Today, March
10, is an important Jewish holiday. Purim, which began at sunset last night, celebrates
the fifth century B.C.E. victory of the Jewish people in Persia thanks to the
boldness of Queen Esther. Purim has been celebrated by Jews around the world from
that time until the present.
Who Was Esther?
Hadassah was a
Jewish girl living with many other exiled Jews still residing in Persia. When
she was a teenager, Xerxes (known in the Bible as Ahasuerus; reigned 486~465) was the king of Persia and
resided in Susa, the capital located in the southwest part of the nation we now
know as Iran.
After
Hadassah’s parents died, she was adopted by her cousin Mordecai, who had an
important position inside the king’s palace.
After King Xerxes
flippantly sent his wife, Queen Vashti, away, he then called for the most
beautiful virgins in the land to be gathered for his pleasure. Hadassah was one
of those chosen for the king’s harem. Mordecai advised his beautiful teen-aged
daughter to hide her Jewish identity by taking the Persian name Esther.
(To learn more
about Esther, I recently read the 2019 historical novel Hadassah: Queen
Esther of Persia by Diana Wallis Taylor. It was a good read depicting what
Esther’s story might well have been. For a well-done nine-minute summary of the
book of Esther, I recommend this YouTube video
produced by Bible Project.)
What Did Esther Do?
Haman, the scheming high official and Jew-hater in King Xerxes’ court finagled
a plan that would have killed all the Jews in the Persian kingdom. By that
time, Esther had been chosen by the king to be his new wife—but she still had
not revealed her Jewish identity to him.
Soon after the edict to exterminate the Jews had been signed, Mordecai pleaded
with Esther to go to the king and beseech him to spare her people—even though it
might mean she would be killed for her boldness in going to the king without
his bidding.
Mordecai then speaks the best-known words in the book of Esther: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for
such a time as this?” (4:14, RSV).
Esther determines to do as Mordecai suggested, and declares, “I
will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish”
(4:16).
King Xerxes not only received Esther into his royal presence,
he also acceded to her pleas for the Jewish people in the kingdom. On the day when
the Jews were supposed to be killed, they were victorious over their attackers—and
Haman and his ten sons were all killed.
Because of Esther, the Jews in fifth-century B.C.E. Persia were saved from
destruction, and Jews around the world are joyfully celebrating that deliverance
today.
Why Is Esther Important Now?
I understand why the Jews celebrate what Esther did and why the book that
bears her name is in the Jewish Bible. I have more trouble understanding why the
Christian Bible contains the book of Esther—other than that Jesus was a Jew and
read the Jewish Bible.
Neither do I understand how some people last year likened DJT and his
daughter Ivanka to Queen Esther.
During Purim last year, the U.S. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo told CBN
News (see here) it is very possible that President Trump is a modern-day
Esther poised to defend Israel and save the Jewish people. And a headline in a January 2020 article in The Times of Israel proclaimed, “Ivanka Trump is the
New Queen Esther.”
Given the state of Israel’s military strength and their ongoing
mistreatment of the Palestinian people of the region, though, it seems farfetched
to see Israel desperately needing the kind of assistance Esther gave to the
Jewish people of her day.
In thinking about Israel or the United States, it is highly
unlikely that Yahweh/God chose DJT and
his daughter “for such a time as this”!
However, it may well be that we, and people around the
world, are living in such a time as this to work together to protect the lives
of millions of people from the growing danger of global warming, the great challenge
of this decade, the topic of my first blog post of 2020.
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How history plays out is interesting. A few unknowns rise to prominent glory. Most never do. Some are evil, some are righteous. Providence, vision, hard-work, and the-luck-of-the-draw all play out. Neil Diamond had an insightful song, "Done Too Soon", which, like the book of Ecclesiastes, puts the roll of life and death into perspective. One of my favorite plays is "Star Queen", on the life of Esther.
ReplyDeleteHappy Purim! The festival prophesied to continue throughout eternity.
Thanks, Tim, for your thought-provoking comments. I don't remember ever hearing the song by Neil Diamond, and found it quite interesting -- and, indeed, related to one of the main points of Ecclesiastes.
