Esther Pays An Old Debt

Esther crowned as Queen

I always thought of the Purim story as a Jewish girl who rescued the Jewish nation. One reason that Esther became queen of Persia was apparently to save the Jewish people from destruction by Haman the Agagite. "And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” - Esther 4:14. And to this day, Jews celebrate the day known as Purim.

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But, Rabbi David Fohrman AlephBeta [] points out that Esther and Mordecai were not Jews ethnically. They were descended from Benjamin. It's right there in the text, I just never noticed. "Now there was at the citadel in Susa a Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite" - Esther 2:5. Well wait, it says Mordecai was a Jew, then it says he was a Benjamite. Which is it? Both actually. The kingdom of Judah, also known as the southern kingdom, was actually three tribes that banded together, Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, Judah being the most prominent and the royal line. The word Jew comes from the name Judah (Yehudi) and meant either an ethnic Judahite OR a resident of the kingdom of Judah. Verse 6 shows Mordecai was taken from Jerusalem into captivity, so he was a resident of Judah and could be called a Jew.

Big deal, so he and Hadasseh (Esther) were Benjamites. So what? There is language used in this story which draws us back to the story of Joseph in Egypt. Esther's story echoes Joseph's story when his brothers sold him to Midianites, and eventually Egypt. Note that this was Judah's idea.

Joseph sold by his brothers

Genesis 37:26  Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? “Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him.

Esther 7:4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king.

Both passages talk about someone being sold for slavery versus sold for destruction. The words "sell" and "sold" are spelled the same in both verses (nmkrnu, Hebrew Torah scrolls are written without vowels).

But that story is about Joseph, not Benjamin. And Esther's rescue of the Jews is not over. When Esther appeared before the king, she succeeded in eliminating Haman, but Haman's decree to kill all the Jews was still in effect, and Esther had to approach the king a second time to ask for the decree to be rescinded. Again, it went well.

Esther pleads for the Jews

Esther 8:3 Then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept and implored him to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had devised against the Jews. 4 The king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. 5 Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6 “For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?”

Esther's plea echoes Judah's plea centuries before in Egypt, when he pleaded to trade places with Benjamin. Joseph tricked his brothers into bringing Benjamin to Egypt. Joseph was powerful in Egypt when his brothers came to buy food, but they did not recognize him. When the brothers were going home, Joseph planted his goblet in Benjamin's pack so Benjamin would look guilty of theft. Judah steps up and offers to trade himself as a slave in Benjamin's place. He could have gone back to his father Jacob and said there was nothing he could do, after all, the goblet was in Benjamin's pack. But in spite of Leah and her children (including Judah) being second class citizens in Jacob's eyes (note in the passage below that Jacob only refers to the two sons of Rachel), Judah's plea was based on how much sorrow it would cause his father to lose both sons of Rachel.

Judah pleads for Benjamin

Genesis 44:27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; 28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces,” and I have not seen him since. 29 ‘If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’ 30 “Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, 31 when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. 32 “For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’ 33 “Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. 34 “For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me—for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?” 

Let me narrow in on Gen 44:34 and Ester 8:6.

Gen 44:34 Lest I see the evil that will come on my father
Esther 8:6 For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people?

In Hebrew, the phrase "evil that will come on my father/people" differs by one letter.

Gen 44:34 ra asher yim'tza et-aviy (father)
Esther 8:6 ra asher yim'tza et-amiy (people)

Esther used the exact same words as Judah. She must have known her history. Judah offered himself to save Benjamin. Esther, a Benjaminite, offered herself to save Judah, ie. the ethnic Jews in Persia. The family breach that started when the sons of Leah sold Joseph into slavery was restored by Hadasseh (Esther). And both stories have a happy ending for the sons of Jacob.

Judah saved Benjamin

Benjamin saved Judah

The Scroll of Esther

My idea of a Town Crier (1)

Until recently, if I ever thought about reading from a scroll, I imagined reading from top to bottom like a town crier crying "Hear Ye, Hear Ye", like this guy.

"Modern" Town Crier (2)

  Not like this guy. reading from his iPad.

Then I chanced across an Old Testament scroll (online of course). These read from right to left, as they are written in Hebrew. And they can be 20 feet long or more. But they don't read from end to end before going to the next line. The scrolls are divided into pages, just like we know pages today. It all makes sense when I think about it, which I had never done before.

