So, we’ve been celebrating Purim. Officially it began Saturday at sunset and continues until tonight (Monday) at sunset, but since I volunteer in an educational setting, we celebrated it all last week and then had Sunday off for the holiday. Purim is a celebration of one of the times God saved his people from utter annihilation. The whole story is recorded in the book of Esther (or rather, the Scroll of Esther, called the Megillah). Beth Moore has a wonderful guided study of Esther, which I highly recommend to you all!
Traditionally, the whole Megillah is read at Purim. I’m just going to summarize it for you here, but you really should go read the whole thing. The details are amazing! When it’s read aloud at Purim, every time the bad guy’s name, Haman, is mentioned, you hiss and boo, and twirl your noise-makers with great gusto. (According to wikipedia, this is to blot out his name – I think we did it mostly because it’s fun. ;-)) Ready? (Then I’ll tell you how Purim is celebrated here :))
So, the Jews had been taken captive several generations before a girl named Esther was born, then freed to return to the Promised Land. However, many stayed in Persia, integrating in somewhat (we know this since Esther was able to hide her Jewishness), yet still mostly distinct (since there was clearly a prejudice against the Jews). Esther was born “Hadassah”, and lost both her parents young. Her uncle, Mordecai raised her, and she was “lovely in form and features”.
After losing a war and feeling a bit disgraced, the king of Persia, King Xerxes threw a huge party – a six month long feasting-and-partying party for all his officials from his entire empire (which was huge)! Well, at the culmination of all this partying, he had all the guys together in the throne room and called for his queen, Queen Vashti to come show off her beauty. There are lots of theories as to why, but whatever the reason, she refused to come. Well, bad enough for a husband to be embarrassed like this in front of his buddies, but how much worse a king before his subjects, right? He was furious and asked his advisors what he should do. Following their advice he expelled Vashti (I’m thinking it could have been worse, right?). Anyway, he went off to war (I think with Greece?).
When he got back from war, it seems he was a little sad without Vashti, so his attendants suggested he hold a beauty contest for all the virgins in his empire, so he could pick a new queen. Hadassah was one of these girls. The young ladies were collected to the palace in Susa and put under the charge of Hegai, the king’s eunuch. Hegai liked Esther right off the bat, and he showered her with gifts. She kept her Jewishness a secret, because Mordecai (her uncle who raised her) told her she must, hence the going by her Persian name, Esther. All the girls had to go through a year’s beauty treatments before going in to the king, and Mordecai came to visit Esther all throughout the year. When the king met her…viola! What do you think? She of course was chosen to be the new queen.
One day as Mordecai was sitting by the king’s gate, he overheard two of the king’s officers who guarded the door plotting to assassinate the king. Mordecai told Queen Esther and she reported it to the king. After an investigation found it to be true, the conspirators were hanged and the whole incident recorded in the king’s daily record – but Mordecai didn’t receive any award or recognition or anything…
So, while all this was going on, another man, Haman (boooo!!!) was working his way up in the palace courts. Eventually King Xerxes promoted him higher than all the other nobles. He decreed that everyone had to bow down to Haman (hssssss), and pay him honor. But Mordecai refused to bow. The other people tried to persuade him, but he would not budge, and so they told Haman (booo) about it to see what he’d do “for [Mordecai] had told them he was a Jew”. Apparently Haman’s (hssss) anti-Semitism was no secret.
He was furious that Mordecai would not bow, but having learned that he was a Jew, he did not want to kill just Mordecai, but his entire race. So, he hatched a plan…he told the king that the Jews did not follow the laws, and it would be best to destroy them. King Xerxes (I can all but see him shrug his shoulders), gave him his signet ring and told him to, “do with the people as you please.” Haman (booo) cast lots, which is like rolling dice, to decide which day to carry out the annihilation. The lot he used was called the “Pur” – plural: “Purim”…and it chose the month of Adar, 11 months out. So “dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and little children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.” Holy threat, Batman! And really? Destroy, kill, AND annihilate? One verb wasn’t enough, eh? :-( After the edict was sent out “the king and Haman (ick, yick, yick!) sat down to drink.” Really? Just like that.
Anyway, so Esther and Mordecai and the rest of the Jews from India to Egypt were understandably upset. Mordecai told Esther that she needed to go plead with the king for their salvation, but there was a problem. The law said that no one could come to the king unless he sent for them, and she’d not been sent for in over a month – and the penalty of approaching him unbeckoned? Death. Only if, when you came into the court unsummoned, if he lowered his scepter (that big stick kings have) to you would you not be put to death then and there. And he had not called for her in over thirty days; you’re figuring she might be feeling a bit unwanted, yeah?
But Mordecai was not going to let up. He said, “Look Hadassah…” Okay, he probably didn’t say that, but something like that probably…he followed that up with: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Don’t you just love the faith he has? He knows it’s not Esther who will or will not bring deliverance. . .)
Esther probably straightened her spine and took a deep breath before responding, “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” So her uncle obeyed her and they all fasted and prayed for three days (and somewhere in there she also prepared a grand banquet).
