by
“Twenty-five
hundred years ago, in ancient Persia, a tyrant rose against us with the very
same goal, to utterly destroy our people,” Netanyahu said. “Today as well, on
Purim, the lot has fallen, and in the end this evil regime will fall too”.
It seemed inevitable that such a
comparison would be made.
Had I not recently written that:
Netanyahu
likes to recall Amalek
(9) Netanyahu
likes to recall Amalek
With an enormous following of Christian
Zionists the Jewish nationalists must consider it to be most beneficial to
their cause to ‘justify’ their war with Iran from the Bible, just as they
appear to be doing in the case of their genocide of the Palestinians.
Just call Iran, the Palestinians,
“Amalek”, as, indeed, they are doing, and away we go.
For was not he, Haman, who had tried to
destroy the Jewish race an Amalekite?
And did he not dwell “in ancient
Persia”, in modern Iran?
Consequently, a host of articles have
arisen such as the one that follows, generally celebrating the demise of the
modern-day Haman, Ayatollah ali Khamenei.
Death of Iranian leader
just before Purim revives Book of Esther parallels
By Andrew Silow-Carroll March 2, 2026
The timing of Israel’s strike, days before the
holiday, prompted religious and political figures to invoke themes from the
biblical story set in ancient Persia.
In Jewish time, history often has a way of rhyming
with the calendar. So when Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an
Israeli air strike on the Shabbat before Purim — the holiday that commemorates
the downfall of Haman, a Persian tyrant who sought to annihilate the Jews — it
was perhaps inevitable that rabbis, politicians and social media commentators
would reach for the Book of Esther.
Some did so reverently, others triumphantly, and a few
with a wink. But as Jews prepared to don costumes and drown out Haman’s name
with noisemakers, the ancient story of survival in Persia collided with a very
modern war in what is now known as Iran.
Damien
Mackey’s comment:
The suggested “rhyming with the calendar” here may jar, however, if (i) the
Israeli leaders had deliberately planned the assassination for Purim; if (ii)
ancient Persia was nowhere near modern Iran; and if (iii) Haman was actually,
as according to Jewish legend, himself - shock, horror - a Jew.
On (iii),
see e.g. my article:
Although
Haman in the Book of Esther had an Egyptian name, he was not Egyptian but was a
Jewish king
Andrew Silow-Carroll’s article continues:
The Orthodox Union, the Modern Orthodox umbrella
group, put out a statement titled “Purim in Our Time: Standing Up to
Iranian Tyranny.” “We will read the
Bible story of Esther and Mordecai overcoming the genocidal plans of Haman, who
sought to destroy the Jewish people. Today, in coordination with Prime Minister
Netanyahu and the IDF, President Trump and the U.S. armed forces took defensive
action to silence a modern threat from the same ancestral land of Haman,” the
statement read.
Such comparisons have proliferated since the killing
of Khamenei.
Damien
Mackey’s comment:
Further on, though, I shall be considering my (ii) “ancient Persia was nowhere
near modern Iran”.
Actually, we
should already have known this from the Book of Tobit, according to which,
going westwards, Haran (Charan) was equidistant from Nineveh, on
the one hand, and from Ecbatana, on the other:
Geography
of the Book of Tobit presents a fascinating challenge
(12) Geography of
the Book of Tobit presents a fascinating challenge
Andrew Silow-Carroll’s article continues:
In his first statement after the beginning of the war,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the connection to Purim explicit.
“Twenty-five hundred years ago, in ancient Persia, a
tyrant rose against us with the very same goal, to utterly destroy our people,”
Netanyahu said. “Today as well, on Purim, the lot has fallen, and in the end
this evil regime will fall too.”
Known as Persia until 1935, Iran has been belligerent
toward Israel at least since the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, which brought
clerics like Khamenei, with their frequent chant of “Death to Israel,” to
power.
The holiday takes its cue from the Book of Esther,
which describes how the Jewish queen to the Persian king Ahasuerus engineers
the downfall of Haman, an advisor to the king who was plotting the murder of
the kingdom’s Jews. Although Jewish tradition treats the book as historical —
and Ahasuerus is often associated with the historical ruler Xerxes I — biblical
scholars and historians tend to regard the story as what scholar Adele Berlin,
author of “The JPS Bible Commentary: Esther,” called a “historical novella.”
Damien
Mackey’s comment:
The Book of Esther is a pure history:
Real
historical characters in the Book of Esther
(12) Real
historical characters in the Book of Esther
Andrew Silow-Carroll’s article continues:
Jews across the religious spectrum noted the
comparison, often to different ends. Agudath Israel of America, the haredi
Orthodox umbrella group, talked about prayer and salvation in its statement about the war.