Torah Scroll

I was reading about the scroll of Esther when I learned these things.  Esther is the origin story for the Jewish Festival of Purim, which occurs the 14th of Adar on the Hebrew calendar, sometime in March on the Roman calendar.  In the story, Haman is bent on exterminating the Jews, and Esther, who had become queen, and her uncle Mordecai play key roles in saving them, and in a twist of fate, Haman gets hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai.  Then Esther asks that the sons of Haman also be hanged, even though it seems they were already dead.

12 The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman at the citadel in Susa. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall even be granted you. And what is your further request? It shall also be done.” 13 Then said Esther, “If it pleases the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.” (7)

Here, take a look at a hand decorated scroll of Esther (4).  Isn't that beautiful?

Hand decorated Scroll of Esther

Notice that the scroll has eleven panels or pages?  One of these things is not like the others -- see the third page from the left?  Even at this resolution you can tell there is something different about it. The text, whatever it is, is larger and spaced differently.

Old Megillah Scroll (5)

It's not just done that way because it's a hand decorated scroll, here is a synagogue scroll with the same unusual page.

Esther 9:7-9 Closeup.

Closeup of that page.  These are the ten sons of Haman, the villain in the story.  These ten sons were hanged.  You wouldn't know they were listed in a special format from an English Bible.

7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,8 And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they (7)...

Even modern Hebrew Bibles, known as Tanach, are printed in a normal font without special spacing, giving no hint of the original scroll. See http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3309.htm for example.

Which brings me to the question, why are Haman's sons listed this way?  After all, they aren't major characters in the Book of Esther.  They're not Israelites.  They aren't mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.  There are arguably more important people in the Bible whose names aren't even recorded - Lot's wife, the Centurion, the woman at the well, etc. Why Haman's sons?  What's so special about them?

And what is the meaning of the four letters of different size, one larger, three smaller? Some sources list a fourth smaller letter, reason unknown.  Some sources also list variations of the smaller letters (11), also reason unknown.

According to Nachmanides (the introduction to his commentary on Genesis) any change from the usual way of writing a word or letter indicates some hidden meaning in a text.  If we examine the list of Haman's sons, we notice that three letters are written smaller: the taf of Parshandata the shin of Parmashta the zayin of Vizata (The enlarged vav of Vizata may refer to the sixth millenium.) The three letters together form taf-shin-zayin*, the Jewish year 5707 (1946 C.E.)  (8)

What happened in 1946?  

"Purim Fest 1946!" Julius Streicher shouted his last words as he was hanged. Wait. What? Julius Streicher, the Nazi war criminal? Yes, him. Julius Streicher and nine other Nazi war criminals were hanged Oct 16, 1946. (10) Streicher got the festival wrong, but he probably wasn't familiar with the Hebrew calendar. Oct 16 was in fact the 7th day of the Feast of Tabernacles, not Purim. Nazarenespace.com says this:

In an apparent connection made by Hitler between his Nazi regime and the role of Haman, he stated in a speech made on January 30, 1944, that if the Nazis were defeated, the Jews could celebrate "a second Purim". (8)

 Talkreason.org gives these details.

Of the 23 Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, 11 were in fact sentenced to execution by hanging. Two hours before the sentence was due to be carried out, Goering committed suicide--so that only 10 descendents of Amalek were hung, thus fulfilling the request of Esther: 

"let Haman's ten sons be hanged." 

Furthermore, since the trial was conducted by a military tribunal, the sentence handed down should have been death by firing squad, or by electric chair as practiced in the U.S.A. However, the court specifically prescribed hanging, exactly as in Esther's original request: 

"let Haman's ten sons be hanged." (11)

Newspaper clipping of Oct 16, 1946 (9).

According to Jewish tradition, the nation of Germany is thought to have descended from the biblical Amalekites. (12)

Is this the real meaning of the unusual page in the scroll of Esther? And the unusual letters on that page? I'm no authority so it's not for me to make a determination, but there certainly are striking parallels - Haman and Hitler both bent on destroying the Jews, ten men hanged in each case, the "prediction" of the year, etc. The biggest problem I see is that there is no predictive value in this analysis. It only shows something after it happens. That doesn't mean it's wrong. There are many layers to any scripture, and they are all true, but may point to different things. If a scripture can be interpreted multiple ways, do it. For example, in this scroll there are other possible dates, maybe something will happen on one of them, but some are past. Some sources give more evidence from examining the text, some dispute it (11). There is a surprising amount written about it, just Google for Haman and Nuremburg to find more info.

As far as I know I'm not Jewish, (though some advocate that the Scots are descended from Judah, and I am half Scot), but I understand why Purim is important to the Jews, and why the scroll of Esther is important. It certainly is fascinating.