A Purim Megillah

-First Aid-

Hey friends: Last year I couldn't find a Book of Esther translation for my family that didn't glorify or gloss over the violence done to women and non-Jews, so I made one myself. This year a translation that grapples with these themes feels more important then ever. If you'd find it useful, you're welcome to use or share.

Detail from Edwin Long’s 1878 painting “Queen Esther”

The Scroll of Esther

Translated by Rabbi Jericho Vincent

Adar 5784

March 2024

Introduction

Far back, in a time before memory, the ancestors marked the first stirrings of spring with a joyful holiday celebrating the Divine energies of feminine love, beauty, and political power. They called these Godly energies Esther, or Hidden One.

Why do you think feminine love, beauty, and political power were associated with the end of winter and the start of spring? Why do you think they might have called the powers of feminine love, beauty, and political power “Esther” or “Hidden One”? What are the connections between “Hidden One” and the start of spring?

The ancestors told many mythic stories about Esther. Almost two and a half thousand years ago, in the 4th century BCE, the ancestors wrote some of their favorite Esther stories down in The Scroll of Esther. This was an era in which men were consolidating their power in society, and in The Scroll of Esther we see the agendas of men layered over stories of feminine power— but feminine power is still there, waiting for us to find and celebrate it.

Like many ancient myths, The Scroll of Esther is messy and bloody. It’s not an instruction manual for living life: it’s an expression of the wounds and the wisdom that we inherit from the ancestors, a narrative that can help us understand why we are who we are.

The Scroll of Esther has been read out on the springtime holiday of Purim for almost two and a half thousand years in countries around the world, shared from one generation to the next. My parents heard it from their parents who heard it from their parents, all the way back. I wanted to tell my children the story of The Scroll of Esther but I couldn’t find any English translation that worked beyond patriarchal boundaries or had self-awareness of how these ancient stories resonate today.

This year, the resonances are particularly horrifying, as the Israeli government, activated by generations of trauma and the horrors Hamas committed on October seventh, enacts something akin to the stories described at the end of this ancient text, amplifying the cycle of violence by killing tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children and describing these deaths, as the characters in this narrative do, as “self-defense.”

With all of this weighing heavily on my heart, I created this translation. Mostly, these sentences hew word-for-word to the ancient original Hebrew, but they’re framed in non-patriarchal ways and translated with a mix of some of my own translations and translations from the JPS 1985 translation as published on Sefaria.org, and a light sprinkling of later ancestral legends and mystical insights. The full lines in italics are my commentary.

May all of us be blessed to step out of the upside-down-right-side-up/victim-oppressor spinning wheel of trauma to write new stories for the children of today and tomorrow—stories of peace and stories of a shared future of prosperity for all.

Ken teheye ritzona

May it be Her will

Rav Jericho Vincent

Chapter One

Our story happened during the reign of Achashverosh, king of an empire of one hundred and twenty-seven states from India to Nubia— including the ancestral territories of the Jews that the Persians called Yehud. Achashverosh’s palace was in Shushan, an ancient Persian river-side city.

In the third year of King Achashverosh’s reign, he threw a party that lasted one hundred and eighty days for all of his officials and nobles from across his empire. And then another party, this one seven days long, for all of the people of his capital city of Shushan, from the richest aristocrats to the families of the poorest beggars.

At the party there were curtains of white cotton and blue wool caught with cords of fine linen and purple wool, hanging from silver rods between alabaster columns. There were couches of gold and silver and floors made of marble and pearl mosaics and golden goblets overflowing with wine. There was only one rule at this party: “No rules!” and King Achashverosh ordered his servants to give every man at his party whatever they wanted.

The women, meanwhile, had their own party (we are not told that nonbinary folks had their own party, although we will encounter nonbinary folks in this story– perhaps they chose which of the two parties they wanted to attend). The women’s party was hosted by the queen, a woman of great royal lineage named Vashti.

On the seventh day of the Shushan party, after the one hundred and eighty days of the empire-wide party, King Achashverosh was very very drunk, and he ordered seven royal officers, all nonbinary folks, to bring him his wife, Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, so that the men of Shushan might admire her great beauty.

In ancient cultures where men and women were segregated, nonbinary folks often occupied positions of royal power, trusted emissaries who could move between the male and female worlds.

Queen Vashti refused to come and be ogled at. King Achashverosh was furious. He turned to his seven closest legal advisors and asked: “What does the law say the consequence is for Queen Vashti refusing the command of myself, King Achashverosh?”

