c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Purim, the merriest of Jewish holidays, begins this year at sundown on March 3. In Hebrew, Purim means “lots” or “dice,” and it is based on the biblical book of Esther.

Esther’s 10 brief chapters tell a chilling story of intrigue, drama and royal politics, recounting the downfall of Haman, ancient Persia’s wicked prime minister, who instituted a policy of mass murder against the Jews.

Consumed with hatred, Haman cynically cast lots to determine the date for the executions. Catastrophe was averted by the direct intercession of Queen Esther, the Jewish wife of Emporer Ahasuerus, and the talented behind-the-scenes efforts of her uncle, Mordecai.

Esther and Mordecai were both aware that their high social status would not spare them the hangman’s rope. In an ironic twist of fate, when Esther revealed the sinister plot to her husband, the emperor ordered his prime minister hanged on the precise date and on the same gallows Haman had selected for Mordecai.

Even though the Purim events happened about 2,400 years ago, Jews still celebrate their deliverance with the annual reading of the book of Esther, along with costume parties, carnivals, satirical plays, parodies, special foods and songs _ and a painful recognition that Purim was not an isolated incident.

Indeed, the murderous efforts of anti-Jewish political and religious leaders have been a constant factor in history. The Crusades, pogroms in czarist Russia, Hitler and the Holocaust, and the current threats of mass murder spewed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come to mind.

It is clear that Haman would have carried out his gruesome plans if Esther and Mordecai had not acted as they did. Because Purim’s frightening events are written in a terse, cryptic manner, there is much we do not know.

Fortunately, just in time for Purim and by a stroke of good fortune, I recently gained possession of some ancient Persian documents, the contents of which have remained hidden until now. Because of the extreme sensitivity of this material, I cannot divulge my sources. But I am able to describe what the frayed parchment tells about Haman and his evil scheme.

Haman was not only the prime minister, he directed the super-secret ROPE (Royal Office of Persian Espionage) organization. ROPE was the empire’s intelligence agency, and its agents were omnipresent, transmitting information directly to Haman.

Happily for Persia’s Jewish community, ROPE’s intel about Esther and Mordecai was deeply flawed. ROPE agents were not able to discover what Mordecai knew about Haman’s plans and when he knew it.

In addition, ROPE’s director constantly assured his boss, Haman, that the Jews would not _ indeed, could not _ prevent the horrific fate that awaited them. Granted, my command of ancient Persian is a tad rusty, but it appears the top ROPE official told Haman that the mass murder of the Jews would proceed without a hitch, similar to a heavy stone making a “crashing plunge.” A Persian scholar tells me that more accurately reads “slam dunk.”

Haman, acting on ROPE’s faulty intelligence, arrogantly went ahead with his plans. However, a ROPE operative who did not want the mass murders to take place communicated with Mordecai, the most important leader of the Persian Jewish community.

ROPE’s “Deep Throat” informant made certain Mordecai had knowledge of Haman’s scheme. Mordecai then shared this invaluable intelligence with Esther, and together they exposed Haman’s venal plans to the king at a palace dinner.

The angry emperor decreed that Haman be hanged “because he laid his hand upon the Jews … who (at news of their deliverance) had light, gladness and joy … ” (Esther 8: 7,16).

Thanks to the ROPE documents, we now know, for the first time in history, what newscaster Paul Harvey likes to call “the rest of the story.”

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/LF END RUDIN

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