The Jewish holiday of Purim, starting Saturday evening, centers on the biblical Book of Esther. Set during the ancient Persian Empire, the story recounts how King Ahasuerus marries the beautiful Esther unaware of her Jewish identity.
Haman, a wicked royal advisor, hatches a plot to have all Jews slaughtered in a one-day genocide, and convinces the king to agree. Esther discovers this plan and bravely reveals that she is Jewish. The king, furious with Haman, has him hanged.
However, the decree calling for genocide remains in effect. At Esther’s urging, the king issues another decree granting the Jews the right to defend themselves. On the appointed day for their genocide, the Jews rise, fight back, and some 75,000 Persians are killed. To further ensure the safety of her people, Esther convinces the king to have all 10 of Haman’s sons publicly hanged.
The Purim story is one of stunning reversals, none more consequential than Esther’s transition from passivity to action. She begins as an abandoned orphan, taken in by her cousin, who instructs her how to win the king’s favor. She obeys the court protocols and follows her cousin’s counsel to conceal her Jewish identity.
But once Esther learns of Haman’s plot, she is all action. She visits the king uninvited, an act punishable by death. She makes clever plans she skillfully carries out. She orchestrates the hanging of Haman and his sons. The Book of Esther is unique in the Hebrew Bible, there is no mention of G-d. This further underscores Esther’s agency.
But does Esther undergo a more problematic transition as well? Up to the moment at which she convinces the king to let the Jews defend themselves, Esther is undeniably a hero. But then comes the high death count of Persians. While her actions undeniably save her people, does her role shift from hero to something less clear cut? Does Esther’s support for violence in defense cross the thin line between justice and vengeance, self defense and aggression?
Jews talked of and argued about and prayed for a homeland since they were first exiled from their ancestral homeland, Israel. But it was not until Zionists acted on scale that Jews again had both a country and the military ability to defend themselves.
Today, the great majority of Jews live in just two countries in the world: Israel (41%) and the United States (41%). Israel is still the only country where, whatever other threats Jews face, no antisemitic government will turn against them. Thankfully, the U.S. remains such a country for now, but rising and increasingly violent antisemitism here shows that this cannot be taken for granted. Israel is the last bulwark.
If Esther were alive today, how far would she go to fight her enemies?
The West has grown accustomed to waging half-hearted wars with poorly defined objectives. But indecisive wars, fought with poorly defined objectives and a strange aversion to victory, are a false mercy.
Sometimes, military defeat — devastating as it is — is necessary. Forest fires clear away deadwood to promote new growth; decisive defeat in war creates space for societal transformations. The examples of post-World War II Germany and Japan, their old regimes dismantled and rebuilt with democratic values, serve as potent reminders of this truth.
Benjamin Netanyahu, with the full backing of his political rivals, has said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will go into Rafah because victory for Israel — that is, survival and future safety — is when Hamas fighters and their leaders are dead. President Biden told Netanyahu that this would be going too far. Netanyahu has stayed the course. Israel, he says, will fight until “total victory.”
In a similar vein, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that victory for Ukraine — that is, survival and future safety — is to get Russia out of all Ukrainian territory. Meanwhile, many of Ukraine’s allies are signaling that they think this — full victory for Ukraine — is going too far. Zelenskyy has stayed the course. Ukraine, he says, will fight until “absolute victory.”
Esther, too, had a clear goal for victory — eliminate those who would eliminate her people. She did not stop fighting until a decisive victory was won.
The Western political and diplomatic classes haven’t heard talk like this in a long time, not since World War II. It is no coincidence that that was the last war from which the worst of our enemies never came back.
Pittinsky is a professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University (SUNY) conducting research on antisemitism online.
Queen Esther, Purim and the IDF
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24.03.2024
The Jewish holiday of Purim, starting Saturday evening, centers on the biblical Book of Esther. Set during the ancient Persian Empire, the story recounts how King Ahasuerus marries the beautiful Esther unaware of her Jewish identity.
Haman, a wicked royal advisor, hatches a plot to have all Jews slaughtered in a one-day genocide, and convinces the king to agree. Esther discovers this plan and bravely reveals that she is Jewish. The king, furious with Haman, has him hanged.
However, the decree calling for genocide remains in effect. At Esther’s urging, the king issues another decree granting the Jews the right to defend themselves. On the appointed day for their genocide, the Jews rise, fight back, and some 75,000 Persians are killed. To further ensure the safety of her people, Esther convinces the king to have all 10 of Haman’s sons publicly hanged.
The Purim story is one of stunning reversals, none more consequential than Esther’s transition from passivity to action. She begins as an abandoned orphan, taken in by her cousin, who instructs her how to win the king’s favor. She obeys the court protocols and follows her........
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