One of the advisors, Memuchan, spoke up and said: “Queen Vashti’s crime is not only against King Achashverosh but against all of the men of his majesty’s empire, for once the women hear that Queen Vashti refused to obey King Achashverosh’s commands, they, too, will refuse to obey the commands of their own husbands. And once they no longer feel forced to obey our commands, they will feel so much contempt and anger towards us! If it pleases your majesty, create a royal edict that Vashti shall ‘never appear in your presence again,’ and someone more worthy shall take her place in the royal family. If you do this, all women will respect their husbands.”

The king and the other (all male) advisors agreed that this made a lot of sense to them. So it was. Vashti was killed. And for good measure, the king sent out legal notices to every state in his empire written in every language spoken by his people, commanding that every man should be the head of the household, and everyone in the home should speak the language he spoke— the language of patriarchy.

Do you think the narrator of this story or the ancestors who told this story supported Achashverosh’s actions, or thought they were foolish and harmful?

Chapter Two

After some time had passed, King Achashverosh’s anger left him and he began to remember Vashti and he began to regret what he had done to her and he began to feel quite distressed. To try and cheer him up, his servants suggested a gruesome idea. They said:

“Let all of the beautiful young women of your empire be gathered in Shushan under the care of the nonbinary officer Haiguy, give them all the makeup they want, and the one you like best, you’ll make queen in Vashti’s place.”

King Achashverosh liked this idea and so it was.

Perhaps for a few women this might have been a great adventure— a chance to try and win the heart of the most powerful bachelor of the empire. But for most women, this was not an adventure. It was a horrifying mass tragedy. Ripped from their homes and their loved ones, women were brought against their will to Shushan to be assaulted by the king and then jailed in the palace for the rest of their lives— for once they had been with the king, they could not be permitted to go home.

Now remember, this is a mythic story that probably reflected historical narratives familiar to the ancestors. What does this part of the story express about the ancestor’s painful experiences regarding how women were treated? How might we honor this pain?

In the city of Shushan, there was a Jew named Mordechai from the tribe of Binyamin. Mordechai’s great grandfather had been born in Jerusalem and was exiled when the Jews lost their autonomy to invaders and were kicked out of their homeland. Mordechai carried this traumatic history in his body and his spirit.

Mordechai was the caregiver of his cousin, an orphan child named Hadassah (which means myrtle) who was also called Esther. Esther was the daughter of Avichayil and she was an unusually beautiful and charismatic young woman.

The word that describes Mordechai as caregiver, omain, means nurse. The ancestors say that when Esther was a baby, Mordechai chest-fed her milk produced by his own body to keep her alive. Perhaps Mordechai was also a nonbinary person. You’ll notice that like the nonbinary officers, he is a go-between the female world of Esther and other male worlds…

When the king decided on his terrible Queen-replacement-plan, Esther was snatched from her adopted-father, Mordechai, against her will, and jailed in the palace with other women under the care of the officer Haiguy. Haiguy was charmed by Esther, and they gave her all she needed and they treated her with special kindness. Esther did not tell Haiguy or anyone else that she was Jewish because Mordechai had told her to keep her identity hidden.

Every day, Mordechai would walk in front of the palace where the women were jailed to check on Esther.

Each of the women jailed in the palace would be “beautified” for a period of twelve months– six months of oil treatments and six months of perfume and makeup– and then brought to the king for one night, with whatever she wanted to bring with her. In the morning, she’d go to a separate jail for such women in the palace, where she’d live for the rest of her life and never again see the king unless he called for her by name.

In the wintery tenth month of the seventh year of King Achashverosh’s reign, it was the turn of Esther the daughter of Avichayil, adopted daughter of Mordechai, to finally appear before the king. If Esther protested, she might lose her life like Vashti did, so she let them take her. She asked for nothing, bringing with her only what Haiguy advised.

The king loved Esther more than all of the other women and was drawn to her charm and grace. He put a crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Esther became a jailed queen, a queen against her will. The king gave a great party called “Esther’s Party” for all of his officials and gave many gifts to his people.

One day, Mordechai was waiting at the palace gate for news of Esther when he overheard two guards, Bigsan and Seresh, plotting to kill King Achashverosh. Mordechai passed this news on to Esther, and Esther had this news reported to King Achashverosh, making sure to credit Mordechai. The matter was investigated, Bigsan and Seresh were found to be guilty, and hung, and the story was recorded in King Achashverosh’s “Journal of Daily Events.”

