Purim

Purim (“Lots”) is a Jewish festival that commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people from being annihilated by Haman, the royal vizier to the Persian king Ahasuerus (aka Xerxes I). Haman’s plans to kill the Jewish people were foiled by Mordecai and Esther. Esther was Mordecai’s cousin and adopted daughter, and in Esther chapter 2 she becomes the Queen of Persia after marrying King Ahasuerus.

The name Purim comes from Esther chapter 3, which describes how Haman chose the day on which he planned to kill all the Jews throughout Persia:

When Haman saw that Mordecai didn’t bow down nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath. But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. (Esther 3:5-7 WMB; “purim” is the plural of pur.)

Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions. (Esther 3:13 WMB)

Although these days many Hebrew Bibles are published in book form, for ceremonial purposes the Hebrew Bible is composed of 16 scrolls or megillahs. The book of Esther fills one of those megillahs all by itself, and Megillat Esther is usually read in its entirety on the festival of Purim. It’s true: they really do read “the whole megillah.” Which is actually where that expression (the whole megillah) comes from.

By the way: the Purim cookies pictured above are called hamantaschen. Hamantaschen is a Yiddish word that translates to “Haman’s pockets.” When I was a child, hamantaschen were traditionally filled with poppies or prunes, and I’ve read that the Yiddish word hamantaschen probably evolved from the German word mohntaschen, which means “poppy pockets.”

Most biblical holidays were instituted by God through Moses in the Pentateuch. However, Purim was instituted by Mordecai and Esther, and Hanukkah (which happened between the Testaments) was instituted by Judas Maccabeus after he rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah can only be called a biblical holiday because of a very brief reference to Hanukkah in the New Testament book of John: “It was the Feast of Hanukkah at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.” (John 10:22-23 WMB)

The Bible passage from Esther in which Mordecai establishes the holiday of Purim is as follows:

20 Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly, 22 as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy. 23 The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, 24 because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast “Pur”, that is the lot, to consume them and to destroy them; 25 but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plan, which he had planned against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

26 Therefore they called these days “Purim”, from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, 27 the Jews established and imposed on themselves, on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to what was written and according to its appointed time every year; 28 and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their offspring.

(Esther 9:20–28 The World Messianic Bible)

Margot Armer