Biblical Texts: Esther 8.10-9.17
A Pre-emptive Strike with Collateral Targets: Violence Against One's Enemies
Text
| 8:10 He had them written in the name of king Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet. Letters were dispatched by mounted couriers, riding steeds used in the king's service, bred of the royal stud; | ח. י וַיִּכְתֹּב, בְּשֵׁם הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרֹשׁ, וַיַּחְתֹּם, בְּטַבַּעַת הַמֶּלֶךְ; וַיִּשְׁלַח סְפָרִים בְּיַד הָרָצִים בַּסּוּסִים רֹכְבֵי הָרֶכֶשׁ, הָאֲחַשְׁתְּרָנִים--בְּנֵי, הָרַמָּכִים. |
8:11 to this effect: The king had permitted the Jews of every city to assemble and fight for their lives; if any people or province attacks them, they may destroy, massacre, and exterminate its armed force together with women and children, and plunder their possessions— |
ח. יא אֲשֶׁר נָתַן הַמֶּלֶךְ לַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בְּכָל-עִיר-וָעִיר, לְהִקָּהֵל וְלַעֲמֹד עַל-נַפְשָׁם--לְהַשְׁמִיד וְלַהֲרֹג וּלְאַבֵּד אֶת-כָּל-חֵיל עַם וּמְדִינָה הַצָּרִים אֹתָם, טַף וְנָשִׁים; וּשְׁלָלָם, לָבוֹז. |
8:12 on a single day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar. |
ח. יב בְּיוֹם אֶחָד, בְּכָל-מְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ--בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר לְחֹדֶשׁ שְׁנֵים-עָשָׂר, הוּא-חֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר. |
8:13 The text of the document was to be issued as a law in every single province: it was to be publicly displayed to all the peoples, so that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. |
ח. יג פַּתְשֶׁגֶן הַכְּתָב, לְהִנָּתֵן דָּת בְּכָל-מְדִינָה וּמְדִינָה, גָּלוּי, לְכָל-הָעַמִּים; וְלִהְיוֹת היהודיים (הַיְּהוּדִים) עתודים (עֲתִידִים) לַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, לְהִנָּקֵם מֵאֹיְבֵיהֶם. |
8:14 The couriers, mounted on royal steeds, went out in urgent haste at the king's command; and the decree was proclaimed in the fortress Shushan. |
ח. יד הָרָצִים רֹכְבֵי הָרֶכֶשׁ, הָאֲחַשְׁתְּרָנִים, יָצְאוּ מְבֹהָלִים וּדְחוּפִים, בִּדְבַר הַמֶּלֶךְ; וְהַדָּת נִתְּנָה, בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה. |
8:15 Mordecai left the king’s presence in royal robes of blue and white, with a magnificent crown of gold and a mantle of fine linen and purple wool. And the city of Shushan rang with joyous cries. |
ח. טו וּמָרְדֳּכַי יָצָא מִלִּפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ, בִּלְבוּשׁ מַלְכוּת תְּכֵלֶת וָחוּר, וַעֲטֶרֶת זָהָב גְּדוֹלָה, וְתַכְרִיךְ בּוּץ וְאַרְגָּמָן; וְהָעִיר שׁוּשָׁן, צָהֲלָה וְשָׂמֵחָה. |
8:16 The Jews enjoyed light and gladness, happiness and honor. |
ח. טז לַיְּהוּדִים, הָיְתָה אוֹרָה וְשִׂמְחָה, וְשָׂשֹׂן, וִיקָר. |
8:17 And in every province and in every city, when the king's command and decree arrived, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many of the people of the land professed to be Jews; for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them. |
ח. יז וּבְכָל-מְדִינָה וּמְדִינָה וּבְכָל-עִיר וָעִיר, מְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר דְּבַר-הַמֶּלֶךְ וְדָתוֹ מַגִּיעַ, שִׂמְחָה וְשָׂשׂוֹן לַיְּהוּדִים, מִשְׁתֶּה וְיוֹם טוֹב; וְרַבִּים מֵעַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ, מִתְיַהֲדִים--כִּי-נָפַל פַּחַד-הַיְּהוּדִים, עֲלֵיהֶם. |
9:1 And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is the month Adar—when the king's command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened, and the Jews got their enemies in their power. |
ט. א וּבִשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ הוּא-חֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר, בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם בּוֹ, אֲשֶׁר הִגִּיעַ דְּבַר-הַמֶּלֶךְ וְדָתוֹ, לְהֵעָשׂוֹת: בַּיּוֹם, אֲשֶׁר שִׂבְּרוּ אֹיְבֵי הַיְּהוּדִים לִשְׁלוֹט בָּהֶם, וְנַהֲפוֹךְ הוּא, אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁלְטוּ הַיְּהוּדִים הֵמָּה בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶם. |
9:2 Throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the Jews mustered in their cities to attack those who sought their hurt; and no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples. |
ט. ב נִקְהֲלוּ הַיְּהוּדִים בְּעָרֵיהֶם, בְּכָל-מְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ, לִשְׁלֹחַ יָד, בִּמְבַקְשֵׁי רָעָתָם; וְאִישׁ לֹא-עָמַד לִפְנֵיהֶם, כִּי-נָפַל פַּחְדָּם עַל-כָּל-הָעַמִּים. |
