The Purim Mirror |
Shul
Chronicles 111 Rabbi
Moshe Taub (Originally published in Ami Magazine) Hitler, Haman, and History Allow
me to open this week’s column –during the week of Purim – with a most
remarkable, unbelievable statement from the gemara. Jewish
Telegraph Agency April
8, 1935 Berlin “Adolph
Hitler was compared today With Haman, the Persian minister of ancient times who
plotted to massacre the Jews, in an article appearing in the Nazi paper
Judenkenner. "Both
Hitler and Haman are leaders with a profound knowledge of the Jews," the
Nazi paper says, adding that the Jews had better be careful about "the red
flame of hatred against Hitler" because this flame may destroy them
utterly.” While
sadly and eerily prescient, 1935 was not the first time this comparison was
made. Sorrowfully,
the Nazis took this comparison to heart. One Purim SS guards took ten Jews to be
hanged in Zduńska
Wola for payment for the hanging of Haman’s ten sons. That Shavous they did
the same to represent the Luchos, R’l
(20th Century Jewish Thought, p. 949). “…
‘Megillat Hitler’ is today on display at Washington, D.C.’s U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum. Written in Hebrew, its text mimics the language of the original
Scroll of Esther, as it describes the rise of “Hitler the painter,” who rose
to become the ruler of all of Germany, and who decided, on the advice of his
chamberlain Himmler, to destroy the Jews. The
author of the scroll, P. Hasine, a Hebrew teacher from Casablanca, tells how
Hitler’s plan to deport the Jews of North Africa was foiled at the last minute
by the decision of President Roosevelt, “who could not sleep,” and so
“commanded that these states be rescued and given protection.” Thus the
feelings of the Jews “went from mourning into happiness because the Americans
established their rule.” The scroll declares that every year, on the 11th of
November, “we are obligated to establish this day of rescue,” a “fixed and
grand festival.” Just
as the Purim story mirrored events of the future so did it mirror the past (what
follows is taken from this writer’s 2007 kuntros
‘Davarim Shavim’). Does not the story of Esther remind you of the story of
Joseph? Consider:
A king has trouble sleeping (Bereishis 41:4); two men are punished for a crime
against the king (ibid. 40:1); a king’s party ensues helping to lay out
the foundation of astounding chains of events to come (ibid. 40:20); someone was
killed (by the order of the king) at said party because of their lack of
proper respect to the king (Sar HaOpheh, ibid. 40:22);
the protagonist is honored/repaid by becoming the משנה
למלך (see Ramban ibid. 41:43); also, he
is repaid by being afforded the luxury of riding on the kings horses while
wearing the king’s clothing (ibid. 41:42, 43); Pharaoh removed his ring to
place it on Yoseph (ibid. 41:42); Yaakov, while “giving in” to an ultimate
sacrifice, exclaims (ibid. 43:14), "כאשר
שׂכלתי
שׂכלתי",
which is strikingly and eerily familiar to Esther’s statement when she had to
make the ultimate sacrifice, "כאשר
אבדתי אבדתי"
(Esther 4:16), indeed, see Ramban (Bereishis 43:14) who too draws this
comparison without further comment; Midrash Tehillim (#10) comments –“You
sold your brother then sat down to eat…there will come a time when your
descendents will be “sold” by a feast as well, (Esther 3:5) when Haman and
Achashverosh will partake in a feast and decide there to exterminate the Jews;
indeed the story of Yoseph does not read like the rest of the Torah in the sense
that much detail is given, to the point that the story is laid out in over 10
chapters, like a Megilla, indeed no
other event or episode in the Torah is given this much scriptural detail or
space; see Moshav Zakeinim to 50:4 where he explains the need for Yoseph
to send a messenger to Pharaoh as being similar to Esther 4:2 (his comparison)
that since Yoseph – like Mordechai - was in sackcloth it was not becoming of
him to approach the king; once we develop this connection between Purim and the
story of Yoseph, we can then investigate deeper into the story, so, we even find
drinking until the point of intoxication by the story of Yoseph (ibid 43:34);
when Pharaoh is first introduced to us in parshas
lech lcha we find Avraham hiding Sarah in order to save her from the
king’s men discovering her beauty and reporting it to the king, exactly what
happened in the story of Purim –both Mordechai and Avraham failed in this
regard; both stories end with a seemingly unrelated recording of a מס/tax
levied on the populace of each story (see Rashi 47:25); the Megilla ends with a
Midrash that Mordechai was not loved by all (Esther 10:3) for he was too
involved in politics, the Gemara in Berachos 55a comments that Yoseph died
sooner then his brothers because he, too, dedicated too much time to politics;
see Megilla 16b where verse 45:22 here - and Yoseph’s favoritism shown to
Binyamin by giving him five times the clothing of his brothers - is explained to
be “homage” to the future grandchild of Binyamin, Mordechai, who will also
wear “five” kingly garments (ibid. 8:15). (See aforementioned kuntros
by this writer for more comparisons between Esther and Yoseph as well as other
biblical figures – available for free by request) Daf
Yomi takes place nightly at the Young Israel of Greater Buffalo, 105 Maple Road,
after the evening services. For complete schedule call 634-0212 or visit their
web site at yibuffalo.org
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