Thoughts on Purim and the Gospel

 Take a look at one rabbi's take on the events described in the book of Esther; if you know the Biblical story, you will see a number of things in his rendition which simply do not appear in the Biblical account; drunken arguments over whether Median or Persian women are more beautiful, details on the winestewardship of the Medeo-Persians, a gruesome fate for Vashti, suspicion of his regent Haman, and the claim that Esther's defense of her people was aided by wine as well.

Now I don't know how true any of this is, though I can imagine a lot of it being true without doing undue violence to the Biblical account.  What is interesting to me--as I read through the New Testament--is the fact that the "Oral Torah" does a lot of expansion on the Tanach, or Old Testament.  This "Oral Torah" is, with some modifications, what Jesus and the Pharisees are talking about when they are talking about the traditions of their fathers.

It's worth a read, and a celebration--as the good rabbi says, with a glass of wine perhaps, but not to the point where we would emulate the decision-making process of Ahasuerus.  More importantly, and deliciously, here's a recipe for Hamantaschen, a Purim cookie somewhat similar to kolacky--at least the cream cheese variant, if not the bread variant.

Why celebrate?  Simple; it is of course the way that our Lord preserved His Word against the depradations of the Agagites.   If that's not worth celebrating, I don't know what is.