Today, 17th March, is of course Saint Patrick's Day, in commemoration of the (possibly Welsh) Christian who persuaded the Irish to convert, en masse, to Christianity. Of course, nowadays it's largely an excuse - and a good one at that - for Irish-themed partying worldwide.

We have some customers in town this week - we met up with some of them on Wednesday night for dinner, and they're having the big meeting this afternoon. On Wednesday, it was mentioned that one of two of the group feel their Irish roots strongly at this time of year and will be going to find their people to celebrate tonight. Today, the boss asked me to find some appropriately-themed clipart for the presentation this afternoon - said he could get the graphics gut in the office to do it, but he'd have to explain St. Patrick's Day first, which is fair enough - and I sent on some nice inoffensive shamrock pictures. The response from the boss? Clarified his intentions - he didn't want shamrocks, he wanted 'drunk leprechauns'...

The Megillah - meaning 'book', in the sense of 'volume', i.e. a Biblical book rather than a bound sheaf of papers - is correctly called Megillat Esther, the Book of Esther. It is quite short, and is read twice during the current festival of Purim. A summary:

1. Achashverosh was the king of Persia. He was successful and secure in his position. He held a party, to celebrate his victories and general wonderfulness, and ordered his wife, Vasti, to dance at the party, to entertain his guests - commentary says he ordered her to dance naked. She refused, and he, in a fit of rage, and prompted by one of his closest advisors, cut her off, removed her title, and published a nationwide edict informing the people of this, in order that his authority not be seen to be challenged by his wife.
2. The king, feeling the lack of a wife, ordered a nationwide beauty contest to find a new wife. Mordechai, a Jewish man, one of the exiles (for this was, after all, Babylon) had raised his cousin Esther since her parents had died, and she was a beautiful young woman, and she was caught up in the contest. She, having charmed the court official who was running the contest, was given preferential treatment, and her cousin Mordechai checked in with her every day of the year of preparation leading up to the contest. Esther, naturally, won the beauty contest, and was chosen as the new queen. During this entire episode, Esther had hidden her Jewish identity, on her cousin's advice. Later, after the feast at which Esther was announced and crowned as queen, Mordechai overheard two of the king's men plotting against him, and reported them - a good deed which was recorded in the formal chronicles of the kingdom.
3. Haman became prime minister, and he demanded that all men should bow to him, but Mordechai refused, as Jews bow to no-one except God. This made Haman so angry that he decided not just to destroy Mordechai, but to destroy all the Jews of the kingdom. He drew lots - chose a random day to go before the king and raise his plan, using the same arguments used by anti-Semites to this day, that the Jews are a nation apart, with their own laws, which they place above the laws of the kingdom. Haman then offered to pay 10,000 silver talents (hundreds of tons of silver, according to one commentary) into the king's treasury, in order to fund the national annihilation of the Jews - the king agreed to the plan, refused the payment, and caused orders to go out nationwide proclaiming the doom of the Jews, on a date almost a year later. The king and Haman then sat down for a drink.
4. The Jews, including Mordechai, were understandably upset, and they went into a period of mourning. Esther heard rumours, and sent a trusted servant to ask Mordechai what was going on. Mordechai told the servant the story, and gave him a copy of the edict for Esther to read, and asked her to intervene with the king on behalf of her people - she protested that none could approach the king except on his summons, on pain of death, and that she hadn't been summoned for a month. Mordechai, in turn, reminded her that she was also a Jew, that she could not hide in the palace, and that maybe she had been fated to win the heart of the king in order to avert this disaster for her people. She requested that Mordechai order three days of fasting for the Jews of Shushan (the capital city in which they lived) before she would go before the king, unsummoned, and he did so.
5. On the third day, she went before the king, who extended his scepter, granting his favour and averting her death. He asked her what she wanted, offering her anything up to and including half the kingdom, but she simply invited the king, and Haman his prime minister, to a feast. At that feast, the king again asked her what she wanted, making her the same offer, but again, she simply invited the king and Haman to another feast the next day. On the way home from the first feast, Haman saw Mordechai, and infuriated, he ranted and raved to his wife and friends that while he, Haman, was prime minister, and the only other guest at two feasts thrown by the queen for the king, it was all meaningless while his nemesis Mordechai was still living free. Haman's cronies suggested than in order to clear his mind, he should build gallows, and before the feast the next day, persuade the king to hang Mordechai, which seemed a good idea.
