as His own,”
And exile’s dust concealed her shining crown.

Who walked in when the fear was high?
Esther, Esther, with a prayer to the sky.
Who stood firm when the night was long?
Esther, Esther, holding courage strong.

Haman, dark heir of Amalekite spite,
Cast lots of doom across the winter night;
The Pur fell hard on Adar’s fated day,
To drain the tribes and wipe their names away;
He inked their end in letters cold and sure,
Not fearing One whose counsels still endure,
Who weaves through plots a secret counter-scroll.

Then sackcloth stirred around the city gate,
Mordechai bowed beneath the empire’s weight;
He sent the queen the decree’s bitter word,
And all her house felt knives they never heard;
She fasted three dim days in breathless dread,
Yet rose: “If I must perish,” Esther said,
“Then let my perishing guard Israel’s breath.”

Who walked in when the fear was high?
Esther, Esther, with a prayer to the sky.
Who stood firm when the night was long?
Esther, Esther, holding courage strong.

She crossed the empty air before the king,
Each trembling step a slow, ascending wing;
The golden scepter bridged the gulf of fear,
And all the hidden hosts drew strangely near;
She wove her plea through wine and veiled delay,
Until the second feast unveiled the day,
And named the serpent feasting at her side.

The tree he raised for Mordechai’s disgrace
Became the scaffold for his own dark face;
The ring that sealed the doom his hatred planned
Now crowned Mordechai steward of the land;
A second scroll ran through the empire’s veins,
And armed dispersed hearts on far-flung plains,
Till Adar turned from funeral into song.

Who walked in when the fear was high?
Esther, Esther, with a prayer to the sky.
Who stood firm when the night was long?
Esther, Esther, holding courage strong.

So Purim comes with masks and mortal cheer,
Yet mystics taste a deeper wine each year;
They hear a queen who dared to stand alone,
And made a hidden Name her shield and throne;
They learn when Heaven’s silence veils the sky,
The faithful “yes” still bends decrees on high,
And every Esther crowns the night with light.

Who walked in when the fear was high?
Esther, Esther, with a prayer to the sky.
Who stood firm when the night was long?
Esther, Esther, holding courage strong.

Who Walked In When the Fear Was High

Achad Ha'am

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