Chapter Three

Some time later, King Achashverosh promoted a man named Haman to be his second-in-command. The king ordered that all bow to Haman, and everyone did—except for Mordechai, for the Jews believe there is great power in bowing, and will only bow to True Power.

The king’s servants noticed that Mordechai, sitting at the palace gate, anxiously checking on Esther, would not bow to Haman and they asked: “Why do you not bow?” Mordechai explained that he could not because he was a Jew. The king’s servants told Haman of Morechai’s refusal to bow.

Mordechai and Esther came from families that carried the trauma of colonization and exile. Then Esther was taken and jailed against her will. Then the servants of the king endangered Mordechai by snitching on him to Haman. We can imagine how much fear and trauma was activated in Mordechai and Esther, how these events might have made them feel helpless and unsafe. Think about times in your own life when you might have felt helpless and unsafe. How, if at all, did these times change you?

When Haman saw that Mordechai would not bow to him, he was enraged. But he did not lay hands on him. Having heard that Mordechai was a Jew, Haman wanted to take out his anger on the whole Jewish people throughout the empire of Achashverosh.

In the first month of the new year, Nisan, (in this calendar the new year starts in the spring,) in the twelfth year of Achashverosh’s rule, Haman cast lots (or: “Pur-im”) to decide when to take action against the Jews. The lots fell on the last month of the year, the month of Adar, when winter ends and the first stirrings of spring begin.

Haman said to King Achashverosh: “There is a people who are scattered amongst your empire who are different from the rest of us and do not obey your laws and it is not in your interest to tolerate them. If it please your majesty, create an edict that allows them to be destroyed, and I will give you ten thousand silver coins.”

The King took his signet ring of his hand and gave it to Haman and said: “Do as you like.”

On the thirteenth day of the month of Nisan, the scribes wrote this order down in every language of the empire and runners were sent to every corner of the kingdom, declaring that in almost a year’s time, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the people of the empire should massacre every single Jew, young and old, and take all of their possessions. Then the king and Haman sat down to a feast, but the city of Shushan was dumbfounded.

Does the response of the city of Shushan tell us anything about how the non-Jewish people in this story related to the Jews? Does the discordance between the King and Haman’s reaction and the people’s reaction tell us anything about the chasm between the agendas of people in power versus the agendas of common people?

Chapter Four

When Mordechai learned what had happened, he ripped his clothing, put on sackcloth, smeared his body with ashes, and moved through the city crying out loudly and bitterly. He came to the palace gate, but could not enter, for no one could enter the palace gate in sackcloth.

And so it was in every state of the king’s empire: the Jews mourned with fasting, weeping, wailing, sackcloth, and ashes.

Esther’s servants told her of Mordechai’s appearance. Disturbed, she sent fresh items of clothing to Mordechai, but he refused to wear them.

Perhaps Esther sends clothing to Mordechai so that he may enter the palace gate and meet with her, as they usually met. Why might Mordechai refuse to change his clothing and meet with her?

The mystics say that we each have all of these characters within us– an inner Mordechai, an inner Esther, an inner Haman, an inner Achashverosh, an inner Vashti... Do Mordechai and Esther’s actions from here on out tell us anything about how the different parts of our own inner worlds respond to trauma and fear?

Esther sent Hatach, one of the nonbinary officers in her court, to Mordechai to learn “what in the what” (“mah zeh v’al mah zeh”) was going on. Hatach went out to see Mordechai and Mordechai told Hatach what Haman had done, paying the king to be allowed to destroy the Jews, and Mordechai gave Hatach a copy of the king’s order and told him to show it to Esther. Mordechai told them to tell Esther to go to the king and try and save her people.

Hatach gave this message to Esther. Esther told Hatach to return to Mordechai and give him the following message: “Every single human being in the empire knows that if anyone, man or woman, enters the king’s inner court without being asked for, they are put to death, unless the king decides to extend his scepter. And I have not been summoned to visit the king in thirty days. I don’t think he’s keen to see me.”

Mordechai heard this message and sent his own message back: “Do not imagine that you, of all of the Jews, will be saved in the palace. If you keep silent, help will come to the Jews from some other place, and you and your father’s house will perish. U’mi yodeah im li’ait kizot higaat la’malchut—And who knows? Perhaps it is for a time such as this that you became queen.”

