Purim's lessons reflect a Jewish divide

The Book of Esther raises profound questions about Jewish self-perception

The Jewish holiday of Purim begins tonight. Out of the long list of Jewish holidays, it is among the most celebratory and joyous. Purim’s story, on its surface, is relatively simple: It commemorates the survival of Jews, who, in the 5th century BCE, were marked for annihilation by their Persian rulers. Haman the Agagite, a Persian noble and court official, is the chief antagonist.

In the third chapter in the Book (Megillat) of Esther, the plot is revealed. Haman was promoted by King Ahasuerus to become first among officials. All of the king’s courtiers bowed to Haman, except for Mordecai. He refused, saying that he’s a Jew. That enraged Haman who decided to get rid of all of the Jews in the Persian Empire. He took his extermination plot to the king, who approved it.¹

Haman then said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them. If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.”²

With royal assent, the killing is to take place on the 13th day of the 12th month. That led Mordecai to lobby Queen Esther to persuade King Ahasuerus to reverse the edict. She succeeded and outed Haman as the agitator trying to kill the Jews of Persia. Haman, who planned to impale Mordecai on a stake “fifty cubits high” at his home, was impaled. Mordecai took over Haman’s role in the court.³ In Jewish and Christian commentary, Purim endures because it hails the triumph of good over evil.⁴ It’s crucial to note that Queen Esther deeply resonates with Christian audiences. At Crosswalk, a Christian living website, Rhonda Stobbe wrote in 2021 Bible Study why she felt so attracted to Esther.

On an ordinary day God chose Esther to do through her what He had planned before she was even born. As a young girl when I learned this fact I remember thinking, If God had a plan to use an ordinary girl like Esther maybe He has a plan for my life too (Ephesians 2:10)!

First Corinthians 10:11 says, “Now all these things happened to them as an example, but they were written for our instruction…” Imagine, God penned Esther’s story so that you and I could learn, not only from her example, but to also show us how He works sovereignly in the lives of ordinary people who submit to His ways.⁵

The Forward amplifies the reasons for this obsession. It notes that Esther’s model of courage, divine providence and standing against evil is now politicized in the U.S.

The Heritage Foundation, the influential conservative think tank behind the Project 2025 blueprint for the second Trump administration, launched “Project Esther” to combat antisemitism. It was drafted largely by evangelical organizations. At the same time, Texas schools recently adopted a Bible-based curriculum that gives Esther a starring role in lessons about historical courage alongside figures like Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks.⁶

There is also the Esther Call, which Josh pointed out to me, appears leverages the Book of Esther as a way to reinstall Christian values. They are “mobilizing a righteous movement of Esther and Mordecais”⁷ of united prayers to save Brazil in a day.

The Lord is summoning A Million Women, Esthers, young and old with their husbands and children to descend upon Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 25, 2025. Just like in Washington, DC, this will be a LAST STAND moment for Brazil. There Esther will PRAY, FAST, and cry out for her children, for death has climbed through our windows. There she will find healing and deliverance in the presence of worship. There she will apply the blood of Jesus to the doorpost of our personal and national guilt and declare the victory of the cross over witchcraft and the powers of darkness. There she will take her STAND and inject herself into the public battle for the revival and reformation of Brazil.⁸

However, in our return to Judaism, the analysis of Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon of B’nai Jeshurun in New York of the Purim holiday is far more philosophical and spiritual.

The goal is that we will learn to reach redemption and God’s Presence on our own. That is why Purim is the last holy day of the year: Purim is about humans taking full responsibility and taking their lives into their own hands. Purim is about the miracle of human self redemption. When we struggle to take ourselves out of the narrow places where we get stuck and suffer, when we learn to make light in the darkness is when we meet God’s concealed Presence.⁹

The idea of granting us agency to make decisions seems wise. And yet, Rabbi Elliot Tepperman of Reconstructing Judaism believes that one of the four lessons of Purim is the role of chance.

Where we are born, who our parents are, the friends we meet, what we look like—these are all things that are either completely or mostly out of our control. We work hard to exert control in those areas that we can, but it is just as important to learn how to roll with the punches and how to accept our blessings.¹⁰

Two more lessons from Tepperman are to have fun and that the world looks different upside down. That second lesson comes from the Talmud. Rava said: A person is obligated to drink on Purim until he does not know the difference between "cursed be Haman" and "blessed be Mordechai."¹¹ For Tepperman, that means we are reminded of the moral ambiguities of life.

There are genuine evils and injustices in the world that demand we speak up like Esther. But even as we take action or speak up, we do so knowing that heroes and villains are often more defined by perspective than fact.¹²

And yet, the ambiguity suggested by Tepperman is not consonant with mainstream Jewish thinking and perception. Purim is usually interpreted as an example of hope, resilience and community.¹³ Consider the message of the CEO of UJA Federation of Toronto, Adam Minsky, to mark the holiday.