9:3 Indeed, all the officials of the provinces—the satraps, the governors, and the king's stewards—showed deference to the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them. |
ט. ג וְכָל-שָׂרֵי הַמְּדִינוֹת וְהָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִים וְהַפַּחוֹת, וְעֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה אֲשֶׁר לַמֶּלֶךְ--מְנַשְּׂאִים, אֶת-הַיְּהוּדִים: כִּי-נָפַל פַּחַד-מָרְדֳּכַי, עֲלֵיהֶם. |
9:4 For Mordecai was now powerful in the royal palace, and his fame was spreading through all the provinces; the man Mordecai was growing ever more powerful. |
ט. ד כִּי-גָדוֹל מָרְדֳּכַי בְּבֵית הַמֶּלֶךְ, וְשָׁמְעוֹ הוֹלֵךְ בְּכָל-הַמְּדִינוֹת: כִּי-הָאִישׁ מָרְדֳּכַי, הוֹלֵךְ וְגָדוֹל. |
9:5 So the Jews struck at their enemies with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their enemies. |
ט. ה וַיַּכּוּ הַיְּהוּדִים בְּכָל-אֹיְבֵיהֶם, מַכַּת-חֶרֶב וְהֶרֶג וְאַבְדָן; וַיַּעֲשׂוּ בְשֹׂנְאֵיהֶם, כִּרְצוֹנָם. |
9:6 In the fortress Shushan the Jews killed a total of five hundred men. |
ט. ו וּבְשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה, הָרְגוּ הַיְּהוּדִים וְאַבֵּד--חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת אִישׁ. |
9:7 They also killed Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, |
ט. ז וְאֵת פַּרְשַׁנְדָּתָא וְאֵת דַּלְפוֹן, וְאֵת אַסְפָּתָא. |
9:8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, |
ט. ח וְאֵת פּוֹרָתָא וְאֵת אֲדַלְיָא, וְאֵת אֲרִידָתָא. |
9:9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, |
ט. ט וְאֵת פַּרְמַשְׁתָּא וְאֵת אֲרִיסַי, וְאֵת אֲרִידַי וְאֵת וַיְזָתָא. |
9:10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the foe of the Jews. But they did not lay hands on the spoil. |
ט. י עֲשֶׂרֶת בְּנֵי הָמָן בֶּן-הַמְּדָתָא, צֹרֵר הַיְּהוּדִים--הָרָגוּ; וּבַבִּזָּה--לֹא שָׁלְחוּ, אֶת-יָדָם. |
9:11 When the number of those slain in the fortress Shushan was reported on that same day to the king, |
ט. יא בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, בָּא מִסְפַּר הַהֲרוּגִים בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה--לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ. |
9:12 the king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress Shushan alone the Jews have killed a total of five hundred men, as well as the ten sons of Haman. What then must they have done in the provinces of the realm! What is your wish now? It shall be granted you. And what else is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” |
ט. יב וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לְאֶסְתֵּר הַמַּלְכָּה, בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה הָרְגוּ הַיְּהוּדִים וְאַבֵּד חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת אִישׁ וְאֵת עֲשֶׂרֶת בְּנֵי-הָמָן--בִּשְׁאָר מְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ, מֶה עָשׂוּ; וּמַה-שְּׁאֵלָתֵךְ וְיִנָּתֵן לָךְ, וּמַה-בַּקָּשָׁתֵךְ עוֹד וְתֵעָשׂ. |
9:13 “'If it please Your Majesty,” Esther replied, “let the Jews in Shushan be permitted to act tomorrow also as they did today; and let Haman's ten sons be impaled on the stake.” |
ט. יג וַתֹּאמֶר אֶסְתֵּר, אִם-עַל-הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב--יִנָּתֵן גַּם-מָחָר לַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בְּשׁוּשָׁן, לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּדָת הַיּוֹם; וְאֵת עֲשֶׂרֶת בְּנֵי-הָמָן, יִתְלוּ עַל-הָעֵץ. |
9:14 The king ordered that this should be done, and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan. Haman's ten sons were impaled: |
ט. יד וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לְהֵעָשׂוֹת כֵּן, וַתִּנָּתֵן דָּת בְּשׁוּשָׁן; וְאֵת עֲשֶׂרֶת בְּנֵי-הָמָן, תָּלוּ. |
9:15 and the Jews in Shushan mustered again on the fourteenth day of Adar and slew three hundred men in Shushan. But they did not lay hands on the spoil. |
ט. טו וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ היהודיים (הַיְּהוּדִים) אֲשֶׁר-בְּשׁוּשָׁן, גַּם בְּיוֹם אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר לְחֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר, וַיַּהַרְגוּ בְשׁוּשָׁן, שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת אִישׁ; וּבַבִּזָּה--לֹא שָׁלְחוּ, אֶת-יָדָם. |
