{Originally posted to The Lid website}
On Wednesday evening Jews all across the world will begin to celebrate the holiday of Purim which commemorates a victory of the Jews over an evil man named Haman. Haman was the royal vizier of the King of Persia. Today Persia is called Iran. Purim is the perfect holiday for most political seasons as the entire story is about people representing themselves as something they’re not.
By the way, on Purim, we read the Megillat Esther, “The Scroll of Esther,” the firsthand account of the events of Purim, written by the heroes themselves Esther (whose real name was Hadassah) and her Uncle Mordecai. Megillat Esther is where the expression ‘The whole Megillah” comes from.” (I am sorry if I ruined it for those who thought it came from the old cartoon Magilla Gorilla).
The quick version of the story is Mordecai, the uncle and guardian of a young Jewess named Hadassah discovers a plot to kill the king, he informs the royal guards and the plot is foiled and the King is grateful.
Soon after Mordecai refuses to bow down to the royal vizier Haman (Jews only bow to God). Haman is outraged at this affront and asks his boss (the King) for permission to use Persian forces to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire because they are disloyal (kind of like the anti-Semites today who believe American Jews have a dual loyalty).The king grants Haman his wish.
Haman picks the attack for the Jewish month of Adar figuring that it must be bad luck for the Jews because that’s the month Moses died (he wasn’t a great student of history because Moses was also born in Adar making it a very good month). Haman chooses the exact date (the 14th) by drawing lots (in Hebrew Purim are lots, hence the name of the holiday).
While all this was going on, the King decides to “fire” his queen because she wouldn’t dance naked in front of the King’s friends (perhaps because there wasn’t late-night cable or internet porn in those days).The King holds an empire-wide beauty-pageant to pick the new queen. Mordecai’s niece Hadassah wins and becomes the new queen adopting a Persian name Esther (to hide her Jewishness).
Skipping to the end, Mordecai tells Esther of Haman’s plot and urges the new queen to ask the king to remove his permission. But going to the king without permission can bring on a death sentence (some things in Iran never change), so first Esther asks all the Persian Jews to join her in three days of fasting and prayer before she attempts to see the King.
She enters the throne-room looking her “hottest” and the king approves her visit. The king accepts her invitation to join her for a banquet (and bring Haman). At the banquet, she asked them to join her for another banquet the next night (the way to a man’s heart….).
On night two she reveals that she is Jewish and Haman is planning to exterminate her people, which includes her. This angers the king who orders Haman hanged along with his ten sons (on the very gallows the grand vizier had built to hang Esther’s Uncle Mordecai).
According to Persian law the previous decree against the Jews could not be annulled, so the King
allows Mordecai and Esther to write another decree as they wish. They write one that allows the Jews to defend themselves during attacks. They defend themselves splendidly, the Jews are saved, Mordecai becomes the King’s new vizier–and like in most Jewish holidays…let’s eat!
Purim is a great holiday for Kids, we wear costumes and masks, and when the Megillah is read every time the name Haman comes up they use noisemakers to drown out his name.
Along with the traditional, “let’s eat,” Purim is the only Jewish holiday where we are supposed to get drunk (we are supposed to drink until we don’t know the difference between Mordecai and Haman). Which is why I suppose that on Purim Stephen Green, the Vodkapundit becomes Jewish for the day.
The other way we celebrate the holiday is to wear masks because, in a way, everyone in the story was wearing a mask:
- The king has hidden his authority and given it to Haman.
- Esther even went as far as changing her name to hide her religion.
- Mordecai not only told Esther to hide her religion but he hid the fact that he was her uncle.
- Haman’s plot to kill the Jews was hidden as well as his hatred of Mordecai.
Perhaps the biggest “hidden character” in the Purim story is God. Jews recognize that it was God who helped us emerge safely in this battle against extermination even though there were no “splitting the Reed Sea” or “stopping the sun” type miracles (not a typo, Red Sea isn’t mentioned in the Exodus story, the Hebrew is Yam Suf or sea of reeds).
Today the leaders of Persia (Iran) also seeks to destroy the Jews. This time it’s not with an army but with a nuclear bomb. And just like in the Purim story people are hiding their true faces.
- Iran hides the real intention of his nuclear program.
- The Democratic Party hides their love for haters like Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, and of course Barak Obama.
- Palestinian President Abbas hides his refusal to make peace
- The EU simply hides its head in the sand.
You may remember the famous Stuxnet computer virus that wiped out Iran’s nuclear centrifuges for a year. That virus was undoubtedly created by Israel because it was connected to Purim. The first directory inside the virus is named “Myrtus.” The person/people who developed the virus could simply be amateur horticulturists and the use of Myrtus could simply refer to the myrtle plant. But the Hebrew word for myrtle is also the root of name Hadassah which is Queen Esther’s Hebrew name.
Since Iran is the modern-day Persia (where the Purim Heroes Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai lived), and the computer virus is meant to stop the destruction of millions of Jews in Israel, the name of the file seemed to be a message from Israel to the modern Haman’s running Iran.
Another interesting parallel to today is that the king couldn’t save the Jews, he could only grant permission for the Jews to save themselves. America’s former “King,” President Obama withheld his permission for Israel to attack Iran and criticized her when Israel fought back against terrorists. But if push comes to shove, Israel will defend herself with or without permission because like in the Purim story, God may not be doing the overt miracles (and really hasn’t since the 1969 Mets), but he will be with us just as he has since Abraham left his father’s house and moved to Israel almost 4,000 years ago.
This year, Purim is also reminiscent of the 2016 race for president. Hillary Clinton was hiding the fact that she was criminally negligent with America’s secrets, and she is trying to hide the fact she lost the election. Bernie Sanders was wearing a mask to cover the fact that socialism has never worked in any country. Going in to 2018, Nancy Pelosi is hiding the fact that Americans actually like the extra money they are getting because the tax bill, Adam Schiff is hiding the fact that he is Congresses biggest leaker, and Chuck Schumer is hiding the fact that he doesn’t give a crap about America, he only cares about party.
By the way, Purim is a Rabbinical-created holiday rather than one created by God in the Torah. This means that if any of my fellow Jews try to take the day off, they are hiding the fact that work is permissible on Purim.