Where is Queen Esther When we need her? Why Purim is relavant today.
There has been much media coverage this week about the showdown between Israel and Iran. This is not the first time in history when Iran threatened genocide against the Jews.
Today is International Women’s Day. It is also the Jewish holiday of Purim. As the real life story line of life plays out in the news this week, it contains enough twists and turns and ironies to make one believe that some supreme power is having a hand in its design.
Often thought of as a children’s holiday or the “Jewish Halloween” where kids get to dress up in costume, Purim holds many grown up lessons about speaking out against bullying, standing up for oneself and most importantly, to take threats of annihilation – especially if one nation threatens to wipe out another nation – very seriously.
If you are not familiar with the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim, or you see Jewish children dressing up and think it must be a springtime Halloween for Jews, here is a video to fill you in on the story:
Another coincidence in time and news events this week is how much Iran has been in the news on the week we celebrate women. Iran has some pretty abysmal standings for women’s rights. However, it is also on this day that we celebrate the courage of one woman living in ancient Persia, circa 6th Century B.C.E. It was Esther, who, encouraged by her uncle Mordechai, was picked in a beauty contest by King Achashveros, made queen, and revealed her Jewish identity in the nick of time to reveal Haman’s plot to kill her people.
Death. Gallows. Wearing Sackcloth and ashes.
Wait. Wait! This is supposed to be a happy holiday! In fact, right after I write this post, I’m going out to celebrate and deliver baskets of food, or mishloach manot, to my friends and neighbors.
Purim is a joyous holiday because the outcome could have been so sad.
The story dramatically flips from certain annihilation to redemption and defeat of the enemies of the Jewish people.
Does this scenario sound relevant to this week’s news? Of course it does.
Eerily. this year’s Purim celebration comes on the heels of the 2012 Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The centerpiece of the week’s AIPAC agenda: the increasing Iranian threat of this country’s nuclear capabilities. The potential for another Holocaust. Israel’s right as a sovereign nation to stop this threat.
If the news of the week plays out like a Purim play, brave Mordechai, Esther’s uncle who knew somehow ahead of time that danger was coming to the Jews, was played by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We all know who is playing the evil villan Haman.
Time and time again, Bibi has warned the United States just how serious the situation with Iran has become. Israel should not have to wait for permission from another country to determine their survival or destiny. This is the cornerstone of why Israel exists, for Jewish survival. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been warning the world for 15 years now on the dangers of Iran developing a nuclear missile. The media call him impatient on wanting to act instead of talking.
Is waiting for 15 years for action impatient?
And as far as the part of the foolish King Achasverous? Well, that would be our president. President Barak Obama.
I did vote for him. And because I cannot stand the rest of the Republican platform stands for, I guess I’ll have to vote for him again.
President Obama this week said to AIPAC the US doesn’t have the stomach to get involved in another war in the Middle East. This week he claimed that he has seen too many consequences of war. It is he who must sign letters to the families of deceased American soldiers.
You know what, President Obama? Israel doesn’t want war either. Because in Israel, everyone serves in the army. In Israel, unlike the here in the US, the bomb shelters are just a little more visible, a little more a part of day-to-day awareness in Israeli society. They are not some dusty, outdated Cold War shelters. Ask a resident of Modi’in, where there is a safe room in every apartment. And school.
And Israel does not want to hurt the people of Iran. Ironically, the largest Jewish community in the Middle East resides in Iran. The Jewish community in Iran is said to be between 25,000 and 35,000 people.
So hopefully, maybe, maybe, the sanctions will work. When we pray, we pray to frustrate the plans of our enemies, not to see them die. Just this week, the Ayatollah said he would allow U.N. inspectors into some of Iran’s “secret” military installations. But then again, the Nazis in 1943 allowed the Red Cross into its Theresienstadt concentration camp to show the world how well they were treating the Jews.
Are we really going to be that nieve again when evil stares us in the face?
Once again, gallows are being built in Persia for the Jews. But they are also being constructed for us, the US.
Just as Modechai warned Esther as she sat pretty in the castle: don’t think that just because we are sitting an ocean away, in our proverbial American castle, that we will be safe. Now is the time to act.
So, I ask again, where is our Queen Esther when we need her?
Under the Purim Moon in Israel – 2008
It was just St. Patrick’s Day in America this week. I couldn’t help but notice all the people decked out in green, so publicly and outwardly showing their Irish pride. People were wearing the green and donning shamrocks in schools and restaurants and supermarkets.
Strangely enough, this visible expression of pride in one’s ethnic identity reminded me of the revelry and costumes of the people of Israel as they celebrate Purim. Purim is a story of kings, queens, and villans. A holiday of reversals. A holiday of masks, costumes, and feasting. And like St. Patrick’s Day, there is some drinking involved too!
In America, Jewish holiday celebrations take place mainly inside synagogues and Jewish community centers. But in Israel, the planet’s only country with a Jewish majority, all Jewish holidays spill onto the streets and shops. And Purim in Israel is one big nationwide party. A party celebrating a victory over wickedness that could hold true today. There was a wicked man in Persia back then that we defeated. There is a wicked man in modern-day Persia, or Iran now. Both of these men pledged to destroy the Jewish people. One wicked man defeated. Many more to go.
What could have been a day of great sadness for the Jews turned out to be a day of great joy. And, we are commanded to be joyous, intoxicated even, on Purim. So drunk in fact, that on Purim in Israel there are special parades called Ad Lo Yada, meaning in English, “That you Shouldn’t know,” meaning on Purim you should be so happy (drunk) you should not be able to distinguish between Mordechi or Haman (boooooo!). Friend or Foe.
Last night I looked up and saw the Supermoon. While this moon was indeed one of the fullest full moons I had ever seen, it did not surprise me that there was a full moon. Purim, always falls under a full moon in March. Or, more precisely, the 15 of the Hebrew month of Adar.
As I gazed at this body of luminescence, I took a deep sigh and reminisced about where I saw it three years ago. 
This was the moon I saw hovering over Jerusalem’s Yemin Moshe neighborhood. Okay, from my amateur photo, it was not as big as the supermoon, but it was special all the same.
I thought about all I saw and ate and felt when I was in Israel. I thought about the people who opened their homes and families to me who hardly knew me. I thought about waving the American flag in a Purim Parade and listening to the cheers from the people along the route. I thought about the traffic jam I got caught in. The reason for the traffic jam? Israelis were clogging the streets because they were delivering baskets of Purim food to their neighbors. That’s the kind of country Israel is – one big family.
Then, I caught a bit of CNN’s Piers Morgan’s interview with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During commercial breaks, the same old images were shown to the world of Israel: The Kotel, The Dome of the Rock.
Excuse me, Piers, but you were in Israel during PURIM!
Are these tired images all you really can show about Israel? Must Israel always be covered with conflict in the backdrop? If you got out on the streets of Tel Aviv or Modi’in or Jerusalem, if you could do one sidebar story, you would have wandered the streets and been treated to the following faces:
Halvah for sale for the Purim Feast
my friend's brother, decked out for Purim, celebrating with a feast at his home
teen girls dressing up and having fun in Tel Aviv
mom and kids wait for bus outside of old city, Jerusalem
Will showing these images make Israelis seem just too normal, too human for media coverage? Would it portray Israel too much for what Israelis are, a people who love to live, who love to celebrate?
Until the media in America show photos like this of Israel, I’ll just have to share my own. And I’ll be taking more. Because we just booked our next trip for this December. Even though it is the first day of spring, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can’t wait until the winter.
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