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The Jewish holiday of Purim begins tonight: escaping destruction — 42 Comments

  1. In Don Delillo’s novel “The Names” the main protagonist is an American living in Athens who is required by his job with an insurance company to travel extensively around the Middle East and southwestern Asia. When someone in his circle of American expat friends returns from a trip in the region he always asks him (or her), “Are they killing Americans?” in the country the returning traveler has visited. It becomes an obsession for him. Also he and his expat friends talk about what happens to Americans when “the men with the three-day beards” come for you.

    That’s what came to mind when I saw that photo of the supposed perpetrators of the massacre.

  2. Are there any contemporaneous soirces of when purim occurred in persian records

  3. DeLillo’s “The Names”: haunting, enigmatic, utterly original — unforgettable.

  4. Le Mot Juste,

    Totally agree re “The Names.” Also: “spooky.” Other descriptive phrases that come to mind: existential dread, awe, deep mystery.

    One reviewer described it thus: “DeLillo created a mystery he couldn’t solve.” I think that’s an accurate assessment.

    It’s a masterpiece.

  5. IO49:

    Worthy additions! It was a peak of my 1980s fiction, along with “Blood Meridian” (talk about dread!) and “Perfume: The Story of A Murderer” (talk about originality!).

  6. Boy, I’ve tried to read the “Book of Esther” several times. The exposition is a killer! But tonight I got through it. I recommend neo’s link for a summary:

    https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645309/jewish/What-Is-Purim.htm#What

    Morally t’s a tough book too. Haman is clearly the bad guy ordering the extermination of all the Jews. Mordecai mobilizes the Jews to repent. Esther persuades the King not to exterminate the Jews and hand over vengeance to the Jews.
    _______________________________________

    The other Jews who lived in the king’s provinces also assembled to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies. They slaughtered 75,000 of their opponents. But they took no plunder.

    –Esther, 9:16
    _______________________________________

    I’m glad they took no plunder, a refrain in that chapter. But geez. 75,000 slaughtered plus another thousand or so too.

    But the Jews would have been exterminated otherwise.

    I don’t mean to project my values back in time. I’m glad the Jews survived. But is that the choice? For the Jews to survive they must kill all their implacable enemies?

    It may be.

    I am boggled.

  7. Jewish tradition has it that Haman was a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag. King Saul had been ordered by God to utterly destroy the Amalekites (who had in a previous generation launched an unprovoked attack on the Jews). But Saul had mercy on Agag and did not kill him and his family. Samuel took care of killing Agag and dethroning Saul for his misplaced kindness, but Agag’s offspring evidently escaped, which led a few centuries later to Haman. Seems like a lesson for today when Israel is being pressured to be merciful to the Gazans.

  8. Esther’s story has long been one of my favorites from the Jewish scriptures.
    It’s deeper than the surface tale most of us know, and there are ark-loads of commentary on it.

    Here is one of the observations of the Rabbi linked by Neo —
    “In the Babylonian Talmud we find the following statement: Rava said, “One is obligated to drink on Purim until one doesn’t know the difference between ‘cursed be Haman’ and ‘blessed be Mordechai.’” … Is Rava really saying that we should drink to such a state of intoxication? Isn’t that dangerous?”

    I am not a rabbi, nor do I play one on television, but perhaps there was some recognition that Purim commemorates a time when, after Haman’s death and Mordecai’s elevation in honor, it was (relatively) safe for Jews to get inebriated to insensibility.

    As the saying goes: “They hated us; they tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat.”

    https://religionnews.com/2022/10/03/they-hated-us-they-tried-to-kill-us-an-old-joke-becomes-a-yom-kippur-message/

    And no Jewish holiday is complete without the Maccabeats.
    An Encanto Purim – The Maccabeats (We Don’t Talk About Haman)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjmLkEcaUAA

    The lyrics are included in the Youtube post.
    They actually do a pretty good job of telling the story.