Then Esther replied to Mordechai: “Gather all the Jews who live in Shushan and do not eat or drink for three days and nights. I and my ladies-in-waiting will do the same. Then I’ll go to the king, even though it is against the law. If I die, I will die.”

Mordechai did what Esther had commanded.

Chapter Five

After three days of fasting, Esther, dressed in Godly-radiance, stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, where the king could see her. As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing there, he adored her and extended his golden scepter. Esther approached and touched the scepter, as was the custom.

“What’s with you, Queen Esther,” the king asked. “What do you want? I would give you up to half my kingdom.”

Esther said to the king: “If it’s okay with your majesty, let your majesty and Haman come today to a party that I have prepared.”

The king issued a command: “Tell Haman to hurry up and do what Esther wants.”

The king and Haman arrived at the party that Esther had made. As they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther: “What is your wish? I will give it to you. What is your request? Up to half the kingdom, I’ll make it happen.”

Esther replied: “My wish, and my request–if it’s okay with Your Majesty, and if Your Majesty wants to give me my wish– let your Majesty and Haman come to a party which I will make tomorrow, and tomorrow I will answer the king’s question.”

How many parties have happened so far in the story? This is a very Dionysian tale—a lot of the important action happens at drunken parties.

Haman left the party happy and in a great mood, but when he saw Mordechai at the palace gate and Mordechai did not get up or tremble before him, Haman was filled with rage towards Mordechai. He restrained himself and went home, and sent for his beloveds and his wife, Zeresh.

Haman told them about his glorious wealth and many sons and how the king had embiggened him, and lifted him above all of the princes and servants of the king.

Haman said: “Queen Esther did not have anyone at her party other than the king but me, and also tomorrow, I am summoned to her along with the king. But nothing rests easy with me because of every time I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the palace gate!”

The ancestors telling this story are imagining themselves into the private conversations of their enemy. They create this character, Haman, whose sole motivation seems to be to protect his own ego at all costs. Haman is a bad guy who doesn’t seem to register other people as people, but only as extras in the story of his own life. This is an extreme cartoon, but in what ways do we sometimes overlook the humanity of people we’re in conflict with? In what ways do we hurt people to protect our own egos?

Zeresh, his wife, and his friends said to him: “Let’s put up a big wooden pole, fifty cubits high. In the morning, ask the king if you can hang Mordechai on it, and then you can go happily to the party with the king.”

Haman liked this idea and he set up the wooden pole.

Chapter Six

That very night, the king couldn’t sleep. Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, an exhausted King Achashverosh ordered that the book of records, the “Journal of Daily Events” be brought and read to him.

The servants opened it up, and began to read the story of how Mordechai had reported about Bigsan and Seresh, the two officers who guarded the king’s entrance, who had sought to do away with King Achashverosh.

The king said: “What great reward was given to Mordechai for saving my life?”

The servants said: “We haven’t done a thing for him.”

At just that moment, the king heard someone outside. “Who’s there?” he demanded. It was Haman, who was coming to speak to the king about hanging Mordechai on the wooden pole he’d prepared for him.

“It is Haman,” the servants said.

“Let him come in,” the king ordered.

Haman entered the inner court. The king said to him: “What should be done for the man who the king wants to honor?”

Haman said to himself: “Who would the king want to honor more than me?”

So Haman said to the king: “The man who the king wants to honor? Bring royal clothing and the king’s personal horse, topped in a royal horse-crown, and let one of the king’s nobles parade the person the king wants to honor through the city streets, calling out ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king desires to honor!’”

The king said to Haman: “Hurry! Take the clothing and the horse that you spoke of and do just this to Mordechai the Jew who is sitting at the palace gates. Do not fail to do any of the things that you spoke of!”

So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and dressed Mordechai and paraded him through the streets of the city, and called out: “This is what is done for the man whom the king desires to honor!”

Then Mordechai returned to the palace gates and Haman hurried to his house, his head covered in grief.

Haman told Zeresh his wife and all of his beloveds everything that had happened to him. His advisors and his wife Zeresh said: “Oh, is this Mordechai whom you have begun to fall before from the lineage of the Jews? You will not win, you will surely fall to your doom before him.”

The ancestors told this story, generation after generation, in times and places where they were helpless and victimized, and there was no sure promise of survival let alone triumph. Many of them lived under oppression and died brutal deaths at the hands of their neighbors. We can imagine that this romantic legend, so simple and so confident, offered a kind of relief they almost never felt in real life. In real life, outcomes are far less certain and our own success is not assured. In real life, our enemies have their own motivations and their own wounds and their own complex perspectives.

