purim by Phillip Ratner
Sam Lehman-Wilzig – Purim: A Holiday for the Jewish People but NOT for Judaism
Despite its very festive nature, the holiday of Purim based on the Book of Esther is an object lesson of what can happen when we become too comfortable with a traditional narrative. For some, it represents the quintessence of the Jewish struggle against anti-Semitism in Diaspora. For others, it is cause for great consternation. The reason? It speaks to Jews in Diaspora everywhere – but not based on any real values of Judaism.
All human beings have an amazing ability to take a relatively objective (factual) situation and interpret it in several ways, sometimes completely contradicting each other. As someone once said: “Variety is the spice of life.” But as we all know, sometimes spices can be very “hot” – burning us in the process of ingestion. In other words, one story can have two extremely different interpretations. This is especially true of the past.
Take Purim – one “strange” story. For some Jews, a narrative of national pride; for others, the source of deeply queasy feelings. The standard narrative is well known. Indeed, it is the classic basis for the Jewish trope (and joke): “What’s a Jewish holiday all about? The Gentiles tried to kill us; we fought back and won; let’s eat…”. Haman tried to manipulate King Ahaseurus into decreeing the destruction of the Jews, Esther devised a plan to turn the tables on Haman and succeeded, the Jews killed their Persian enemies, and we Jews celebrate to this day by eating and drinking ourselves into a stupor (the only day of the Jewish calendar when drunkenness is permitted). Kids celebrate by masquerading, adults by gorging on “hamantaschen” (in Hebrew “oznei Haman” = Haman’s Ears), and a good time is had by all.
So, what’s not to like? Well, when read a bit more closely, the Purim story is a complete travesty of Jewish ethics and commandments! Esther, an orphan, is brought up by her “uncle” (or cousin?), and when the king decides to find a new queen through a “beauty contest” (in the king’s bedchambers) of all the country’s virgins, she joins!! There is no mention in the Book of Esther of any attempt to hide, run, or otherwise get out of this unseemly competition. Put starkly, Esther is willing to have sexual relations before marriage, and with a Gentile no less. Then when she wins the competition, she actually marries the Gentile king!!! When was that ever condoned in Judaism? Indeed, in Jewish Law there are only three transgressions that prevent the saving of life – one of them, illicit sexual relations – so how does Mordechai even suggest that all this happened to save the Jews??
The Rabbis came up with all sorts of convoluted “explanations”, e.g., Esther was actually married to Mordechai (!?!) and didn’t consummate anything with the king (??); or, she would go to the mikveh (ritual pool for cleansing) before having relations with the king, and then again when she snuck out of the palace to have relations with Mordechai (again – her guardian and close relative). I am not making this up – the Talmud’s Rabbis actually put forth such speculative “interpretations”.
Not as egregious from the standpoint of Jewish Law, but quite unJewish nonetheless, is Mordechai’s self-aggrandizement in the concluding sections of the megillah. We are asked (actually commanded) to repeat every year the heroics of Mordechai (“the great man”, as the megillah puts it) – a book that he ostensibly wrote himself! Whatever happened to Jewish modesty?
Which of these two main narratives is correct – the traditional one representing the Jewish Diaspora experience through the ages (trying to successfully fight anti-Semitism), or a highly problematic “outlier” in the Biblical canon? I offer these two points as food for thought – and a possible answer.
First, where did the names Mordechai and Esther come from? The ancient Mesopotamian gods Marduk and Ishtar!! In other words, not only is the behavior of our “hero” and “heroine” reprehensible (by Jewish standards), but their very names suggest that they are not acting Jewishly.
Second, other than the Song of Songs (a love poem), the Book of Esther is the only other book in the entire Bible where God’s name is not mentioned! The Almighty was obviously quite embarrassed by this narrative.
So why did the 2nd century rabbis include the Book of Esther in the biblical canon? First, by then it had become a very popular holiday among Jews, especially because it enabled them to “compete” with Christianity’s “Carnival”, itself based on ancient pagan festivities at this pre-Springtime of the year. Masquerade, parades, drinking – it’s all there in both religions.
Second, and probably more germane, with the destruction of the Second Temple a century earlier, the Jewish people were faced with the “Diaspora problem”: how to survive outside the Land of Israel in a religiously hostile environment. The Book of Esther might not provide a universal “solution”, but it certainly was a source of morale-building for Jews in that predicament.
Yet the Rabbis weren’t fooled. From a purely Jewish religion standpoint, the Purim story makes a mockery of Jewish values. If I had to guess, maybe originally Mordechai (or whoever else wrote the book) had God’s name in it, but the Rabbis at least had the sense to remove the Almighty from this Judaic travesty. Certainly, the ensuing two millenia showed that Diaspora Jews were willing to give up their lives for the sanctity of their God and religion (kiddush hashem), or to move away from those countries that were too anti-Semitic for proper Jewish life.
Haman is definitely a dangerous figure that Jews would have to face time and time again in their Diaspora. Esther and Mordechai, thank the Lord (who stayed out of this story), were not the behavioral “answer” to that sort of menace.
To read more articles follow this link Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig (PhD in Government, 1976; Harvard U) taught at Bar-Ilan University (1977-2017), serving as: Head of the Journalism Division (1991-1996); Political Studies Department Chairman (2004-2007); and School of Communication Chairman (2014-2016). He was also Chair of the Israel Political Science Association (1997-1999). He has published three books and 60 scholarly articles on Israeli Politics; New Media & Journalism; Political Communication; the Jewish Political Tradition; the Information Society.