6. That night, the king couldn't sleep, so he asked his advisors to read to him from the chronicles of the kingdom. Coming to the record of Mordechai's patriotic deeds reporting the plot earlier, the king asked what reward Mordechai had been given - on hearing that no reward had been make, he decided it was time to do something about it, and called for Haman which was apparently loitering around the court (waiting for a chance to suggest hanging Mordechai, maybe?). The king asked Haman what reward would be suitable for a man to whom the king owed a reward. Haman, in his vanity assuming the king was referring to himself, suggested that the man should be dressed in the king's clothes, placed on the king's horse, and given a march of honour through the city. The king liked the idea, and ordered Haman to carry out the plan at once, giving Mordechai the honour to which he was entitled. This did not make Haman a happy man... His advisors, realising that Mordechai was a Jew, and seeing Haman's humiliation at the hand of his rival, suggested that maybe Haman had bitten off more than he could chew, and that there was something about the Jews which made them, generally, come out on top in the end. Then he was summoned to the second feast...
7. Again, at the second feast, the king asked Esther what she wanted from him, again offering anything up to and including half of his kingdom. She then revealed herself as a Jew, under the doom of her people, and begged the king to withdraw his order for the destruction of the Jews. The king asked who was behind the plan to destroy the Jews, including his queen, and she named Haman. The king left for a short while to consider his options, and returned to find Haman, realised that his plan had been foiled, begging the queen for his life - the king, however, misunderstood and thought that Haman was threatening or even attacking the queen, flew into a rage, and ordered that Haman should be hanged upon the very gallows he had constructed for Mordechai.
8. The king then appointed Mordechai prime minister in Haman's place, giving him his signet ring and therefore the right to issue (and seal) orders in the king's name. Esther again begged the king to save her people, and he gave Mordechai carte blanc to do whatever was necessary, given the proviso that an order issued in the king's name - as the original order of annihilation had been - could not be rescinded. Mordechai put out an order which, simply, gave the Jews permission to arm and defend themselves, their families, and their property, on the nominated day of destruction. Mordechai was publically honoured (again?) and there was celebration throughout the kingdom by the Jews - and many gentiles, afraid or in awe of the Jews, decided to convert and throw their lot in with them.
9. When the day came, the 13th day of the 12th month, there was carnage. With the support of the local government, the Jews organised and defended themselves, killing 500 people in Shushan, the capital city. At the queens request, they were given an extra day in Shushan to do what they had to do, killing another 300 enemies, taking to total nationwide to 75000, and hanging the 10 sons of Haman. On the 15th, the Jews celebrated their victory with feasting, and Mordechai, who as leader of the people, proclaimed the festival which is still celebrated today, that on the 14th and 15th days of the 12th month, Jews should forever celebrate their deliverance from and victory over an enemy determined to destroy them. He also declared that people should exchange gifts of food, and gifts to the poor, as part of the celebration - again, a custom which is still very much active. The festival is named Purim, from the word pur, meaning lot (as in lottery), because Haman drew lots to decide which day to approach the king and suggest his evil plan. The laws and dates of Purim were set down for the ages, and the story written in a book (the book which I've just summarised!) to be read by all Jews every year on the anniversary of the events - and the Jews accepted and embraced the new festival, the final Biblical festival.
10. Under Mordechai, the kingdom prospered, and he was a popular and wise prime minister who took care of the needs of the people.

And that's pretty much that - more to come later...

Technorati tags: jewish purim megillah

What can I say? I like ferries, and I'm in Sydney for a week... It's a lot more expensive than the Star Ferry, but the views are amazing, particularly on a sunny day like today.