Outliving all the Hamans

DVORA WAYSMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Purim celebrates both a miracle and the deliverance of the Jews from an oppressor. It falls on 14 Adar (this year March 7) and is a time of merriment, masquerade and of drinking until one is unable to distinguish between "blessed be Mordechai" and "cursed be Haman." It is also a time of sending gifts of food to friends (mishloach manot), giving money to the poor and of a happy family dinner called a Purim seudah.

The story is well known – of the beautiful Queen Esther and her righteous cousin Mordecai. Her origins are revealed in the Aggadah, which tells us that she was a descendent of King Saul. Her real name was Hadassah, but when she replaced the disobedient Vashti as queen, she was given the Persian name for Venus, which was Esther. Her father, an exile at Susa, died before she was born and her mother, Abihail, at her birth. She became her cousin's ward. The story takes place during the reign of Ahasuerus, king of Persia.

Nobody knows just when in Jewish history the episode occurs. The Book of Esther mentions no dates and nowhere else is the story retold. Scholars believe the events took place soon after the completion of the Second Temple. The first references to Purim occur only after the years 100 BCE. Over the centuries, numerous Purim legends were created, found today in a special Midrash (Targum Aheni). One says that Haman had once been Mordecai's slave and barber, which rather explains his actions when the erstwhile slave rose to a position of power. Another legend describes how the trees refused to give their wood for the gallows Haman planned for Mordecai. Only a thorn-bush came to his aid, declaring: "As I am the thorn, so likewise is Haman a thorn that would scratch and tear Thy harmless people."

Many gifted poets – Eliezer Kalir, Abraham ibn Ezra, Solomon ibn Gabriel and Judah Halevi – composed special Purim songs and poems; and Purim stories inspired the pens of Shalom Aleichem and I.L. Peretz. Some Jewish communities are known to have celebrated more than one Purim each year.

For many years, the Jews of Egypt observed Cairo Purim to celebrate their miraculous delivery on 27 Adar, 1524. At that time, the leader of Egyptian Jewry was the master of the government mint, Abraham de Castro. One day, the governor decreed that all new coins should be struck bearing his name in place of Selim I, the Turkish sultan who also ruled over Egypt. De Castro refused, as it amounted to treason, and fled to the protection of the sultan in Constantinople. The angry governor threatened the Jews with imprisonment or death if they did not pay him a large sum of money. Fortunately, his treachery was discovered in time and he was beheaded.

A century later, German Jews celebrated Vincenz Purim. As usual, they were being blamed for hard times in the country. A baker named Vincenz Fettmilch declared himself "a new Haman" and organized attacks on the Jewish population, first in the ghetto of Worms, next in Frankfurt. The governor, Frederic, considered the pogroms an act of civil disobedience and his cavalry put down the riots. "The new Haman" was hanged and the other rioters were compelled to pay damages to the Jews. Therefore, the Jews of Frankfurt instituted a special Purim, 27 Elul, 1614.

There are still many Jewish communities living under oppression, and Israeli Jews face almost daily acts of terrorism. By celebrating Purim, we express our solidarity with them and our hope and belief that the Jews will again outlive every Haman the world can produce.

Dvora Waysman is a freelance writer living in Jerusalem.

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