    If you wondered what’s up with the dancers in the highly anachronistic tri-corner hats, it’s because of the traditional Purim pastry, hamantaschen, the story of which is linked to in Neo’s first link.

    https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/2872815/jewish/The-History-and-Meaning-of-Hamantaschen.htm

  9. Le Mot Juste:

    Upon reading “Blood Meridian” I was moved to write a letter to Cormac McCarthy telling him how great it was. To my surprise Cormac replied, sending me a letter in which he chatted about writing that novel, writing in general, and what he was at the time working on. (It was the Border Trilogy). A very gracious letter. I had the letter framed and it is now hanging on the wall above my writing desk.

  10. huxley, so often we modern folks, either Jewish, Christian, or agnostic/atheist, fail to realize that life is not all rainbows, and that sometimes harsh times call for harsh measures. It was true in ancient and medieval times, and it’s still true, although we like to pretend otherwise.

  11. Ok, just downloaded “The Names”. Getting on a plane this evening. I’ll start it then.

  12. Today would be Palm Sunday–well, some still attend a Christian service of some kind–but most do not. I used to carry a little palm cross handmade for Palm Sunday service and given to everyone in church.

    The women of great power in Seattle deliberately destroyed my church (Episcopal) and most other Protestant churches fell quickly after. The destruction of faith was begun by the Communists and carried out by the feminists. Now, many believe that this country is much better off with a system of ethics that both Jew and Christian once shared. We can see the MSM start to put out the sentences that read something like this: “Christianity caused so many problems in the US”. Just to make sure no one will vote for an ethical choice–only blindly follow the women of destruction.
    I grieve for the loss of Protestant churches. Jews should too.

  13. Amalek are the quintessential non-believers. These “Darwinian” nihilists dwelled in the desert and attacked the weak, imitating animals in nature.

    When the whole world was awed by the Exodus – Amalek attacked Israel, in open challenge to belief in G-d.

    Amalek are thus implacable enemies of Israel – the nation whose story proclaims G-d’s kingdom.

    This is why Haman casts lots to pick a date – to assert that this world is random and without a plan or Guide.

    This is also why the Book of Esther unfolds in a series of unpredictable coincidences – which to the believer are not coincidences but G-d’s hand… To underscore this choice of perspective – which each of us must make – this is the only book of the Jewish Bible in which the name of G-d does not appear. Coincidence or salvation?

    This also explains the command to “get so drunk that you cannot distinguish between wicked Haman and righteous Mordecai” – because beyond the believer’s efforts, beyond human wisdom and strength, all is ultimately in G-d’s hands.

  14. Well. I hope all Jewish observers of Purim had a delightful, inebriated evening.

    Anne, I helped make palm crosses last week. They made a video of my fingers folding them, in case the skill is forgotten in the future. Anglican, not Episcopalian any more. There are parishes in the Seattle area.

  15. Just read the essay that sdferr posted at 1:48. It’s very interesting, and very well written, if you have 15 minutes or so.

  16. Mike Plaiss:

    Stick with it. On the surface it seems like a normal story, with nothing much happening. But it sneaks up on the reader. You need to stay alert, watch your 6. Suddenly it will have you, the thing from Nietzsche’s abyss. You’ll find that you have, without knowing it, strayed into a strange and dangerous realm, one like no other.

  17. IO49:

    ‘I had the letter framed and it is now hanging on the wall above my writing desk.’

    TRES cool. How shocked and delighted you must’ve been. Envy, c’est moi! I recall lending the novel to a close friend, who soon after returned it unfinished; too dark, too oppressive — too powerful. (I’ve experienced similar reactions from friends for another uncompromising work of art: Peter Matthiessen’s ‘Far Tortuga.’)

  18. Le Mot Juste:

    I was indeed shocked, in a very good way, and delighted beyond measure. Still am. In Blood Meridian Cormac did things with language and storytelling that I had never before encountered, and have not encountered since. I firmly assert that it is one of the greatest all-time English language literary works.

    From time to time I come across articles about the possibility of making Blood Meridian into a movie. I sort of hope that never happens. It would take a genius of a director — and a genius of a very unique kind — to present the story cinamatically. It would take nerves of steel for the director and producers to make a film that’s faithful in every respect to the novel, to McCarthy’s vision. Billy Bob Thornton failed, albeit honorably, to do so with “All the Pretty Horses.” Likewise the Coen brothers with “No Country.” “The Counselor” and “Child of God” merit no comment.

