As Jews around the world celebrate Purim, the annual commemoration of the divine salvation from extermination has a special resonance this year.
Haman, the Purim story’s central villain, the Persian Empire’s grand vizier, descended from the Amalekite peoples, has traditionally served as a stand-in for contemporary villains like Hitler, Stalin (Russian Jews celebrate a Stalin’s Purim marking the Communist tyrant’s death before he could execute his own holocaust in the USSR) as well as Hamas and other jihadists.
But the events of Purim taking place some 2,300 years ago are also intimately linked to the Exodus from Egypt, 3,300 years ago, and the establishment of the first Jewish monarchy several hundred years later under King Saul followed by King David and his dynasty.
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