As they spoke, the king’s officer arrived at Haman’s house and quickly brought him to the party which Esther had prepared.

Chapter Seven

The king and Haman came to the party with Queen Esther. This was a two day party, and on the second day, drunk with wine, the king again asked Esther: “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. And what is your request? Up to half the kingdom, it shall be done.”

Queen Esther answered: “If I please your majesty, and if it’s okay with your majesty, my wish is that you give me my life, and my request, my people. Because I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and wiped out. If we had been only sold into slavery, I would have kept silent, because something so small is not worthy of troubling the king.”

King Achashverosh asked Queen Esther: “Who is he and where is he, who would dare to do this?!”

And Esther answered: “The man who is our enemy who has trapped us is this evil Haman!”

Haman trembled before the king and queen.

In a rage, the king stormed out of the wine party and into the palace garden, while Haman stayed to plead with Queen Esther for his life, because he saw that the king had decided to harm him.

The king returned from the palace garden to the party room and found Haman lying on Esther’s sofa, where he was bowing down, begging for his life.

The king roared: “He also wants to attack my queen in my own home!”

As soon as these words left the mouth of the king, Haman’s face fell.

Notice: Haman’s fate is sealed because the king accuses him of sexually attacking Esther. Of course, the king has done exactly the same thing, making Esther his wife against her will. Esther’s safety is not actually relevant in this scene. In this patriarchal context what is relevant is which man “owns” her and gets to commit violence against her.

Then Charvona, one of the nonbinary officers of the king said: “That’s not all! There’s a wooden pole fifty cubits high at Haman’s house that he made for Mordechai— the guy whose words saved the king’s life!”

The king said: “Hang him on it!”

So they hung Haman on the pole which he had put up for Mordechai, and the king began to calm down.

Chapter Eight

On that day, King Achashverosh gave to Esther the Queen the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.

Mordechai came before the king, because Esther had finally told the king that he was related to her.

The king removed his ring which he had taken back from Haman and gave it to Mordechai, and Esther put Mordechai in charge of Haman’s property.

Once again, Esther spoke up before the king and she fell at his feet and cried, and she begged him to undo the evil of Haman the Agagite and his plans against the Jews. The king held out his golden scepter and Esther got up and stood before the king.

She said to the king: “If I please your majesty, and if it’s alright with your majesty, and if I’m good in his eyes, let it be written to bring back the letters– the plan of Haman the Agagite, to destroy the Jews throughout the King’s empire. Because how can I witness the evil that will befall my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?”

King Achashverosh said to Queen Esther and to Mordechai the Jew: “Look: I’ve given Haman’s property to Esther, and he’s been hung on a stake for his violent scheming. You guys can write to the Jews whatever you want in the king’s name and seal it with the king’s ring, but as for the edict against the Jews that’s already been issued, a letter written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring can’t be revoked.”

So in early summer, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day, the king’s scribes were summoned, and wrote as Mordechai commanded to the Jews and to the governors and officials of the one hundred and twenty seven states from India to Nubia, each in their one language, and to the Jews in their own language. These letters were written in the name of King Achashverosh and sealed with his ring and sent out by horseman riding royal horses. They said:

The king permits the Jews of every city to gather and act in self-defense, to destroy, kill, and wipe out all of the state soldiers who attack them, and their women and children, and plunder their possessions, on one single day in all of the empire of King Achashverosh: on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month in early spring, the month of Adar.

Wait a second—if this is an act of self-defense, why are children being murdered? What kind of reasoning is this? It’s an act of reasoning that the ancestors knew all too well, as their own children were actually murdered by their neighbors who made all kinds of nonsense claims to excuse what they’d done. So this revenge fantasy operates by the same principles. Which is heartbreaking. Even when we are horribly wounded and terribly vulnerable, the only way to actually ensure the safety of our own children is to break the cycle of violence and to insist on another way forward.

In any case, and in every case, no child is an enemy. Every child has an inviolable right to life.

A copy of this letter became law in every state, displaced for every people, for the Jews to be ready to revenge themselves on their enemies.

The trauma spiral is spiraling… Now the command is revenge, not self-defense…

The messengers on Achashverosh’s horses went out swiftly and at great haste at the king’s command, and the law was set in the city of Shushan. Mordechai went out from the king in royal clothes of blue and white, with a crown of gold and a robe of linen and purple wool, and the city of Shushan erupted in joy.

