As Useless As Purim's Mordechai Being Paraded Around on King Achashverosh's Horse

Yesterday, at Matan, Atara Snowbell really got my mind going.  As I've mentioned before, she's teaching us Decoding the Riddled Text of Esther.  Considering that we've been living in Shiloh for close to forty years, and Shiloh is one of the few locations to celebrate two days of Purim, meaning four Megillat Ester readings a year and I only go to reading without noise, I considered myself quite an expert re: Megillat Ester.

Atara never ceases to amaze me in finding aspects I never would have dreamt of.

Yesterday she did some basic plot analysis based on something she had learned from Dr. Jonathan Grossman.  There's a literary term Chiastic or ring structure, which means that the plot goes from A B C D C B A.  A, B and C (or any number) have parallel or opposites, but D stands alone.  We're now up to Chapter 6 in The Scroll of Esther in which there's the subplot about how King Achashverosh couldn't sleep and asked that his "diary" be read to him.  He hears about Mordechai saving him from traitors and realizes that no reward had yet been given.  The result is that Haman is forced to lead his enemy Mordechai around on the king's horse.

Now, this is a favorite scene for illustrators and children's plays.  There's the irony of Haman thinking the king wants to honor him, so he suggests what he dreams of, being considered king by all who see him.  But Atara showed us that although Haman was very upset and embarrassed nothing really changed for the Jews of Persia.  Haman's decree to kill all the Jews, men, women and children, sealed with the king's ring, still held.  For Mordechai, it was just a useless, time-wasting ceremony.

Nu, what do you think went through my mind?  Yes, all those so-called Appease aka Peace sic Agreement Ceremonies we've seen over the decades.

None of them brought us PEACE.  They certainly didn't stop Arab terrorism, the murder of Jews.

Things are only getting worse.  It takes more than a photo-op ceremony to make peace, true peace.  It takes generations of efforts to change the murderous minds and cultures.  We must stop all negotiations with the Arabs.  We must invest our strength into building a strong independent society and country.  With time, yes, a very long time, the Arabs will realize that we're not willing to be sacrificed for peace prizes and meaningless honors.

הוא עושה שלום במרומיו
הוא יעשה שלום עלינו
ועל כל עם ישראל ...

Hu oseh Shalom bimromav
Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu
v'al cal Yisrael...

He makes Peace from His heights
He will make peace for us
and all of Israel...

True Peace will only come from G-d, when we're truly ready to accept it.