Purim

I've never been a big fan of Purim. Although I'm a big fan of cookies and drinking, the two pillars of Purim celebration, the story that goes along with the revelry has never sat well with me. Today I re-read said story, the Book of Esther. In many ways, the Purim story follows the standard template of Jewish holidays: Bad guys tried to kill off the Jews; through our wits and strength and the intervention of G-d, we were not annihilated; let's eat! In this case, the bad guy, Haman, literally wanted to kill off all the Jews in the empire, i.e., genocide, mainly so that he and his people could take our money and stuff. Not nice.

But here's where the story loses me. After the lovely Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai foil the evil Haman's plans, what do they do? Well, with the help of the king, they turn it around on him, killing Haman, his ten sons, and 75,000 other people! Now I know this is fiction, but I refuse to celebrate collective punishment and mass murder. While the story rubbed me the wrong way from the first time I heard it, it is especially troubling to me now, because it seems so much like what Jews did so recently in Gaza, with similar rationale. So count me out.

Instead, my observance of Purim consisted of making a donation to Human Rights Watch, my former employer, in honor of Alison Des Forges, who was killed in a plane crash a few weeks ago. I only met Alison a couple of times, but she was legendary for her tenacity in documenting the horrors of the Rwandan genocide, so it seemed fitting to me to honor her on this day.