Religion and faith: Purim

Stories of rivers turning to blood, and seas parting, appear to have with little tangible connection to the contemporary world. Megillat Esther, on the other hand, serves to remind the Jewish people that even seemingly mundane and explainable events are attributable to divine intervention. Adherents of the faith are thus encouraged to seek God’s work in every facet of their lives.

The Purim story begins with the Persian King Achashverosh (Xerxes) executing his wife for insubordination, and choosing Esther – a local Jewess – as his replacement bride. Her cousin Mordechai then uncovers a plot to assassinate the king, and his efforts are noted down by royal aides. Next, the king appoints a new prime minister, Haman, who uses Mordechai’s refusal to bow before him as the pretext for a plan to annihilate the entire Jewish population of the realm, a scheme which gains approval from the king.

Upon discovering the plot, Mordechai calls upon his fellow Jews to fast and pray for salvation, whilst Esther persuades her husband to hang Haman on the gallows Haman had prepared for Mordechai, and to allow the Jews to defend themselves from slaughter. In this way, the Jewish people are saved, and the tables turned on those who rose up against them.

Jewish history is replete with attempts to wipe out the Jewish people. For all the horrors this has entailed, in some ways the traumas have been responsible for the preservation of Jewish culture and the continuation of the religion. Collective suffering has bound together followers of the faith in a way that nothing else could, and if there is any silver lining in the stormclouds that have gathered time and again over Jews throughout history, it is this.

Recourse to prayer and penitence as a means to avert suffering is a central tenet of orthodox Judaism, both in the personal and societal spheres. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews believe that they can influence their fate for the coming year by the strength of their contrition for past sins and their sincerity to improve their future behaviour. On a wider level, communal prayer and supplication, such as took place in Achaverosh’s Persia, have been repeated down the ages whenever Jewish life was at risk.

There is, of course, a danger attached to believing that God will always intercede in the way that his followers hope. When catastrophes do occur, such as the Holocaust, waves of Russian pogroms or other persecutions, the faith of many Jews is shaken to its