Book of Esther Did Haman Really Try and Kill All the Jews?

Terumah 5781 – Book of Esther Did Haman really try and kill all the Jews? Today is Shabbat Zachor – the Shabbat before Purim, when we make a special point of reading the story of Amalek, and how wicked the Amalekites were, attacking us from the rear, picking off the weak and slow people who weren’t keeping up. We read this story the Shabbat before Purim because according to tradition, Haman, the bad guy in the Purim story, was a descendant of Amalek. But who was this Haman? For that matter, who was Ahasueros? What do we really know about the Book of Esther and when it was written? The likeliest Persian ruler to have been Ahasueros was Xerxes I, who ruled from 486 BCE to 465 probably comes from the same Persian word that the Greek ֲא ַח ְשׁ ו ֵ֑ רוֹ שׁ BCE. The Hebrew name rendering, Xerxes, comes from. Xerxes would also fit the likely time frame; linguistic scholars suggest that the Book of Esther was probably written in the 4th century BCE, so likely less than 100 years after the reign of Xerxes. There are court records from the time of Xerxes with officials named Marduka and Marduku that could be a source for Mordecai. There are no external records however with a Vashti or Esther. Many people thought that Esther was a variant on Ishtar, a Babylonian goddess, but a linguistic scholar challenges that idea Esther is Ishtar based on how phonological shifts work for Hebrew loan words. A leading theory for the origins of the Book of Esther is that it was written as an explanation for the holiday of Purim which Persian Jews were celebrating before the Book of Esther was written. But where would Purim have come from? For that, we have an explanation. As I mentioned earlier, linguistic experts agree the Book of Esther was likely written in the 4th century BCE – not too long after the reign on Xerxes. The 4th century BCE is nearly 1,000 years before Mohamed and the rise of Islam. Long before the Iranians were Muslim, they were Persian, and one of the most important holidays on the Persian calendar is Nowruz (no-ruse), the Persian New Year, which always falls on the vernal equinox in March – meaning around the same time of year as Purim. The ayatollahs in Iran tried, unsuccessfully, to ban the celebration of Nowruz because they saw it as a pagan holiday – it predates Islam by thousands of years. Many of the customs we have for Purim are similar to the customs the Iranians have for Nowruz, especially having a festive meal and mishloach manot, sending delicacies to friends. During the 5th century BCE, the time of the Purim story, Zoroastrianism was the official state religion in Iran. The Jews would have considered Zoroastrianism a pagan religion: there are two competing forces, good and evil. Just as Jews in North America have made Chanukah into a bigger holiday than it is in other places so as to allow us to get into the “holiday spirit” in December, Purim allowed the Persian Jews of old to have a holiday that let them share in the meals and festivities around Nowruz without being Zoroastrian. The truth is, it’s impossible to know whether there may be a true historical story at the heart of the Book of Esther. An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Regardless of what did or didn’t happen 2,500 years ago, Purim has become an indispensable part of the Jewish calendar, not just for Persian Jews, but for Jews all over the world. But why? Isn’t it, as the joke goes, the story of most Jewish holidays? “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat?” There’s much more to Purim than that. The rabbis have derived many messages from the story of Purim; there’s a whole volume of Talmud, Megillah, about the customs we celebrate on Purim, and the rabbis’ midrash on the Book of Esther – something we don’t have for Chanukah. One of the most important lessons from Purim is one we can derive from something that’s missing in the story: the explicit presence of God. God is not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the Book of Esther. Esther orders a fast of three days before she goes into the king, and it’s assumed that the people also prayed, but even that isn’t explicitly mentioned. And yet – despite the complete absence of God from the Book of Esther – we recite the al hanissim prayer on Purim, praising God for miracles and acts of redemption that He performed in those days. In the version of al hanissim we recite on Purim, it mentions Haman rising up and seeking to destroy the Jews. And even though God is not explicitly mentioned in the Book of Esther, we close the prayer with, “But You, in Your abundant mercy, nullified his counsel and frustrated his intention and caused his design to return upon his own head and they hanged him and his sons on the gallows.” From this we can see that God is with us – God is a presence helping and supporting us – even in the absence of something “supernatural.” Many Jews also recite the al hanissim prayer on Yom Haatzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, because the fact that the Jews prevailed over five Arab states who attacked us on the first day of Israel’s existence is also something miraculous. Similarly today, even though God is not making His presence known through a booming voice from the heavens, or through thunder and lightning, we can see God’s presence in the way we are dealing with the coronavirus crisis – in the acts of dedication from our healthcare workers putting themselves at risk, and in the truly miraculous fact that we have a safe and effective vaccine being put into millions of arms every day only one year after COVID-19 got on our radar. And there’s another reason Purim has been so enduring. The Jewish calendar would be incomplete without it. The annual cycle of Jewish holidays brings us through the full range of human emotions. We have times for sadness, times for reflection, time for gratitude. Purim is our time for a special type of joy, simply having fun. The rabbis teach that Yom Kippur, also known as “Yom haKippurim,” the day of atonements, could be read as “Yom k’Purim,” “a day like Purim.” How is Yom Kippur a day like Purim? The holidays seem to be polar opposites? That, perhaps, is the point. Most Jewish holidays have both a spiritual side and a festive side. On Rosh Hashanah and the Shalosh Regalim we may spend time in shul praying, but we also spend time enjoying the holidays with our friends and family. Yom Kippur is all spiritual – on the day itself we are fasting, and we are desperate to be sealed for a good year, so it’s not a festive time. Purim is all about the festive part – we even have the famous commandment to get drunk enough we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordecai. It’s easy to be spiritual and feel God’s presence on Yom Kippur when we’re fasting and praying all day. But it takes someone at a higher spiritual level to equally feel God’s presence during all the merriment of Purim – but God is equally present, if only we’re listening. Mishenichnas Adar marbim b’simcha. When the month of Adar begins, joy increases. This will be second year when Purim will not be exactly “normal,” yet may we all feel the joy of the changing of the seasons, of spring approaching, and with it, the joy of a return to our normal lives coming as more and more people are vaccinated. .

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