by Rabino Samuel de Beck Spitzer

Those familiar with the Hebrew calendar will be aware that the Rabbinically instituted festival of Purim and the Biblical festival of Pessach (Passover) are precisely one month apart. On Purim we publicly read the Megillah (The Book of Esther) and on Pessach we recite the Haggadah (The narrative of the Exodus) at the Seder. One deals with the Emperor of Persia, Achashverosh ('Xerxes' in Greek) and his advisor Haman, the other with Ramses, a Pharaoh of Egypt. Both of these demi-God dictators ruled ruthlessly, mercilessly and waged military wars throughout their kingdoms. Indeed, neither the book of Exodus nor the book of Esther (Which made it into the Biblical canon) serve as exclusive historical source material on these tyrants nor are they by any means exhaustive. There are other sources written in Hieroglyphics and ancient Greek that paint a much larger picture as to their personalities and bloody reigns. One thing which these two characters have in common and which the Hebrew or Yehudi spirit cannot tolerate, is their Omnipotent self-perception. In both instances, the Hebrews/Jews came under enormous threat, whether through torturous physical labour and the murder of all male infants, or the scheduling of a date set aside for nothing less than a massacre.

According to Classical commentaries, it was not exclusively the physical threat to God's people that brought Him to miraculously intervene. Rather, the refusal of these despots to recognise Ado-nai/Elo-him/Sha-ddai as the all-powerful unique God who not only dictates the tide of monumental world events, but also presides over the minutiae of human destiny. Both Pharaoh and Haman were literally 'brought to their knees' in obeisance and subservience.

As is so vividly portrayed throughout the writings of the Prophets and materialised time and time again throughout the course of global history, when 'Israel' refuses to see God in the seemingly ordinary and mundane natural order, then it is taught the harshest of lessons. Both in ancient Egypt and in ancient Persia, we are told by our Talmudic sages that the Hebrews and Yehudim respectively, strayed, attempting to adopt their hosts' values and deities. Spiritual pollution and moral decay ensued and the removal of the very fabric that stamps the identity of the One God. It seems that Yisrael will always survive repeated attempted annihilation against them, the battering of bodies and physical death, but not the unfettering of moral duty nor the refusal to realise that providence and protection lies within the domain of the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. In such instances, God Himself removes the veil to reveal Himself as the all-powerful Master over nature itself, as demonstrated at the splitting of the Reed Sea, the simultaneous slaughter of all the Egyptian firstborns or indeed the sequence of the events that led to the story of Purim. So overt a seemingly hidden miracle was the latter that the Sages felt it worthy to be included within Scripture.

To my mind, this is the overarching message of Pessach and perhaps the only one that ultimately leads to a sublime freedom from tyranny.

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May I take this opportunity to wish you all a joyous Festival of Matzot.

Chag Sameach!