Reflections on/of Purim

Yes, I do realize Purim was a week ago, but we still need a column on Purim, because, well Purim is amazing. It does seem like a fairy tale. Kings, beautiful orphan girls becoming a queen (without needing a glass slipper) and a evil toad Amalekite, fancy dress balls and lots of chocolate.

Two easy fun ways you can become familiar with Purim if you don’t know what the big deal is. A cartoon, cartoons are usually good.

OR your can see this very cool memegillah. It’s the story of Ester told in memes,  like Facebook. I must say, the kitten ones are very cute, as are the squirrel ones. I thank Y.B. for steering me to this.

http://memegillah.tumblr.com/

A couple of interesting points I learned from reading this year. When King Achashverosh commanded Queen Vashti to come to his six month long party celebrating that the temple would never be rebuilt, he didn’t just say, “Hey, it’s a happening party babe, come on over”. Nope, I just learned he commanded her to come wearing her royal crown. Nothing else, just the royal crown. I have sympathy for Vashti. Till I read further and find out she is the granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar who had conquered Judea and destroyed the Holy Temple and convinced King Achashverkerchoo not to allow the Temple to be rebuilt. The party was to celebrate that the Temple would never be rebuilt. Sympathy for Vashti now =0.

Hamen, he was a decedent of the Amakalites. So there may be some historical reason behind evil Haman’s hatred of Mordachai. He initially offered King Achashverkerchoo money to be allowed to kill all the Jews. King Achashverkerchoo said “naw, good plan, you can do it for free”. The king is no hero.

The king can’t just “undo” his order to his kingdom to kill all the Jews and seize their property. No, that takes ANOTHER special memorandum. I chewed on that one. Without the government permission slip saying Jews were allowed to defend themselves they were just going to be slaughtered. Wow. Life was cheap to King Achashverkerchoo, at least Jewish life. The UN must be a descendant of King Achashverkerchoo because they don’t believe that self defense is a human right either.

So G-d worked through Mordachai and Esther to save the people because they were willing to do as he asked.

And the Temple? King Achashverkerchoo and Esther had a son, Daryavesh, (Darius). Daryavesh commanded the Temple be rebuilt. HAHAHAHA! Take that King Achashverkerchoo!

So that’s my reflections ON Purim.

But wait, there’s more.

In a recent newspaper column Hamass claimed murder of pieceful palestinians is part of Purim.

He added that the “settlers” celebrate their Jewish holidays by performing “horrible crimes of murder with the support of the occupation government and military commanders” and that there is a rabbinic “blessing” which “permits murdering and executing every Palestinian without discretion.”

The column tells us that the attacks in Ankara were committed by a terrorist that had followed the Israeli tourists from the time they left the hotel.

This column warns that Jews & Christians have been warned by Turkish police:

Jews and Christians are believed to be the target of the terror organization’s future terror attacks in the country. The warning comes just a week after three Israelis were murdered in a terror attack that took place in Istanbul, which was carried out by an ISIS terrorist.

And as we know now, there was a horrible bomb blast on Easter directed at children on a playground.

Antisemitism is on the rise in Europe and campuses across the US, often masquerading as Boycott Divest & Sanction.

Yes, the spirit of wicked Hamen is still alive and doing well, doing very well indeed.

A refection OF Purim I would say.

But it is a column about Purim, I don’t want to leave you on a down note. So think about your costume for next year, remember “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat. “ and enjoy this.

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6 thoughts on “Reflections on/of Purim”

  1. I really liked this piece. More like this please.

    By way of appreciation and agreement I would add that the G-d of the Jews is not helpless and there are NO coincidences.

    “The UN must be a descendant of King Achashverkerchoo”

    Maybe so but I would venture that the UN and the nwo go all the back to the tower of babel days which was the original one world order. G-d had said go and subdue the earth NOT build a one world order as a single nation and all hang out together. so, G-d confounded the language and scattered the people creating the nations. Last I heard this directive (my word) has not be rescinded. Many dictators and empires have tried to bring babel back together. The UN is simply the latest violation of nations sovereignty. Unschooled, humble, personal, opinion.

  2. My further understanding of this issue is that the people wanted to build a tower to show how great they were and how they no longer depended on G-d to take care of them. In this instance,
    G-d mercifully chose to scatter the people by confounding their languages.
    In another time, the people wanted a king of their own. G-d knew that He was their king, but he chose to let them have their childish ways, and allow them to have a king from among themselves. Since that time, it has been obvious that people will chose to have someone rule over themselves, even when it goes against their best interests.
    As always, Sheila, thank you for a wonderful piece. I look forward to many more thought provoking and enlightening posts.

      1. I like your’s too. I just have to add my unneeded opinion. I have a problem with leaving good things alone.

  3. Not Jewish, but as a Christian I have read the story of Esther a number of times. This however is the first time I have ever seen it correlated with the freedom to bear arms. Very interesting.

  4. Thanks guys! It seems to be the goal of some humans to want to be on the same level as G-d. I guess it was the original attempt at nwo.

    Esther is interesting. It really doesn’t talk about G-d much, but you still know he is there. He is working through Esther and Mordachai, and this a good lesson for me. G-d does work through people, so I want to suit up, show up and do what he puts before me.
    Even if sometimes it is small things, it’s if I do it to the best of my ability. He still works through people.

    The Jews have a long history of weapons control being inflicted upon them to prevent self-defense, this is but one saga!

    Thank you so much for the compliments, they are very appreciated!

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