“The upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim celebrates the
downfall of those who rose up against the Jewish People in ancient Persia
nearly 2,400 years ago,” it read (the events described in Esther are thought to
have taken place in the fifth or fourth century BCE). “We are
reminded how the key to the miraculous salvation was the heartfelt prayers of
men, women, and children. While prayer is always powerful, our sages have
taught that it carries special power during the Purim holiday season. We call
upon the Jewish community to unite in prayer and beseech the Almighty to
protect all those on the front lines and in harm’s way in Israel and across the
Middle East.”
Rabbi Nicole Guzik, senior rabbi at Sinai Temple, a Conservative congregation
in Los Angeles, spoke about human agency in
her hastily rewritten Saturday sermon.
“Right now we stand at a critical stage where the
story shifts, where the final paragraph in the Megillah that we are reading
right now, in real time, has yet to be written,” she said, using the Hebrew
name for a scroll like the Book of Esther. “The U.S., Israel, our beloved
nations are holding the pen, and they are declaring, with courage and
conviction, that we will be the authors of our future in the same manner as
Esther.”
Some of the comparisons have been offhanded, even
flippant. The novelist Dara Horn, speaking Sunday night at a forum on combating
antisemitism at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, said, “Tomorrow night is Purim,
and I think it’s clear to all of us now that the best way to fight antisemitism
is to take out Haman with an F-15.”
Comedian Yohay Sponder, an Israeli who often performs
in North America, posted a video of a routine commenting on the death of
Khamenei. Like the Purim hamantaschen cookies named after Haman, he predicted a
time when Jews will eat a food named after the slain Iranian leader. He
suggested khamin, the Shabbat stew also known as cholent.
Others have already adapted hamantaschen for the
moment. Some have joked about
baking “Khamentaschen,” combining the new nemesis’ name with the treat named
for an ancient one. At least one bakery in Israel produced “Ayatollah-taschens” with a chocolate center resembling
Khamenei’s trademark turban.
Evangelical Christians and Messianic Jews, for whom the Esther story has had increasing
significance in recent years, also
seized on the parallels. “It all made an amazing story back then, and we are
praying for an equally miraculous outcome in our days that will lead to the
salvation of many in Israel, Iran, and throughout the whole Middle East,” the
One For Israel Ministry, a U.S.-based Messianic group, posted on Facebook..
Meanwhile, some suggested that the timing of the
attacks appeared to be more than a coincidence. Digital creator Evan Pickus
noted in a Facebook post that, according to the Book of Esther, Haman was
hanged on the gallows just days before the calendar date that became Purim.
“The evil Persian Prime Minister [sic], who issued a promise to kill all the
Jews, destroyed on the same day as his ancestor,” wrote Pickus. “I honestly
believe our leaders planned it this way, and I love that.”
Although no Israeli or U.S. official has said they
planned the attack with Purim in mind, the idea became a talking point over the
weekend, especially after CNN posted a report by Israel correspondent Tal Shalev saying the comparisons had been widely shared in
Israel.
Shalev also wrote of the significance of the attacks
on the Iranian leaders’ compound falling on Shabbat Zachor, the “Sabbath of
Remembrance” that precedes Purim on the Hebrew calendar. The day takes its name
from a special Torah reading (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) commanding Jews never to
forget how Amalek — said to be the ancestral nation of Haman — attacked the
vulnerable Israelites after they left Egypt. The Israelites are given a
somewhat contradictory command: “Blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.
Do not forget!” ….
[End of quotes]
But
ancient Persia was nowhere near modern Iran
Though I
grew up with the firm view that Media and Persia were ancient lands well to the
east, in and around modern Iran, a bombshell (2022) article by Royce Erickson
has turned that all around for me.
I refer to
his groundbreaking (to say the least):
PROBLEM
IN CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
(12) A PROBLEM IN
CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
I wrote
about this, and other geographical shocks that I had begun to experience. in my
article:
More
geographical ‘tsunamis’: lands of Elam and Chaldea
(12) More
geographical ‘tsunamis’: lands of Elam and Chaldea
Persia, and related countries, Media, Elam, were actually in
Anatolia (Cilicia).
As already alluded to above, we could have known this much
earlier, from the geographical information provided by the Book of Tobit.
See on this:
Search
for the Median empire
(3)
Search for the Median empire
Ecbatana
and Rages in Media
(12) Ecbatana and
Rages in Media
