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Spoetnik
13-03-06, 16:35
A tale of two scrolls

When is Purim? Today is Purim; and I have no liking at all for this likable festival. When the small children celebrate the holiday, and innocently dress themselves in costumes and masks, one's heart goes out to them; when the adults celebrate it, one's heart turns sour.

And it's all because of the Scroll of Esther and its problematic story: With the help of their charm and trickery, Mordechai the Jew and Queen Esther defied the decree of the evil Haman, saved the Jews of Persia at the last minute, and "for the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor" - and joy for the Jews always makes us happy. And so, when the children shake their rattles and make a noise every time Haman's name is mentioned, we also make a noise and get excited.

But this joy immediately turns nasty. In the name of the law and under the auspices of the kingdom, the Jews of the Scroll of Esther turn on their haters - men, women and children - and take revenge on them, killing some 75,000 individuals. It's a shame that salvation on the one hand ends in a pogrom on the other.

And after the Jews have "killed all their enemies with a blow of the sword, and slaughter and destruction they did to the ones hating them according to their will / pleasure," they kill the 10 sons of Haman, son of Hammedatha, the oppressor of the Jews - from Parshandatha to Vaizatha. Since when do we visit a father's sins on his sons? What do we know about the sons of Haman that justifies their execution?

The mitzva to be happy gives the holiday of Purim an air of drunkenness and animal-like behavior "until you can't tell the difference between cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordechai;" and perhaps it was not by chance that Baruch Goldstein chose to carry out his massacre at Purim of all times, and that the drunk Hanan Porat forgot to express regret and summed it all up with a greeting of "Happy Purim."

I prefer the Shavuot holiday and its Scroll of Ruth. It is so nice to see again and again how the Jewish heritage decided to choose, of all people, Ruth the Moabite, a Gentile woman, as the great grandmother of King David, as one of the mothers of our people through the generations.

As a teacher on call, I would advise the education system to go for more Ruth and less Esther, so that we don't find ourselves in different fields - foreign and cruel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/693255.html