Published: 6 March 2025
Last updated: 4 March 2025
It’s a phantasmagorical tale of murderous Jew -hatred, a dynamism of horrific terror and the unabashed pursuit of power. A world upended. It’s the upside-down universe of today. It’s the absurd world of the Book of Esther
The Megillah is a story of contradictions, peppered with coincidences and events of pure chance. At one moment the Jews of Persia are living in comfort and security assured of their respected place in the multicultural environment of ancient Iran, the next instance they face a devastating decree of destruction. With giddy intensity they move from terrifying fear to the festivity of a Jewish PM and powerful Jewish Queen.
Comments2
David Cohan22 March at 03:08 am
Australian Jewish
Democratic Society
We are deeply concerned by some wording.
You state:
‘the chilling and exceptional mitzvah to “eradicate Amalek” makes more sense to me now than ever before.’
As is well known, Amalek has been invoked by prominent members of the Israeli Government, Rabbinate and Military. Sometimes in explicit calls for Genocide of Palestinians, sometimes as thinly veiled code for Genocide or a similar project.
Are you endorsing those calls?
We believe your public standing, as a community leader, Principal Rabbi to Australian Defence Force, and Member of the Religious Advisory Council to the Minister of Defence, calls either for the retraction or the clarification of your statement.
David Cohan
for the Australian Jewish Democratic Society
Wesley Parish6 March at 09:55 am
I am wondering, does Rabbi Ralph Genende that the IDF were the cause of Hamas’ creation? After the IDF invasion of Gaza and the Sinai during the Suez Crisis in 1956, the IDF carried out some massacres in Khan Younis and Rafah. Among those murdered was the uncle of a future Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi – I think he would’ve been quite entitled to say that Amalek was incarnate in Israel and its irrational hatred of the Palestinians, the descendants of the ancient Israelites and Canaanites and Philistines …