Two advisors to the king are getting ready for a showdown — the town Persia is only big enough for the one of them. Haman, hell-bent on the destruction of the Jews, is besmeared with waste matter and wincing in pain by the end of this battle.
Mordecai, his Jewish enemy, is clad in purple robes, majestically seated atop the royal horse, freshly bathed and coiffed by Haman himself. The difference could hardly be more pronounced. Jewish literature contains a wealth of such embellishments. More than any other story in Jewish history except, perhaps, for Passover and Hanukkah , the story of Esther inspires further storytelling and bears repeating.
The revelry takes other forms too, from dressing up in wild costumes to watching the Purimspiel Purim play , which brings the story of Esther to life. Megillat Esther starts with the unlikely fate of a Jewish girl living in the Persian Empire. The most famous lines of the story come when Mordecai persuades Esther to go to the king unannounced, a capital offense:.
And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews… obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies… that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
Esther Thus Purim was born. Purim is so called because Haman cast lots purim to determine the most propitious date for implementing his planned genocide, but the verses about the casting of lots are brief and vague.
This is an elliptical verse. That is the lot. He cast lots [to determine] in which month he would succeed. The Purim feast is a time of conviviality and merrymaking. Fasting, mourning, and work are all swept aside on this day of celebration and revelry. Despite the apparent chaos of the Megillah reading, the Mishnah and the Talmud set down elaborate rules for the proper proclamation of the miracle. This must mean, by utterance [lit. It is not enough not to forget; remembrance goes a step further: we must fasten our minds on the history and tell it out loud.
Only then do we pay God sufficient homage for rescuing His people from the clutches of Haman. The famous Jewish commentator Maimonides placed the book of Esther on an equal footing with the Torah, as one of the imperishable books of the Hebrew Bible. His love of Purim was in no way exclusionary — rather, he stressed that all Jews should be able to take part. Whoever sends portions to many friends is praiseworthy.
And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? In Messiah, our true identities are sons and daughters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords — members of a royal priesthood. Like Esther had a secret identity, the Church may also have a hidden identity—not separate from the Jewish people—but fellow citizens and an integral part of the commonwealth of Israel. J ust like Mordechai called upon Esther to approach the king to petition him for the lives of her people, so too the Ruach Hakodesh Holy Spirit is crying out to the Church to pray and intercede for the salvation of Israel and the Jewish People from the people and countries who threaten her survival.
Today, just like during the time of Haman, the current leaders of Iran Persia are pointing their missiles and developing nuclear weapons to destroy the Jewish people in Israel. What Makes This Bible Unique? What Will This Bible Feature? What Languages Will Be Available?
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As with many religious holidays from all corners of the world, Purim is marked with a festival meal with friends, family and the community.
The feast of Purim, held in the afternoon of the holiday, is mandated in the story, too, Krasner says. Though many Jewish holidays are observed with similar meals, the Purim feast has a different feeling, Krasner says.
For most major Jewish holidays, aside from Hanukkah , the meal begins with blessings over candles and wine. After all, the plot of the Scroll of Esther itself hinges greatly on community. The cookies are shaped in their triangular way to commemorate the hat that Haman wore, according to tradition. That tradition is quite ancient, Krasner says. Of course, using poppyseeds is certainly not the only way to fill a hamentaschen cookie — chocolate, Nutella, apricot jam — the options are endless.
The New York Times even ran a savory caramelized onion recipe of the Purim cookies this week. Above all, the cultural importance of hamentaschen is largely due to the wide popularity of the taste. Write to Rachel E. Greenspan at rachel. Traditional hamantaschen cookies for the Jewish festival of Purim.
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