What would cause a Jew to interpret the biblical Book of Esther as a story that focuses on Jews killing their enemy rather than the edict that was proclaimed to annihilate the Jewish people? If you don’t know, the same answer lies in the war that followed the October 7, 2023 massacre perpetrated by Hamas upon Jewish innocents.
Both events are amazingly similar, as each case involves Jews living their daily lives without a thought of harming those who either lived among them or close by.
In the Esther story, it is estimated that a million Jews had been living, for a period of over a hundred years, in what is known today as Iran, following the Babylonian exile from the land of Israel. By all accounts, they had been living freely in the Persian Empire, able to practice their customs and laws.
It wasn’t until the enemy Haman appeared that the situation became precarious for the Jews there. As the highest-ranking government official, who convinced the king to enact a law compelling everyone to bow before him, Haman became outraged when Mordecai, a Jew, refused. That chain of events was responsible for an order to destroy all of the Jews.
The rest of the story, well-known to most, reveals how Esther, divinely placed in the position as queen, was able to save her people from extinction. Since the king’s order could not be reversed, Ahasuerus instead authorized the Jews to arm and defend themselves to the death, killing anyone who threatened them or their families (Esther 8:11-13). In one day, just in the palace complex, 500 men, together with Haman’s 10 sons, were killed. On the following day, another 75,000.
Now, fast forward to October 6, 2023, when Israelis were living peacefully, happily providing Gazans with an income by allowing them to work in their kibbutz communities. The following morning, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded their homes, and mercilessly slaughtered whole families, the elderly, babies, children, and everyone else.
How would any nation react to such a brutal attack? The same way Israel did! It was not easy battling the enemy on their own turf, while trying to protect Gaza’s civilian population that was being used as human shields. But it was how the war was fought for more than a year.
Great pains were taken to warn non-combatants to evacuate areas so they wouldn’t be caught in the crossfires. But when rockets are embedded in private homes, hospitals, and other public areas, there is always the risk of unintended casualties.
Placing the burden on victims
JEWISH-AMERICAN journalist, Peter Beinart, however, has interpreted these two accounts in a way that places the burden squarely on the shoulders of the victims, rather than the perpetrators. As he wrote in The Guardian on March 11: “Purim isn’t only about the danger gentiles pose to us. It’s also about the danger we pose to them.”
For Beinart, the central theme is not the obvious miraculous divine intervention that occurred when Esther is sovereignly positioned as queen, poised to save her people. Instead, it is “the violence that concludes the Esther scroll in which it is justified as self-defense by some Jews.”
He makes a troubling comparison by likening “these blood-soaked verses” in the Book of Esther to the “life-and-death power over millions of Palestinians who lack even a passport.”
It’s clear that Beinart either naively believes that if Esther had done nothing, rather than plead her case before the king to spare her people, the Jews would have been okay.
Likewise, he apparently believes that had Israel not resorted to military intervention, what happened on the morning of October 7 would have been contained to one unfortunate day, with no further outbreak or enemy uprising.
If this isn’t delusional thinking, what is?
Given the massive rocket and drone attacks, along with Hamas terrorist infiltration that is still happening as of this writing, why would Beinart foolishly believe that it would have been preferable not to retaliate – especially given the fact that the lives of 251 hostages were at stake?
It is this kind of irrational, misplaced guilt that dangerously and foolishly rules out self-defense as a completely justified act, a God-given response to every living being whenever they feel threatened or imperiled in any way, causing them to fight back in order to stay alive.
Beinart’s response is one that can be expected from a person living in New York, thousands of miles away from rocket fire or threat of annihilation by those committed to our demise. It is this kind of delusional thinking that makes you wonder how any normal human being could come to such erroneous conclusions, even to the point of self-betrayal.
Would Beinart refuse to defend himself if surrounded by an angry mob whose goal was to kill any Jews who crossed their path? Would he count it as violence to fight back for the lives of his wife and children?
When hearing such a lack of normal human reflex and common sense, you have to wonder what it is that causes this type of self-loathing, especially found among liberal and progressive Jews who choose to stand out rather than identify with the rest of their tribe.
Can it be that they doubt the genocidal intent of Jew-haters or is it that they want to appear to be more virtuous and civilized in a pretend world where pacifists have the high moral ground?
Sadly, that universe doesn’t exist. Although we’ve arrived at a period that has greatly distanced us from the dark ages of barbarism, savagery, and brutality, not much has changed as it relates to the propensity of the human heart.
It remains desperately wicked and prone to the worst tendencies and basest evil, despite our sophisticated culture that we might have hoped would bring about the dawn of a new age. It hasn’t.
This is what Peter Beinart has yet to internalize. We still live in a world inhabited by violent men who will kill you if you don’t kill them. Though they live in every corner of the earth, they are especially plentiful in this corner of the world. We make no apology for defending our home, our families, our country, and our race.
To do otherwise is to engage in delusional thinking that will only result in our extinction.
The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.