Purim

Children of Abraham

Richard L. Shafer[1]

March is a busy time for followers of the Abrahamic faiths. Christians are fasting or otherwise observing Lent, although some Roman Catholics will have a kind of “one-day-break” on March 18, so-called “Mothering” or Laetare Sunday.[2]

Muslims will celebrate Muhammad’s birthday on March 31.[3]

Jews celebrate Purim[4] on March 4. Purim, one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar, commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination.

The events leading up to Purim are told in the Book of Esther. A beautiful young woman living in Susa, in Persia, Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus (Xerxes in my Contemporary English Version), King of Persia, to become part of his harem. He soon made Esther his queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a Jew. Her cousin Mordecai, who had raised her as his daughter, had told her not to reveal her identity.

Subsequently, Haman, principal advisor to the king, who hated Mordecai (a Jew who refused to bow down to Haman) plotted to destroy the Jewish people (see Esther 3:8). The king would have permitted that, except that Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. She told the king of Haman's plot. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman and his ten sons were hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. In fact, the Jews “...smote all their enemies with the sward, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.” (Esther 9:5)

Mordecai voices Esther’s important role in 4:14b (Revised Standard Version): “For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Purim is celebrated on the 14th day of Adar,[5] which is usually in March, the day after that chosen by Haman for the Jews’ extermination, and the day that the Jews battled their enemies for their lives. The word "Purim" (plural of pur) means "lots" and refers to the lottery that Haman used to choose the date for the massacre.

The Fast of Esther (March 3 this year) preceeds the Purim holiday. This minor fast commemorates Esther's three days of fasting in preparation for her meeting with the king. The celebration is “...days of feasting and gladness, days for sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor.”[6] So eat, drink, be merry, AND remember the poor.

[1] This is one of a series of occasional columns in which the author, raised in the Christian tradition, searches for common ground and common history among the teachings, beliefs and practices of adherents of the Abrahamic faiths -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetare_Sunday

[3] http://moonsighting.com/important.html

[4] http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm

[5] 12^th month of the Jewish year

[6] Esther 9:22 (Revised Standard Version)