COMMENTARY: A Rabbi Walks the Street to Get Some Religious Answers

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A highlight of Jay Leno’s NBC-TV “Tonight Show” is when he goes “Jay Walking.” He leaves the Burbank studio, travels to a shopping mall or a busy pedestrian area and asks the proverbial men and women on the street questions about well-known historical happenings as well as current events. […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) A highlight of Jay Leno’s NBC-TV “Tonight Show” is when he goes “Jay Walking.” He leaves the Burbank studio, travels to a shopping mall or a busy pedestrian area and asks the proverbial men and women on the street questions about well-known historical happenings as well as current events.

The answers are frequently comical, but they are also dismaying since many folks interviewed reveal an astonishing ignorance of basic American history. With such ill-informed citizens, one trembles in fear for the very future of the Republic.


Inspired by Leno’s model, I decided to embark on my own “Jay Walk.” After all, the letter “J” also begins my name. Besides, writing a weekly column with only a computer and an elusive muse as company can be a boring and lonely activity.

So, departing from an undisclosed secret location recently vacated by Vice President Cheney (or so I was told), I ventured forth onto a typical U.S. street armed with a notebook and a series of carefully chosen questions. The results of my “Jay Walk” were … well, you decide.

Since millions of Americans pride themselves on being “deeply religious” and “Bible believers,” I focused my queries on the biblical book of Esther, the source of the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim (Hebrew for dice or lots) that begins on the evening of March 24 and concludes the next night.

It is a popular holiday celebrating the deliverance of “the Jews” (the modern term used in Esther, not the archaic “Israelites” or “Hebrews”) about 2,400 years ago from Haman, a genocidal Persian prime minister. Haman, an evil public official, manipulated Emperor Ahasuerus, a weak ruler, into approving the mass murder of his Jewish subjects.

Happily, the Jews are saved by some deft court intrigue, especially the efforts of Queen Esther, the Jewish wife of the Emperor, and Mordecai, her family relative.

Purim features costumes, carnivals, games, singing, partying, and the holiday’s culinary highlight is a small three-cornered sweet confection representing Haman’s hat.

In a macabre twist, Purim were cast to determine the exact day to kill all the Jews of Ahasuerus’ vast empire of 127 provinces that stretched from the Middle East to India. Like all murderous anti-Semites in history, personal loathing of Jews fueled Haman’s policy of mass murder. All he required was the king’s consent and some dice to determine when to start the killings.


The book of Esther and the Purim story is a thoroughly modern tale because deliverance from genocide comes solely through human efforts on the part of Esther and Moredecai. Haman is hanged for his monstrous scheme and Jews have celebrated Purim ever since.

In Esther there is no prayer to God for assistance, deliverance, or intervention. In fact, God’s name nowhere appears in the biblical book.

Sadly, Purim happened only once in history. There were too many other times when Haman’s spiritual heirs, most recently the Hitler-led Nazis, came close to achieving Haman’s horrific goal: kill every Jew in the realm.

With Purim nearly here, my first “Jay Walking” question was: who were Esther and Mordecai?

Most folks shook their heads in total ignorance, but several older people invoked the name of Esther Williams, MGM’s aquatic film star, who spent more cinematic time under water than on dry land.

Mordecai’s identity mystified everyone. However, one sports buff said the name belonged to a Chicago Cubs pitcher of a hundred years ago. He was referring to Mordecai Brown who is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The present day Cubbies could really use good ol’ Mordecai today.


Few people on my “Jay Walk” knew that ancient Persia is today’s Iran. Most answers linked the name to either expensive carpets or pet cats,but not to the nation whose capital is Tehran.

Undeterred, I pressed on and fired my last question to several passersby. In Hebrew, the book of Esther is called a “megillah” or scroll. I had assumed megillah was now common American parlance, meaning “a long complicated business.” Not true.

One respondent said megillah was the name of a Japanese monster movie. Another thought it was a “college somewhere up in Canada.” He meant McGill University in Montreal. One person thought megillah was the name of a rock star.

Shocked, yes shocked, by the public’s utter lack of biblical knowledge, I offered everyone the opportunity to enroll gratis in my course, “Rabbi Rudin’s Remedial Research Roundtable of Religious Recall and Remembrance.” But as I write these words back in my undisclosed location, there are no takers.

MO/DH RNS END

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)

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