The story of Purim.... why did they kill Haman(boo!)'s sons?

[Vesayen]

If your familliar with the story of Purim..... if not, you don't have much to add heh.


So we just finished the magilla reading at my synogauge....... why the hell did they execute hamans SONS?

Where is the justice in that?!??!?

[Berzerker]

where is the justice in killing Egypt's first-born because of a dispute between Moses and some dictator

[KrazyHorse]

There's no justice in it. Biblical Jews and the OT God are bloodthirsty *******s

[DaShi]

The old testament was before God got anger management therapy. In the new testament, he becomes a hippy.

[Vesayen]

This was not an act of G-D, it was the act of Mordechai and Ester, Purim is a completley secular holiday, G-D has no part in it.

[KrazyHorse]

I know that. I live with 3 Jews, 2 of whom study at Baltimore Hebrew University and teach Sunday school to Jewish kids at a synagogue. God is a bloodthirsty ******* in other bits of nastiness.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Vesayen
This was not an act of G-D, it was the act of Mordechai and Ester

They were inspired by God. God must have been busy that day, so they took divine retribution in their own hands

[Az]

This was not an act of G-D, it was the act of Mordechai and Ester, Purim is a completley secular holiday, G-D has no part in it.

duh, Jews are *******s, since jews are people.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
There's no justice in it. Biblical Jews and the OT God are bloodthirsty *******s

Damn right. Funny how the bloodbaths tend to get played down at Sunday school. Apart from the Flood.

[Last Conformist]

The only Bible you'll ever need.

Yahweh was your standard bloodthirsty tribal deity in the mold of Huitzilopochtli - that's hardly news. As for Esther and Mordechai, bloody vengeance and punishing sons for the affronts of fathers was standard practice in the ancient Middle East. Worshipping a vindictive bastard isn't conducive to adopting lofty moral standards, and even by the notably lax standards of M-e deities Yahweh was a major bastard.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by DaShi
The old testament was before God got anger management therapy. In the new testament, he becomes a hippy.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

I feel pretty,
Oh so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and gay,

And I pitty,
Any girl who isnt me today,

Lalalalalalalala

I feel charming,
Oh so charming,
It's alarming how charming i feel,



And so pretty that I hardly beleive im real,
lalalalalalala,



See that pretty girl in that mirror there (what mirror where)
Who can taht attractive girl be (which one where hum)
What a pretty face(Hum)
What a pretty dress(Hum)
What a pretty smile(Hum)
What a pretty meeee(Hummm)

I feel stunning(feel stunning)
And entrancing(and entrancing)
Both:Feel like running and dancing for joy
for im loved by a pretty wonderful boy!

[OneFootInTheGrave]

as for Hamans sons, they would have benefited from anything Haman could have gained, so they did them in as well for good measure. I don't think they executed the daughters, and if so that is sex discrimination

(on top of other injustice)

[lord of the mark]

the jews dont just kill haman and his sons, but 75000 other folks as well.

According to Megillat Ester, which is a very odd book in many ways, the king had already sent the decree to have the jews and couldnt retrieve it, by law. So instead he gave the Jews permission to kill their enemies, those who would have carried out the earlier decree apparently, and those are whom they killed. one presumes Hamans sons are adults, and were planning on being involved in killing Jews as well.


The Egypt story is MUCH more difficult, and theres plenty of commentary on it. Of course thats done by G-d, not by the Jews, and so raises a different set of issues.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Berzerker
where is the justice in killing Egypt's first-born because of a dispute between Moses and some dictator

we had a very interesting discussion at shul the week that section was read. You might have found it enlightening. You should come to my shul the next time that parsha comes up.

Unfortunately I cant recall exactly what was said.


Im not going to argue it here. Just pointing that religious Jews are quite aware of the more difficult sections of the bible, and have been wrestling with them for centuries. If you like that wrestling, you should join us. If you dont, thats fine. But the notion that somehow we overlooked your fine insights strikes as bizarre, coming from otherwise intelligent people.