DeleteIt seems to me, though, that the point of Esther is just the opposition from the emphasis in Ecclesiastes of everything being pointless or meaningless (vanity). Esther's action was not pointless, for now nearly 2,500 years later she is still being celebrated as having saved the lives of her people.
Here are comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for reminding us about the Feast of Purim. I need to send greetings to my Jewish friends.
The book of Esther is controversial. It is the only book in the Hebrew scriptures not found in any form among the Dead Sea scrolls nor is it cited anywhere in the New Testament. It may have been excluded because it makes no mention of God or Jewish religious practices and it includes an enthusiastic description of the slaughter of the enemies of Mordecai and the Jews. But it was a popular book and ultimately included in both the Jewish and Christian canons, although Luther wished that it had never been written.
"To compare members of the Trump family to the characters in the book of Esther strikes me as particularly ludicrous."
Thanks for your comments, Eric--and for the information about the book of Esther being in the canon of the Bible. While it is true that the book never mentions God, one of the things I enjoyed about the novel "Hadassah" (which I mentioned in the article) is her prayers to Adonai (the Lord God) and her repeated references to her faith in Adonai.
DeleteOne of the main reasons I do not particularly like the book of Esther is because of what you referred to as the "enthusiastic description of the slaughter of the enemies" of the Jews. Not only were Haman, his ten sons, and hundreds of other Persians killed in Susa; in addition, according to Esther 9:16 the Jews also killed 75,000 Persians throughout the kingdom.
Esther is one of my favorite characters, and the encouragement that one was born "for such a time as this," is an important counter to hopelessness and futility whether it is found expressed in the Bible or the result of listening to the daily news. Having had the opportunity for a number of years to interpret the Seder for Passover for an English rabbi visiting Seinan into Japanese for the theological faculty, students and families, I grew to appreciate the point in the Seder when you dip your finger in the wine and make wine droplets on your own plate. This symbolizes that the destruction of one's enemies is still never without sadness, and we reduce our joy (wine) by taking out some of it to remember the loss that our enemies suffered, even when it was to the advantage and literal salvation of the Jewish slaves. Thank you for the timely reminder of Purim. We are having dinner with Jewish friends tonight.
ReplyDelete[corrected]
DeleteThanks for your comments, Lydia. It was good to hear from you again--and it was helpful for you to explain the meaning of the Seder.
While it is commendable for people to remember that "the destruction of one's enemies is still never without sadness," the destruction of their enemies is still destruction. While I admire Esther's courage and positive action to save her people in Persia, I have trouble wanting to celebrate the killing of so many Persians by the Jews. Sure, it may have been a situation of kill or be killed--but there may have been a third way that could possibly have been devised.
Yes, we always need to be seeking that third way. And yes, your point is one of the hardest parts of the Bible to deal with and interpret. Even if I have moved past the need to justify the actions of ancient Jews as people of faith, war and slaughter require an interpretation.
DeleteI think that Jesus never mentioned one of my favorite books in the Hebrew scriptures--the Book of Job.
ReplyDeleteA couple of days ago I was pleased to receive the following comments from my grandson David:
ReplyDelete"Jena and I went out to eat to celebrate International Women's Day a couple of days ago. We were discussing women we looked up to and admired, and I mentioned Esther was near the top of my list. I have always admired her bravery and faith. Have you ever done anything to celebrate Purim or thought about it?"
Here is my email response to David:
ReplyDeleteDavid, I was delighted to hear from you and I was happy to hear your comments about my blog article on Esther yesterday. I was impressed that Esther was "near the top" of the women you admired . . . . While I certainly have great admiration for Esther--and the historical novel that I read (and mentioned in the blog article) even increased that admiration--I am not particularly impressed with the celebration of Purim and have never done anything, or thought about doing anything, to celebrate it. It has long been said by some Jews that to properly celebrate Purim one must "drink to the point of not knowing the difference between Haman and Mordecai." I'm sure, though, that many Jewish people do not do that, although some likely do.