  19. perhaps the man behind American Son, about the bandit wars in texas, Phillip Meyer, although it could probably only be a limited series like AMC, it had piers brosnan as the patriarch of the series thats just spitballing here,

  20. I haven’t seen the others, or read the novels, but I will defend No Country. I had read the book first and though I have some reservations about the film I think it was one of the most successful film adaptations of a novel that I’ve seen.

    Some reservations are intrinsic to the problem of filming a novel. Others are somewhat subjective: I didn’t think the actor who played Chighur was as scary as he should have been. Etc.

    The novel itself is a pretty rare achievement: very effective as a thriller while impressive in literary depth and quality.

  21. I think they did a reasonable turn, they adapted true grit effectively, but there is something about the menace of chigurh, that can’t be conveyed ‘something wicked this way comes’ like the Stand’s Randall Flagg but real, McCarthy
    ‘s last two offerings are more esoteric in a way

  22. huxley, so often we modern folks, either Jewish, Christian, or agnostic/atheist, fail to realize that life is not all rainbows, and that sometimes harsh times call for harsh measures. It was true in ancient and medieval times, and it’s still true, although we like to pretend otherwise.

    Kate:

    As I said in my comment: “I don’t mean to project my values back in time.”

    But 75,000 is a lot of people even today. I’ve heard summaries of Esther in church, but not that 75,000 number. It must have been a horrific undertaking. I presume it included women and children.

    I understand times were even more brutal then. I don’t question the likely necessity of the choice. I’m just devastated that that was the dilemma those Jews faced then … and still do.

    The horror of being human.

  23. One of the things the ancient Empires did was to disperse conquered people, to remove them from their ancestral land. Makes it easier to destroy old borders and build an empire.
    Modern Multiculturalism ( and Anti Wester Civilization/ Anti white) and open borders is a modern version of it for globalist to build a new empire.

  24. Ben David, thank you for the insights you shared. I’ve studied the Megillah many times, but some of the ideas you presented were new to me and thought provoking.
    I would love to read elaboration on your final paragraph – I didn’t fully understand the connection, and it sounds like there’s a satisfying idea in there struggling to get out. ?
    I am going to a Purim Feast, and my hosts asked me to bring some words of Torah. I’ll use yours – thank you!
    Happy Purim!

  25. that is a fascinating way of looking at it, yes Mordecai must rely on his own strength,

  26. “…because beyond the believer’s efforts, beyond human wisdom and strength, all is ultimately in G-d’s hands.”

    So much for AA…
    (In fact, I think that kind of reasoning—sorry, faith—pretty much blows all 12-step programs to smithereens…unless, perhaps, they reformat and present themselves as God’s helpmeets, etc., etc….)

  27. well consider the purpose of the adversary,

    https://thewildolive.org/1peter5_8-10-deal-with-roaring-lion/

    it wasn’t that long ago, maybe two generations ago, that men and women knew this by heart,

    we worshiped the Creator and acknowledged his works, not the converse, there were many times when the Arrogance of Man during the Flood, when the Tower of Babel was built,
    (although it may not have happened exactly this way, according to archaelogy) the historical record is unclear,

  28. A guilty pleasure of mine is tracking the collapse of Disney / LucasFilms into woke/broke. They’ve just released the trailer to their latest offering, “The Acolyte” TV series, which is a prequel to Star Wars. The trailer is getting ratioed (likes divided by dislikes) so badly, the trailer video no longer displays the number of dislikes.

    –“The Acolyte | Official Trailer | Disney+”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtytYWhg2mc

    It is an all-woman production. The creator/writer/director is Leslye Headland, (formerly Harvey Weinstein’s assistant) is a self-declared queer and wanted to make a show that would have made her feel better as a queer child. Her elevator pitch was “Frozen meets Kill Bill.” It’s about the deep love between two sisters (what??).

    One must wonder what the Disney folks are thinking. It doesn’t seem to be about the bottom line. Disney is already blaming toxic male fans for the future box office disaster.

