Note—Tonight at sunset begins the 14th Day of Adar in the ancient Jewish lunar calendar. Jews
the world over mark the day as Purim. The story of Esther is sort of like a soap opera on steroids
with all the sex, violence, and substance abuse you can handle. But it is celebrated as one of the
gayest and most festive of Jewish holidays.
For all of us goyim, the
story boils down to this as adapted from a blog post on the eve of
the celebration last year.
A young girl, Esther, is picked by a
drunken Persian king to be his new
bride. She keeps her Jewish identity a
secret. Meanwhile her protector and cousin
Mordecai discovers a plot to kill
the king and by informing saves his life.
The King appoints the vain and treacherous Haman as his new vizier. Haman is offended when Mordecai is
insufficiently obsequious to him in public.
Miffed, he plots to have not just Mordecai, but all of the Jews of
kingdom killed. He gets the king, who
has been participating in public drinking festivals for six months and is
perhaps a tad addled, to sign such a decree.
After sending words to the Jews of the
kingdom to join in a three day fast and prayer Esther gets the king drunk yet
again at a royal drinking festival that she hosts with Haman among the guests.
After the first night of debauchery Esther reads to the King the annals of
Mordecai’s life saving service. Then
asks Haman what boon the King should give to a man who has done him great
service. Vainly thinking she means him,
Haman says the honoree should be dressed in the royal robes and paraded before
the people on the king's own horse.
The king astounds Haman by bestowing
the boon on Mordecai and orders him to see that the command is carried out.
On the second night of the Festival
Esther reveals that she is Jewish as is her cousin and that by the edict the
king himself had signed all of her people, and she herself were marked for
death. Outraged, the king orders Haman
hung on the gallows built for Mordecai and names the Jew as his new
Vizier. He cannot revoke his own edict,
but he issues another which allows Jews to arm themselves and slay their
attackers. On the 13th Day of Adar the
planned attacks are launched but the Jews slay their attackers by the hundreds
and thousands, including all seven sons of Haman.
The Jewish people are saved and
flourish for a while in exile as never before.
Purim celebrates the deliverance
exuberantly with costumed recreations of the story, noise makers meant to drown
out Haman’s name whenever it is read in the telling of the story, special
foods, and, of course plenty of drinking and merrymaking.
The story of Esther, heroine and savior
of her People, resonates with women whether Jewish or Gentile.
Last year, by a happy coincidence, Purim and International Women’s Day
coincided. I could not help but draw
some parallels and, of course, committed poetry. This is what I wrote.
Purim/International Women’s Day
14th day of Adar 5772/March 8, 2012
Queen Esther tossed her head,
gleaming
black hair
tumbling to
those lovely shoulders
that had
enticed a lecher King.
She
laughed.
Her people, the Women of another age,
leaned
toward her
waiting her
word.
She cast her blazing eyes upon them,
laughed
again
and spoke
at last.
“So many Hamans.
Where shall we begin?”
—Patrick Murfin
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