Happy Purim!

Esther makes into the title of a book in the Bible. Along with one other book title, Ruth, Esther is one of the only two books in the bible with the title named after women.

Ruth is a destitute who barely makes her living by gleaning in rich man's field. Ruth, a foreign widow, was brought into the family of God by the grace of a man of Israel. On the other hand, Esther, a Jewish orphan girl, is the winner of the beauty contest for a new queen of Persia in 5th century BC. Esther goes to the King Xerxes, while hiding her Jewish identity and name, Haddasah. She eventually saves her people in the foreign land through her royal position.

Although there is no mention of God in the entire book of Esther, this drama of God's salvation is depicted well through the dramatic and yet fatalistic plots by Haman, Mordechai's unbending faith, rapid transitions of Esther's social status and the vastness of wealth and power of Persian King, Xerxes and so on. It does seem fitting for a serious prose-poem which depicts a heroin who saves a holy nation that would otherwise have periled in the hands of the devil.

Today I read the book of Easter all over again, and it however felt like a comedy, reading with the Jewish traditional celebration of Purim in mind. How does it read like a comedy?

You should actually read the story, instead of giving Esther the place of the main character, with the main character of the story being Haman and his unsuccessful plots and the timings of how they fail in the story, thus the name Purim (Hebrew word meaning 'lots,' Esther 3:7). First, Haman makes a mistake of advising the King to give a reward to Mordecai's good action, then he goes around escorting Mordecai in the king's honor and glory which he specifically recommended to the king, thinking that was for himself! (6:1-11). Second, Haman builds a gallows to hang Mordecai but it is used to hang his own head (7:10).

Jews laugh at the failure of the devil's plot to eat up Jewish people. That's why it is a comedy and I think that's where Jewish people get their sense of humour.  So, this is how Jewish people celebrate the Purim mainly in three ways.

First, people wear funny costumes as they gather in groups.

Second there is the public reading of the story. This is a fun reading I have discovered. Whenever the name of Haman is mentioned (54 times total in the story), people make noise to blot out the name and they use graggers, tap on the table, or use other objects to make as loud noise as possible.

My Jewish friend Leon wearing Poncho and shaking a gragger 

Third, there is no Jewish celebration without food. Hamantashen, which means Haman's pocket, is a  sweet Jewish pastry with fillings of poppy seeds or dried fruits. It seems quite easy to make. If you want to try to make some, here's a recipe.

The story of Esther to me was only an ancient story of a heroin's action to save her people, but it came as a whole new meaning to me last night. The story continues even in the modern history for Jewish people as I sat at the dinner table with many Jews from Russia on this occasion as some of the old people went through the great suffering of Holocaust of the 20th century as some of them survived and returned to Israel. And they know how to endure such great suffering and how to carry on with life. That's the Jewish sense of humour that I learned from the newly discovered comedy of Haman in the book of Esther.

Celebrating Purim and Birthdays in the Congregation