When she went before the king, he did put out his scepter and saved her life. Not only that, he greeted her with, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.” Talk about a blank check from the king! But, really, ladies, don’t ever ask your husband to admit he was wrong and to change his mind on some huge decision in front of his employees, or friends, or whoever.
Esther was smooth as silk. She didn’t make her request to change the law or whatnot, but to come to the banquet she’d prepared for him, and to bring Haman (booooo) along. He agreed (who wouldn’t?!), and they came to dinner. Afterward, he turned to her again, “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.” But did she come out with it? Certainly not!
Lots of people speculate as to why she didn’t at that point. But the reason that seems most likely to me is that either when she’d been in the three days of fasting, or right at that moment, God told her to hold off. He had some stuff planned for the next 24 hours that needed to happen before her request was brought up.
So, check out what happened between that banquet and the one the next night.
Haman (hsssss) went out all fat and happy and proud that he was the only one to dine with the king and queen…and then he saw Mordecai and totally let this one little thing of one single man in all the kingdom that wouldn’t bow down to him rob his joy. He went home and bragged to his family and friends all about how great he was and how rich and powerful and all of this, and then ended it by complaining about Mordecai. Zeresh, his wife had a great idea. Why not build a huge gallows, 75 feet high (by the way, the name Mordecai means “short”. What’s with a 75 ft. gallows to hang a 5 foot man?), and in the morning, go ask the king to hang Mordecai and then go to dinner with the king and queen and stop your whining. She probably said it just like that, eh? ;-) He thought it was a grand idea, and ordered the gallows to be built.
Well it just so happened (cough), that the king couldn’t get to sleep that night. He asked for his attendants to read his daily logs to him (nothing like the minutes of meetings to put you out, eh?). And it just so happened (ahem) that they read the part of the record about Mordecai reporting the assassination plot. King Xerxes asked how he’d been commended and found out he hadn’t even been sent a nice thank you letter. So, apparently this tossing and turning and reading and discussing went all the way through the night and into the morning, because just as Xerxes found out Mordecai had not been rewarded, he heard footsteps in the court and asked who was there. And it just so happened (sniff) that it was Haman (bleaaaah) coming to ask to have Mordecai hung on the gallows he’d just had built!
So, the king thought it’s great timing that his head official has arrived just as he needs some advice and asked, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” And Haman (Arrrrr) thinks, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?” and he answered by basically advising the king to make a fancy parade in his honor. He’s all smug and whatnot until the king says it’s a great idea and says, “Go at once…and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew”!!! (You should go read the details of what happened then, because it makes me laugh every time…anyway)
So, after all this happened in those twenty-four hours, the king and Haman (booooo) went to Esther’s second banquet and the king asked again, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.” And Esther FINALLY answered:
“If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”
Well of course it came out who was behind the plot, and instead of Mordecai being hung on the 75 ft. gallows, Haman (hsss) was hung instead and his job given to Mordecai and his estate to Esther. And a second law was passed that Jews in every city could assemble and protect themselves and plunder the property of their enemies on the day that was meant for their destruction. And not only did they not get killed, but many people of other nationalities became Jews, too! And the Jews took it upon themselves to establish the custom to celebrate the anniversary of this day as a holiday: Purim, because it was the casting of the “pur” that had determined the day. Mordecai and Queen Esther confirmed the idea, and so it is still celebrated to this day.
Modern Purim:
So, I don’t know how Esther and Mordecai celebrated with their friends, but this year in Haifa, I celebrated with my friends in a few ways. First of all, by eating way way too many Hamantashens (direct translation: “Haman’s ears” Ew, right? But nono, they’re delicious. :)).
Then by sorting through my closet to create a makeshift costume. I found a wrap-around skirt that became a cape, and then fashioned a dress, leggings, and boots into the rest of a super-hero costume and came flying out of my bedroom into the living room to show my concoction to my roommate.
She was elated and we decided to go as the “Dynamic Duo”! A couple days later and we both had wigs and masks from a nearby convenient store (Purim is big here, and pretty much everywhere has some kind of costume paraphernalia. :)) I adorned just the cape and mask for the Purim party at Shema on Thursday – at which we solved a murder mystery! And then got the whole costume together to visit Beit Evenezer (the retirement home our congregation is connected with) and for the Purim party that night.
The next day I met up with a friend downtown for the Purim parade and street party. It kind of seemed to me like a mixture of Halloween and Mardi Gras, though without the spooky element of Halloween and more mild than Mardi Gras (although I was hanging around where there were children, so who knows. ;-)) There’s loud music, dancing, food, and costumes of EVERY shape and size imaginable. Of course there were lots of little Disney Princesses, comic book heroes and cartoon characters, and cats of every kind (lions, leopards, etc.), but there were lots of inanimate objects walking all around, too – human-sized magic markers and whatnot. It was quite fun, but I can hardly wait for Passover in just a few more weeks! :-)
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