Purim

The Book of Esther

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Esther
Purim
The Story of Esther

Picture courtesy of www.thewordsmithblog.com

The Jewish Feast of Purim begins at Sunset tonight. The story of Purim is all told in the biblical Book of Esther. It has drama, intrigue, love, violence and the story is copyright free, so there are movies. The one I like is from 2006, “One Night with the King”. I have put a song from the movie at Lunch (Sext).

Short Summary: A beautiful young Jewish girl, Hadassah, is taken for the King's Harem, she becomes Queen Esther of Persia, and saves the Jewish nation from genocide at the hands of its archenemy - Haman.

The full story, in the Bible, is R-rated with a G-rated version in synagogues (Jewish churches) because of the children, the movie “One Night with a King” is PG-13. Jews are commanded to hear the story every year by hearing the book read or seeing it acted out with lots of booing for the villain Hamans. They have a festive meal with 3 cornered cookies (No fasting tonight). Small gifts of baked goods, wine, or other goodies, are given to friends to enhance their feasting (small gift packages involving fruits and nuts). People often dress up in costume and masks, as secret identities are part of the story, but that tradition may be set aside this year in Israel for obvious reasons. There are parties with much drinking, please stay safe, don’t drink and drive. They see to it that even the poorest in the community get to feast on this day (like we do for Christmas), it is also traditional for gifts to made to the poor at this time, a donation to your local food bank is never a bad idea.

Haman’s hatred of the Jews was the same hatred as that held, and taught, by Hamas today. Like most I am appalled by the numbers of civilian deaths reported in Gaza and I am praying for Peace. Hamas is not just a terrorist organisation it is a quasi-governmental entity that entered the war with an estimated 30,000 fighters — and, just like the Russian army in Ukraine, it has engaged in terrible war crimes. That does not excuse any deliberate killing of Palestinian Civilians and Israeli war crimes, 2 wrongs do not make a right. These two wars are now linked - Hamas is backed by Iran and Iran right now is also supporting Russia in their War against the Ukraine, where the Ukraine is clearly the Underdog. Those committing atrocities no matter which side they are on, should take note of what happened to Haman in Esther's story - Vengence is God's!

The planned genocide of Jews in Esther's time was conquered by Esther’s love and courage. One woman made a difference and stopped a genocide. We must each of us now, at this time and on into the future, stand as Esther’s in our community and not tolerate racism, discrimination and hatred of any kind but speak out against it in love.

The Full Movie "One Night with the King" is available on Youtube.