9:16 The rest of the Jews, those in the king's provinces, likewise mustered and fought for their lives. They disposed of their enemies, killing seventy-five thousand of their foes; but they did not lay hands on the spoil. |
ט. טז וּשְׁאָר הַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בִּמְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ נִקְהֲלוּ וְעָמֹד עַל-נַפְשָׁם, וְנוֹחַ מֵאֹיְבֵיהֶם, וְהָרוֹג בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶם, חֲמִשָּׁה וְשִׁבְעִים אָלֶף; וּבַבִּזָּה--לֹא שָׁלְחוּ, אֶת-יָדָם. |
9:17 That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and merrymaking. |
ט. יז בְּיוֹם-שְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר, לְחֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר; וְנוֹחַ, בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר בּוֹ, וְעָשֹׂה אֹתוֹ, יוֹם מִשְׁתֶּה וְשִׂמְחָה. |
Commentary
Explication:
Traditionally, Jews read the book, or scroll, of Esther in its entirety on the festival of Purim from a handwritten, sometimes elaborately decorated, parchment scroll. During the reading, the congregation uses loud noisemakers to drown out the name of the book’s antagonist, Haman, each time it is chanted by the reader. Some have compared the festival to the medieval Carnivale or Mardi Gras, particularly because of the liminal behavior that accompanies the day: dressing in costumes, giving of gifts, and drinking “until one cannot distinguish between ‘blessed be Mordechai’ and ‘cursed be Haman’” (Megilla 7b).
Other customs prescribed in the Talmud include a festive meal and drinking of wine. Medieval rabbinic authorities diverged on whether this seeming commandment was negated by a story that follows the prescription in the Talmud about a Purim feast where two rabbis were so inebriated that one killed the other. (Fortunately, as the story goes, a miracle revived him.) Nevertheless, the view that the commandment stands—as advocated by the two prominent authorities Maimonides and the Shulchan Arukh—prevails in some Jewish circles. Others follow the view of Rabbi Moses Isserles, who interprets the commandment to mean that after the festive meal, one should immediately go to sleep, in which state one cannot “ distinguish between ‘blessed be Mordechai’ and ‘cursed be Haman.’” Other modern authorities reinterpret the preposition “until” to mean that one should stop drinking before one reaches the state of inebriation (Riskin). Emphasis on maintaining one’s highest moral dignity essentially undercuts any less savory tendency.
The chapters of Esther reproduced here narrate the conclusion of the book, where the Jews gain the right to defend themselves against Haman’s plot and then proceed to do so, ultimately killing vast numbers of Persians, including Haman’s entire family. Some Reform synagogues omit these last chapters, since they are so problematic and inappropriate for children, to whom their festival celebration is primarily geared.
Most contemporary Biblical scholars consider the book of Esther to be a work of fiction composed in the Hellenistic period. Until the modern period, however, Jewish tradition and scholars alike treated the text as historical, considering it to reflect events which occurred during the 5 th-4 th c. BCE exilic Persian Diaspora, under the reign of either Xerxes I (485-465 BCE) or his son Artaxerxes I (465-425 BCE ). This impulse to read the narrative historically leads interpreters to understand this passage, relating the revenge of the Jews on their enemies, as an actual paradigmatic revenge scenario. The passage, however, presents the problematic moral issues of pre-emptive violence, the targeting of women and children, and the annihilation of an entire family or lineage. In their struggles to confront these moral issues, Jewish interpreters present two justifications for the Jews’ violence:
1) Self-defense and
2) Haman is understood as a descendent of Amalek, whom God commanded Saul to annihilate (1 Sam 15.3) in retaliation for that tribe’s attack of the weakest and most vulnerable members of the Israelites at Rephidim (Deut 25. 18). Since Saul spared the Amalekite general Agag (1 Sam 15.8), he failed to obey God’s command to annihilate the tribe. Therefore, descendents of Amalek continually rise up as enemies of Israel. Haman is one such example. His Amalekite lineage is derived from Esther 3.1, where he is described as “the son of Hammedatha the Agagite.”
