The Purim Story Is Full Of Political Intrigue And People Representing Themselves As Something They’re Not
On Monday evening, March 6, Jews worldwide will begin the celebration of the holiday of Purim.
Purim commemorates the victory of the Jews over an evil man named Haman who wanted to wipe them out. Purim is a different kind of holiday for many reasons. The biggest difference is that Purim is a holiday for political junkies…it’s full of political intrigue and people representing themselves as something they’re not— just like politics.
On Purim, we read the Megillat Esther, “The Scroll of Esther,” the firsthand account of the events in Persia long ago. It was written by the heroes themselves: Esther (whose real name was Hadassah) and her Uncle Mordecai, who raised her as if she was his daughter.
Megillat Esther is where the expression “the ganseg megillah” (the whole Megillah) comes from. Sorry for you cartoon fans. While it sounds similar, Megillat Esther has nothing to do with that old cartoon Magilla Gorilla.
Purim occurs during the Hebrew month of Adar. Haman decided the attack should happen during the Jewish month of Adar. He thought Adar was perfect, it must be bad luck for the Jews, because that was the month Moses died.
But like most people of the evil persuasion (and the mainstream media), Haman was too lazy to do his research. If he had done the research, he would have realized Moses was born in Adar, also. Therefore, Jews believe Adar is a great month. The expression Jews use is “When Adar comes, joy increases. That’s Joy as in happiness, not as in one of the hosts of The View.
The quick version of the Purim story is Mordecai, the uncle, and guardian of a beautiful young Jewess named Hadassah (nothing creepy happened between the two). Mordecai discovers a plot to kill the king and informs the royal guards. The plot is foiled, and the King is grateful.
Soon after he saved the king, Mordecai saw and refused to bow down to the royal vizier Haman. Jews only bow to G_d. Haman was outraged at what he believed was the affront of not getting a bow. He asked his boss (the king) for permission to use Persian forces to kill all the Jews in the Empire.
His excuse to the king was that the Jews were disloyal (kind of like Rep. Omar’s comment about Israel supporters having a dual loyalty), one of her many anti-Semitic tweets and statements. Despite her Jew-hating statements, Omar claims she supports American Jews and Israel. In Feb. 2023, Omar masked her public behavior. She co-sponsored a resolution “recognizing Israel as America’s legitimate and democratic ally and condemning antisemitism.” In other words, she was representing herself as something she was not.
Back to Purim, the king grants Haman his wish.
Haman chose the exact date for the massacre in Adar by drawing lots. That’s how the holiday got its name (the Hebrew word for lots is Purim). The day he drew was Adar 14.
While Haman was designing his evil plan, the King decided to “fire” his queen because she wouldn’t dance naked in front of his friends. There wasn’t late-night cable or internet porn in those days, and it was hundreds of years before “me too,” so I suppose they didn’t have anywhere else to go.
To fill the empty queen job, The King holds an empire-wide beauty pageant. Mordecai’s niece Hadassah wins the pageant and becomes the new queen. She changes her name from Hadassah to Esther, a Persian name to hide her Jewishness.
Skipping to the end, Mordecai tells Esther of Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews and urges the new queen to ask the king to remove his permission. The problem with Mordecai’s plan is that trying to see the king without permission can bring on a death sentence. Today’s Persia (Iran) is still big on death sentences. Some things in Iran never change.
To support her dangerous mission, Esther asked all the Persian Jews to join her in three days of fasting and prayer. So she walks into the king without having her head on a platter.
Three days later, Esther enters the throne-room looking her “hottest.” The king approves her visit. Her “ask” for the king was that he accepts an invitation to join her for a banquet and bring Haman too.
During the banquet, she asks them to join her for another feast the next night (as the saying goes: the way to a man’s heart….).
On night two, she reveals that she is Jewish, and Haman plans to exterminate her people, including her. The king was so angry at Haman’s plans he went outside into the garden to cool off.
When he returned to the feast, Haman got onto the couch with Esther so he could beg for forgiveness, but the king thought he was doing something else. He angrily asked Haman, “Will you rape the queen with me in the house? This was an affront the king could Not forgive.
The king ordered Haman hanged along with his ten sons on the very gallows the grand vizier built to hang Esther’s Uncle Mordecai. Even though the king sent Haman and his sons to swim with the gefilte fishes, the story doesn’t end there.
According to Persian law, the approved decree against the Jews could not be annulled. The King came up with a solution. He issued an order allowing the Jews to defend themselves against the attacks. They protect themselves splendidly, the Jews are saved, and Mordecai becomes the King’s new vizier!
You know that old line about Jewish holidays, “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat”? The line for Purim is slightly different, “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s drink.” Purim is the only Jewish holiday where we are supposed to get drunk. We’re supposed to drink until we don’t know the difference between Mordecai and Haman. As with all other days except for Yom Kippur and Tisha B’av, Jews are allowed to eat also (just ask their mothers).
Purim is a great holiday for kids. The kids don’t get plastered, only the adults. But the part of Purim the kinder (children) enjoy is another traditional way of celebrating the holiday —wearing costumes and masks (not the COVID-type of masks). The kids enjoy wearing their costumes and seeing their parents look goofy in their costumes (like the one above).
They also get to annoy their parents more than usual. During the reading of the Megillah, every time Haman is mentioned, the congregation uses noisemakers to drown out his name. Sadly, for parents, the kids usually take those noisemakers home and use them continually.
The reason for the costumes is, like politicians, all the major characters in the story hide who they really are:
- The king hid his authority and gave it to Haman.
- Hadassah changed her name to Esther to hide her religion.
- Mordecai told Esther to hide her religion, and he hid the fact that he was Esther’s uncle.
- Haman’s plot to kill the Jews was hidden, as well as his hatred of Mordecai.
Perhaps the most significant case of hidden identity in the Purim story is G_d. Jews recognize that G_d helped them emerge safely in this battle against Haman’s extermination plan. But the Big Guy Upstairs isn’t mentioned in the Megillah. Jews know G_d was behind the victory despite the fact he wasn’t mentioned. That’s not an unusual occurrence. Look at many recent miracles where the only way we know that G_d was involved is that it wouldn’t have had the same result without some heavenly help. Just look at the creation of a Jewish State after almost 1,900 years or how nascent Israel defeated the militaries of the Arab League nations, which were bigger and more powerful than the IDF. Look at the biggest miracles since Moses led the Jews out of Egypt—the NY Jets winning Super Bowl III.
Today just like in the Purim story, politicians hide their real faces.
- The leaders of modern Persia (Iran) seek to destroy the Jews. This time it’s not with an army but a nuclear bomb, but they claim they aren’t building one. They even claim that the Supreme Leader issued a fatwa against building nuclear weapons.
- Palestinian President Abbas hides his refusal to make peace.
- Russian President Putin tells his people that the invasion of Ukraine is a peacekeeping mission.
There are many other examples of politicians not representing themselves as what they really are:
- The mainstream media portrays itself as reporting the news in a balanced way, but they hide who they really are. Their coverage generally skews to their personal political positions.
- In many cases, politicians hide their real positions by campaigning with one position but changing that position once they finally get into office.
Just like today’s politics, the Purim holiday is full of political intrigue and people representing themselves as something they’re not. The holiday’s lessons for today include not blindly trusting politicians of any party without researching to see if their words are nothing but masks.
The most important lesson is whether you see him or not, God is always there.