As we hear the remarkable account of the rescue of the Jewish people from destruction in ancient Persia, we find in its two leading figures, Mordechai and Esther, an instructive model for how to advocate for one’s community in the face of evil and hatred… The Jewish tradition includes many heroes who have stood up to the forces of evil and spoken truth to power. Mordechai and Esther have a cherished place in that tradition, precisely because they reflect Jewish activism par excellence.

I can’t think of a more relevant model to inspire us today as we stand up to hate. May we do so without sacrificing the joy and positivity of being Jewish that our kids deserve to experience not only on Purim, but always.¹⁴

However, the problem with all of these interpretations are that they are deliberately selective. It does not consider the totality of the Book of Esther, which doesn’t just end with the death of Haman. It concludes with Jewish vengeance.

So the Jews struck at their enemies with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their enemies.¹⁵

The Book of Esther then documents the scale of Jewish wrath. Jews killed 800 people in the fortress of Shushan and impaled Haman’s 10 sons.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. 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.¹⁷

Shaul Magid, back in 2014 for The Forward, wrote about the dark side of Purim. His article marked 20 years of the Baruch Goldstein massacre in Hebron, which killed 29 Palestinians. Goldstein viewed Palestinians as Amalek.¹⁸

Let us not forget that on Purim we drink to celebrate blotting out the nation of Amalek, of whom Haman is said to be a descendant. The Shabbat before Purim, called Shabbat Zakhor, Jews gather in synagogues to read the only biblically mandated Torah reading of the year, the verses that command genocide against the Amalekites. Perhaps we are commanded to get so inebriated on Purim to simulate the seemingly paradoxical notion of blotting out the memory of Haman through the very act of remembering Amalek. We must remember not only to not forget, but to blot out the enemy — not mercifully, but through genocide.

It is true that the rabbis long ago were aware of the danger of this commandment and put it to rest by saying we no longer know who Amalek is. But as Elliot Horowitz shows in painful detail in his must-read book Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence, Jews never really gave up on Amalek.¹⁹

In fact, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked Amalek on Oct. 28, 2003, when launching the invasion of Gaza after the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas.

The reference to Amalek and the Book of Esther raise an uncomfortable point about Jewish self-perception. What we are taught in Jewish communal structures is that we are consistently victims over the past two milennia. But the Book of Esther clearly demonstrates that victims can become victimizers when presented with means and opportunity.

Living in a mental state wherein we think the world is always against us just because we identify as Jewish is an untenable way to relate to others. Asking the question, “But is it good for the Jews?” about the decisions one makes—even subconsciously—starts to build up “otherness” and may lead to growing gaps between Jews and different groups.²⁰

This gap is most acute on Israel-Palestine. Credible human rights groups accuse Israel of genocide and acts of genocide in Gaza. Mainstream Jewish organizations profoundly disagree. However, Peter Beinart argues this sanitization of Israeli behaviour is tied to the incomplete appraisal of the Book of Esther.

Our communal story—told by Jewish leaders from Jerusalem to New York—is not wrong because it acknowledges the evil that Jews suffer, including the evil that Hamas committed on 7 October, and continues to commit by holding Israelis as hostage. The story is wrong because it denies the evil that Jews commit. Our refusal to reckon with the dark side of Purim reflects a refusal to reckon with the dark side of ourselves, to acknowledge our full humanity, which renders us capable of being not only victims, but victimizers as well.²¹

Perhaps that’s the real lesson of Purim: our need as Jews to embrace complexity. We can love the fun of the holiday but be cognizant of the violent vengeance. Similarly, we can love Judaism but be critical of a state that carries out war crimes in our name.

1. Book of Esther, 3:1-7

2. Book of Esther, 3:8-9

3. Book of Esther, 7, 7:9 for fifty cubits high

4. AP 1996: https://www.deseret.com/1996/3/2/19228333/purim-hails-triumph-of-good-over-evil/

5. Rhonda Stobbe, Crosswalk, 2021: https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/who-was-esther-and-why-was-she-so-important.html

6. Forward, Why are Christians obsessed…: https://forward.com/news/691762/purim-christians-queen-esther/

7. See: https://amillionwomen.org/

8. Ibid.

9. See https://israelforever.org/israel/celebrating/purim_lessons_for_today/

10. Reconstructing Judaism: https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/four-lessons-we-learn-purim

11. The Purim Drunk, Chabad: https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/2814/jewish/The-Purim-Drunk.htm

12. Reconstructing Judaism, https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/four-lessons-we-learn-purim/

13. Mothers of the Hostages: https://aish.com/mothers-of-the-hostages-3-purim-lessons/

14. Email from Adam Minsky, Mordecai and Esther: Lessons in advocacy

15. Book of Esther, 9:5

16. Book of Esther: 9:6-15

17. Book of Esther: 9:16-17

18. The Dangerous Rhetoric, Noah Lanard, Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament/

19. Shaul Magid, 2014, Forward: https://forward.com/opinion/194161/the-dark-side-of-purim/

20. Jewish Education Project, https://www.jewishedproject.org/news/always-victim

21. Peter Beinart, Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/11/jews-gaza-palestine-israel-purim