1) Self Defense:
The moral stance of self-defense is derived from the text itself (Esther 8.11, 9.16). Since imperial decrees could not be actually revoked (Esther 8.8), the king has no alternative except to allow the Jews to defend themselves. (This is just one example of the incredulous historical details that lead modern scholars to consider the story to be a fable.) Some commentators see a divine miracle in this successful act of self-defense (Megillath Setarim). The narrative includes the detail that Jews did not despoil their adversaries (9.10, 15) in order to emphasize that the goal of this violence was only self-defense, and that Jews did not take advantage of the situation for their own benefit. Rashi, on the other hand, interprets this self-restraint as an attempt to avoid the king’s jealousy.
2) Amalek
Haman and the enemies of the Jews whom they kill (9.15-16) are understood as Amalekites (Targum Esther). Throughout Jewish tradition, Amalek epitomizes Israel’s archetypal enemy, bent on Israel’s total destruction, or, in modern terms, genocide. The Exodus narrative of Amalek’s treachery (16:8-15) is the Torah reading for Purim itself. In this typology, absolute human evil is construed as genetically linked to the Amalekites of the Canaanite period and projected onto the succession of human adversaries faced by Jews over the ages. This method of characterizing the essential natures of entire peoples was common among Hellenistic and Roman writers. Contemporary Jewish traditionalists understand this typology to be essentially symbolic, yet the archetype persists as the essentialization of human evil. The modern Torah commentary of the Conservative movement, Etz Hayim, writes: “The Amalekites lacked the basic principles of morality common to all religions” (1136).
Unlike the moral stance of self-defense, the Biblical command to “remember what Amalek did… [and to] blot out the memory of Amalek” (Deut 25.17-19), read on the Sabbath preceding Purim, is not situationally conditioned. This command is understood as a blanket mandate (Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvot 188). According to some rabbinic authorities: “In every generation Amalek rises to destroy us, and each time he clothes himself in a different nation” (Me’am Loez; Devarim v. 3, p. 977).
Implications:
A 5th century incident at Inmestar in Syria illustrates the potential dangers of such a text to foment hostility between Jews and Christians (the account is found in Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 7.16). Although scholars disagree on the historicity of this event, Christians claimed that drunken Jews had used a Christian boy in place of the traditional Haman effigy for their Purim mockery, and that this activity had resulted in the accidental death of the child. Whatever the historical details, it is clear that Emperor Theodosian had earlier passed a law prohibiting public Purim mockeries, which were perceived by Christians as mocking the crucifixion (Theodosius II to Anthemius, CTh, 16.8.18; on 5.29.408). The custom of re-enacting the hanging of Haman on the gallows (Esther 7.10) was outlawed in medieval Europe, but persisted among Jews who lived in Eastern countries through the 19th century.
The Esther passage presents the moral dilemma of self-preservation as expressed by Rabbi Tzvi Marx:
[E]ven when one is justifiably defending oneself, the Halakha still requires our finely tuned attention to the appropriateness of the measure of force, imposing upon us the grave, almost inhuman imperative of weighing carefully—even in the heat of fear, adrenalin, and high emotion, the talmudic situation of being one of pursuit—the absolute need to use deadly force. (Marx, 40)
In this view, the attitude expressed by some interpreters of Esther that “Jewish personhood is humanly more precious to God that that of the non-Jews” is “diametrically contrary to the prime teaching that all human beings are created in the image of God.” (Marx, 43)
In the closing decades of the 20th century, some scholars and rabbis called for instituting a ritual act when reciting the verses cited above to make clear that today’s Jews do not understand them as granting license to commit violence, even against one’s enemies (Waskow). Rabbi Arthur Waskow suggests that “on every Purim, when Jews read the Scroll of Esther, we could chant in the wailing melody of the Book of Lamentations the troubling verses that express the fantasies of the powerless for revenge” in order to teach and remember that “Amalek is a way of living, not a specific ethnic community.” Such recommendations reject the impulse to cast one’s “enemies” as the epitome of eternal evil, believing that such an impulse diminishes one’s own humanity in addition to denying the humanity of the ‘other.’ Whether this critique ultimately produces liturgical changes remains to be seen.
Bibliography
Ginzberg, Louis. “Esther and Purim,” Jewish Quarterly Review. 16: 650 ff.
Horowitz, Elliott. “The Rite to Be Reckless: On the Perpetration and Interpretation of Purim Violence.” Poetics Today 15.2 (1994): 9-54.
Jewish Encyclopedia, “Purim” 10:274-9.
Marx, Tzvi. “A Post-Hebron Letter to My Son Michael Who Just Went from Yeshiva to Basic Training - Israel after Hebron.” Tikkun 9.3 (May-June, 1994): 40-6, 95.
Waskow, Arthur. “To Remember, To Blot Out.” The Shalom Center on 6/24/05.
Commentary prepared by Shira Lander. English Biblical text: Reprinted from TANAKH, copyright 1985, The Jewish Publication Society, with permission of the publisher; Hebrew Text from http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/i/t/t3309.htm.