Do any of these descriptive words sound familiar? Go back to the very first party…

The Jews were radiant with joy and happiness and honor. In every state and city as the king’s command arrived, there was joy and celebration for the Jews, parties and a holiday. And many of the other people pretended to be Jews, because they had become very afraid of the Jews.

This detail of the revenge fantasy must have been very resonant for some of the ancestors, who, in the generations of the Inquisition and during the Holocaust and other times had to pretend to be Christian to avoid death at the hands of their Christian neighbors.

Chapter Nine

On the thirteenth day of the early springtime month of Adar, the twelfth month, the king’s command and law were done, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, vinahapoch hu, it was turned upside down, and the Jews had power over their enemies.

The Jews gathered in their cities in all of the states of King Achashverosh, to attack those who wanted to cause harm to them, and no man stood in their way, because a great fear had fallen on all of the other peoples. And all of the officers of the states, the governors and the king’s men, respected the Jews, because the fear of Mordechai had fallen upon them. Because Mordechai was now powerful in the palace, and word was spreading to all of the states that the man Mordechai was becoming more powerful.

The Jews struck at their enemies, slaughtering them with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did with their enemies what they wished. In the city of Shushan the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, and the ten sons of Haman son of Hamdata, enemy of the Jews: Parshandata, Dalphon, Aspasa, Porada, Adalya, Aridata, Parmashta, Arisay, Ariday, Vazayta. But they did not touch their property.

On that day the number of the dead in the city of Shushan was told to the king. The king said to Queen Esther: “In the city of Shushan the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. In the rest of the states of the empire, what they must have done!! What is your wish now? It shall be given to you. And what is your request? It shall be done.”

Esther said: “If it’s alright with your majesty, give tomorrow also to the Jews to do in Shushan like they did today, and to hang Haman’s ten sons on the wooden pole.”

The king said this should be done, and the law was given to Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman were hung. And the Jews gathered in Shushan on the fourteenth day of Adar and killed three hundred men. But they did not touch their property.

The rest of the Jews that were in the other states of the empire gathered and fought for their lives and stopped their enemies, killing seventy five thousand of their enemies, but they did not touch their property. This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. They rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of parties and joy. But the Jews in Shushan gathered to fight on the thirteenth and fourteenth days and so they rested on the fifteenth, and made it a day of parties and joy. This is why village Jews that live in unwalled towns make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a holiday of joy and drinking and a day to send gifts to their neighbors.

Mordechai wrote these events down. And he sent scrolls to all of the Jews in all of the states of King Achashverosh near and far, telling them that on the fourteenth and fifteen days of Adar every year–the days that the Jews stopped their enemies, the month that had been turned upside down for them and transformed from grief to joy, from mourning to holiday– to make these days into parties and joy, and to send gifts to their neighbors and presents to the poor.

The Jews did what they were doing, which is what Mordechai had written to them, because Haman the son of Hamdata, the enemy of all of the Jews had thought to destroy the Jews, and had cast pur, lots, to destroy them, but when Esther came before the king, he had said “turn this evil idea on its head!” so they hung him and his sons on the tree. This is why these days were called Purim, after the pur.

Because of this and all of what had happened to them, the Jews accepted upon themselves and all of their descendents and all who might join them, to observe these two days in this way and at this time, year after year. And these days are remembered and observed from generation to generation, every family in every state, every city. And these holidays of Purim will never stop for the Jews, and the memory of them will never end for their descendents.

Queen Esther, daughter of Avigayil, and Mordechai the Jew wrote a second letter of Purim with full power that was sent to all of the Jews in the one hundred and twenty seven states of the empire of Achashverosh. This letter contained words of peace and truth to establish these days of Purim, as Mordechai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them for their own lives, and for their descendents, matters of fasting and crying out.

This paragraph is a curious one. What is this second letter? What are these words of peace and truth? The fasting and crying out seems to refer to the somber holy day called The Fast of Esther that is observed on the day immediately before Purim.

The words of Esther authorized these matters of Purim and it is written in the scroll.

Seems like a fitting way to end the story, no? No no no no. Some non-female characters would like the last word.

Chapter Ten

King Achashverosh imposed a tribute on the lands and the islands, and all of his mighty and powerful acts, and the power that the King gave to Mordechai are recorded in the “Journal of Daily Events” of the Kings of Medea and Persia, because Mordechai the Jew was second to King Achashverosh and was powerful for the Jews and popular with most of his people, he sought good for his people and peace for his descendents.