Happy Purim!

THE STORY OF PURIM

Let’s travel back in time to the Persian Empire during the 4th century BCE to the luxurious and bejeweled palace of a powerful but very easily influenced king named Achashverosh. (He’s thought by many historians to be King Xerxes I.) 

King Achashverosh had an advisor who was very clever and very cruel named Haman and a wife who was very confident and very self-assured named Queen Vashti. King Achashverosh also loved throwing lavish parties. 

At some point during a 180-day-long feast, King Achashverosh got remarkably drunk with some friends and asked Vashti to come before him in her crown (some say in only her crown and nothing else) to entertain the men.

Queen Vashti refused and King Achashverosh decided to banish (or in some versions execute) and replace her, but he didn’t want to replace her with just anyone, though. He wanted to find the most beautiful woman in all of Persia. So he held a kind of mandatory beauty pageant, which he enacted by sending messengers to round up the most beautiful women in the land, and said that the winner would become his wife.

Esther was an incredibly beautiful young woman who lived in Persia. She was raised by her cousin Mordechai, who was the leader of the Jewish people there. When Mordechai heard about this beauty contest, he knew Esther would be forced to enter, and he encouraged her to keep her Jewish identity a secret (he was worried for her safety, because, well, people have been prejudiced against Jews for a very long time).

Amazingly, she won!

Less amazingly, that meant she had to become the queen and live in Achashverosh’s palace.

Mordechai wanted to keep an eye on Esther, so he hung out around the palace. In the meantime, Haman, the cruel advisor, decided that he was super important and that when he walked through Shushan, the capital city where they lived, everyone would have to bow to him.

Mordechai refused, since Jewish people don’t bow down to anyone but God. Haman got incredibly angry and decided that, since they wouldn’t bow to him, all the Jewish people in Persia should be killed.

He convinced King Achashverosh that this was a good idea, and then they cast lots—purim in Hebrew—to choose the date that they would all die.That day ended up being the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar.

Mordechai, due to his penchant for hanging around the palace, found out about this plan and told Esther she has to reveal to King Achashverosh that she was Jewish. Shockingly, King Achashverosh and Queen Esther had a good relationship, and she also buttered him up by preparing not one but two whole feasts to get even more into his good graces When she told him that she’s Jewish, he got mad at Haman for wanting to kill her and her people.

The Jewish people were given the okay to fight back against the soldiers that Haman marshalled against them, and they won. Haman was killed instead, hanged on the very tree he had prepared to hang Mordechai on. And then Mordechai took his place as the royal advisor.

A running theme of Purim is the Hebrew concept of v’nahafoch hu, which means that things are flipped, reversed, and inverted.

Esther and Mordechai go from powerless to powerful; the Jews go from victims to fighters; Haman loses both his power and his fight. This theme can be seen in how Jewish people celebrate Purim today, reading the Book of Esther (Megillah) in synagogues, wearing costumes, cheering for Esther, booing for Haman, eating triangle-shaped cookies called hamentaschen (Haman’s pockets) in Yiddish and oznei Haman (Haman’s ears) in Hebrew, or eating bread called ojos de Haman (Haman’s eyes) in Ladino, sending gifts of food, and giving charity to those in need.