Volume 2                                                                                        © 2015 – D.v.D.                                                                                                     #24

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Thought for the Weekend of Adar 15 & 16, 5775   .

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By Rev. Dirk J. van Dalen, Ph.D.                                           [March 6 & 7, 2015]                                                      – Dr.vandalen@gmail.com

For Such a Time as This…,

[I have been asked to finish the story.]

Last week’s Musing on פָורים (Purim) ended with the following paragraph:

Esther, with about five years experience as Queen, knew that she had to prepare the heart and mind (compassion and common sense) of her husband before she should approach him with “her” problem (remember that ladies). As the first Executive Order could not be altered according to Persian law, a second one from the King but authored by Mordecai would virtually deflate the first one as an armed Jew in conflict will always prevail. But, this was not the end of the story.

Queen Esther had some powerful spiritual backing as her people in the city, and her own staff in the house, fasted and prayed for her. (Est. 4: 16) [Fasting does not only pertain to not eating, fasting means denying oneself those things that we customarily engage in for the sake of pleasure or routine. One way is indeed to abstain from eating and drinking. But we  also may abstain from watching TV; taking hot showers; having romantic involvement; sleeping-in; skip your afternoon tea; etc. Time normally spent in these activities you now spend in prayer. That’s Fasting with a capital “F.”]

After three days of fasting and praying Esther appears at the door of the Throne Room. She literally crashed the King’s stag party against established protocol and at the risk of her own life as doing so unannounced and uninvited, causes her to come under a virtual death sentence of which she was well aware as she had said, “if I perish, I perish!”

The king however, is happy to see her, extends her the invitation to approach him and asked her why she has come to see him. Esther has now been queen for about five years. Obviously she knew that the way to a man’s heart (and mind) is through his stomach. During two consecutive days Esther arranges for the King and his Second in Command to have dinner with her. She needed the King’s heart to be right while Haman’s (*^_#@!!) mind needed to be deflated.

After the second dinner date with her husband in the company of his Prime Minister, Ahasuerus again posed the question as to what it is that the Queen wants.

“Then Queen Esther answered and said,...Let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.”  (Est. 7: 3 - 4e). Upon the king’s interrogatory, Esther pointed at Haman and with words such as “he is the culprit” she informs his royal highness about the evil

details of the Prime Minister’s plot of annihilation.

 In the year 474 BCE, Haman the Agagite from the line of the Amalekites, the progeny of Esau, had cast Lots = Purim (lot=pur) to determine on which day his nation-wide pogrom would take place. The pogrom was legislated by royal degree and writ-ten into law and, as with all laws of the Persians, could not be rescinded or changed. As we would see throughout history, the Jewish people were expected to be sitting ducks. This time, however, “our man in Damascus” was a woman in Shushan. After listening to his royal wife, the king issued another executive order ca. two months after the one which would have doomed the Persian Jews. This latter one gave the Jewish people the right to stand their ground. They now could legally defend them-selves and even respond in kind. This latest E. O. was written into law also and, as history shows, the Jewish Persians not only prevailed but annihilated the followers of Haman who was hanged on the gallows he had especially built to hang Mordecai.

So, therefore, on the 14^th and 15^th of Adar  (which this year coincided with the 5^th and 6^th of March on the ‘Pagan’ calendar) we commemorated the events that took place in the country we now know as Iran, in ca. 473 BCE. The most recent former leader of Iran, Ahmadineyad is also believed to be of Amalekite heritage.

It is well-known that the Creator is never mentioned in the Book of Esther. It should however be obvious, even to the least Bible oriented reader that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, supremely ruled and ordained in every facet of the events.

The fact that Amalekites were still in existence at that time, -- as they do today-- dates back to King Saul ignoring God’s command to utterly destroy them (1^st Sam. 15: 18). Recently the progeny of the Amelekites have again began to make themselves heard as they have multiplied by attracting criminal elements and low-life individuals from other tribes and nations.

“Mordecai,… great among the Jews, well received by the multitude…” (Est.10:3) not only moved into Haman’s position as Prime Minister, he also moved into his house. Queen Esther lived happily ever after, or at least until her husband the King was assassinated in ca. 465 BCE. This time Mordecai had not been able to save the king’s life.

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Think About It, Shabbat Shalom