  29. Barry Meislin – I see no contradiction between faith in G-d’s guidance of the world and 12 step work. On the contrary – the first challenge for many 12 steppers is to surrender attempts to control people and situations. These programs immediately introduces a Higher Power to which ultimate control is surrendered – even as they assert honest self knowledge and taking responsibilty for action.

  30. ” ‘Al Jazeera’ deletes fabrication of IDF rapes in Gaza hospital;
    “The story, which went viral on Arabic social media, accused Israeli soldiers of raping Palestinian women during the IDF’s ongoing operation in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.”—
    https://www.jns.org/al-jazeera-deletes-fabrication-of-idf-rapes-in-gaza-hospital/

    Guess they figured the “story” did sufficient damage and could be pulled…
    Wonder if they expect any gratitude…

  31. Re: 1 Peter 8-10 / Roaring lion

    miguel cervatnes:

    As it happens, there is a lion reference in Esther, at least in the Catholic Bible, which jumped out at me. I can’t find it in the King James.
    _______________________________________

    22 “Lord, do not relinquish your scepter to those who are nothing. Do not let our foes gloat over our ruin, but turn their own counsel against them and make an example of the one who began this against us.

    23 Be mindful of us, Lord. Make yourself known in the time of our distress and give me courage, King of gods and Ruler of every power.

    24 Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and his co-conspirators may perish.

    25 Save us by your power, and help me, who am alone and have no one but you, Lord.

    –“Prayer of Esther” (Esther 4, Chapter C)
    https://bible.usccb.org/bible/esther/4

    _______________________________________

    I am a word guy and if I am ever on the spot before the Lion, I too pray for persuasive words.

    In this case the Lion is the King of Persia, not the Devil. Keep in mind, though, that Esther is risking her life to bring this up before the King.

    If anyone knows why this appears in a Catholic Bible, but not the KJV, I’d be curious to hear.

  32. ChatGPT-4 to the rescue. Blame it on the Bossa Nova or the Council of Trent.
    __________________________________________________

    The difference you’ve observed between the Catholic Bible and the King James Version (KJV) is due to the inclusion of the deuterocanonical books in the Catholic Bible, which are not present in the Protestant Bible, including the KJV.

    The Book of Esther in the Catholic Bible includes additional sections that are not found in the Hebrew Masoretic Text, which is the basis for most Protestant versions of the Old Testament. These additional sections, known as the Additions to Esther, are part of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The “Prayer of Esther” is one of these additions and is included in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles but not in the Protestant Bibles.

    The Additions to Esther were written in Greek, and they include several prayers, a dream of Mordecai, and other expansions of the story. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) affirmed the inclusion of these deuterocanonical books in the Catholic canon, while the Protestant Reformation led to their exclusion from the Protestant canon. This is why the “Prayer of Esther” appears in the Catholic Bible but not in the King James Version.
    __________________________________________________

    Chat is good when one is interested in the intersection of two issues. I could have gotten there with Google (and tried) but Chat was so much quicker.

  33. Huxley, does your Esther prayer research leave you with the impression the Protestant’s rejection reflected honest differences of opinion about its religious validity or value, or more simply a case of Catholic Derangement Syndrome as the Reformation continued to gain steam?

  34. R2L:

    I’m out of my depth, but my impression is that Protestantism was, among other things, a rejection of Catholic elaboration and in some cases corruption of the base Christian message found in the New Testament.

    So going back to the Hebrew Masoretic Text makes sense from that viewpoint.

    I have no dog in this fight. I am not knowledgeable enough to have an opinion. Plus in many ways I feel both sides take themselves too seriously. I’d like to hear more about love and Jesus and less about how one is supposed to believe and worship.

  35. I never heard of these interpolations in the Book of Esther. However the Talmudic legend describes Esther saying Psalm 22 when she enters the palace – due to the idols there she feels G-d’s presence desert her.

    In that Psalm it first refers to enemies as dogs, then as lions. First she called Ahashuerus a dog, but then repented, and because he was a king after all, she called him a lion.

    This may parallel the interpolations.

    There are several instances where the Christian bible repeats legends or phrases that appear in Aramaic rabbinic-era texts later than the Jewish Bible canon.

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