Tonight is the
Jewish holiday of
Purim. It celebrates the events in the
Book of Esther. The book relates the story of a
Jewish woman in
Persia, born as Hadassah but known as
Esther, who becomes queen of Persia and thwarts a
genocide of her people.
Haman was the minister of the Persian king
Ahasuerus. All of the king's servants were required to bow down to Haman, but
Mordecai refused to. Angered by this, and knowing of Mordecai's Jewish nationality, Haman convinced the king to allow him to have all of the Jews in the Persian empire killed.
Haman's plot was foiled by Queen
Esther, who was also Jewish and had concealed her identity from the King. Esther invited Haman and the king to two banquets. In the second banquet, she informed the king that Haman was plotting to kill her. This enraged the king, who was further angered when (after leaving the room briefly and returning) he discovered Haman had fallen on Esther's couch, intending to beg mercy from Esther, but which the king interpreted as a sexual advance. The King promises to grant her any request.
"The king granted to the Jews who are in every city, the right to assemble and to protect themselves, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish the entire host of every people and province that oppress them, small children and women, and to take their spoils for plunder.” [Esther 8:11]
On the king's orders, Haman was hanged from the gallows that were built to hang Mordecai. Next, Haman's ten sons and 500 other men are killed (9:1–12). Upon hearing of this Esther requests it be repeated the next day, whereupon 300 more men are killed (9:13–15). In the other Persian provinces, 75,000 people are killed by the Jews (9:16–17)
The
Jewish holiday of
Purim commemorates the story of the Jews' deliverance and Haman's defeat. On that day, the Book of Esther is publicly read and much noise and tumult is raised at every mention of Haman's name. Various noisemakers (
graggers) are used to express disdain for Haman by "blotting out" his name during the recitation of
Megillah. Pastry known as
hamentashen (Yiddish for 'Haman's pockets'; known in Hebrew as אזני המן,
ozney Haman, 'Haman's ears') is traditionally eaten on this day.
After the jews get done celebrating the preemptive murder of their enemies maybe they can get around to releasing some Epstein files before "the noticing" gets to a critical mass and the backlash isn't as easily contained.
Or they can continue to cover up child rapists, if that's their preference. Seems like a risky gamble to me; just to be able to protect child rapists.
