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Purimfest 1946
Notes
Reference
: www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/rosenzweig/archives/vayikra.htm
Queen Esther invited both King Achashverosh and Haman to her first, and then a second banquet, during which she revealed Haman's treacherous plot and her true identity to the King; then Haman was hanged from the gallows. Mordechai was rewarded and he and Queen Esther arranged for the Jews to protect themselves from the anti-Semitic hoards on the 13th day Adar. In the process the ten sons of Haman were executed (Chapter 9:1-6).
Yet, Chapter 9:12-14 reads:
"... 'What is your request now? It shall be granted to you. What is your petition further? It shall be fulfilled.' Esther replied, 'If it shall please His Majesty, allow the Jews who are in Shushan to act tomorrow as they did today, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows.' The King ordered this be done. A decree was distributed in Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons."Interestingly, in the Megillah (Chapter 9:7-10), each son of Haman is mentioned on a separate line and among all the letters comprising their names, four unusual letters stand out. Three letters are written smaller than normal and one letter is larger:
Why did the letters change from the accepted size and proportions? And if the sons of Haman were hanged in verses 7-10, why did Esther request that they be hanged again in verse 14? These two questions were answered at a Aish Hatorah Discovery seminar a few years ago,
First of all, let me mention that the Megillah is unusual because the Name of Hashem does not appear even once in this book. The commentaries point out that sometimes the Megillah makes a reference to Hamelech Achashverosh (the king Achashverosh) and at other times reference is made only to Hamelech (the King). Whenever the word Hamelech is used alone, it also means Hashem, the King of kings.
Queen Esther was not only asking King Achashverosh for the ten sons of Haman to be hanged, she asked the King of kings to also hang 10 accomplices of another Haman at some future time in history. How do we see this?
The Hebrew alphabet can be used for gematria (numerology). Each letter is assigned a numeric value;
Aleph equals 1, Bet equal 2 and so on until Yod, which equals 10.
Then the next ten letters skip to digits of 10; Chaf equals 20, Lamed equals 30 and so on until Kof, which equals 100. Then the next few letters take on powers of 100; Resh equals 200, Shin equals 300 and the final letter, Taf equals 400.
The single largest numeric letter equals only 400. Combinations of letters equate to a specific numeric value.
The present year is 5757 (calculated from creation). The letters that represent this equation are Taf (400), Shin (300), Nun (50) and Zayin (7). However, these letters only add up to 757; the year of the millennium is assumed, otherwise, an exceedingly large group of letters would be necessary to equal 5,000.
Returning to the large and small letters in the names of Haman's sons. The large Vav (equals 6) signifying the 6th millennium (from the years 5001 to 6000). The remaining 3 letters - Taf (400), Shin (300), and Zayin (7) - equal 707 of the 6th millennium, or, the year 5707.
Esther was asking the King of kings to allow the 10 accomplices of a future Haman to be sent to the gallows in the year 5707. The Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Torah records that:
"...On the 7th day of the Sukkot (Tabernacles) festival, the judgment of the nations of the world is finalized. Sentences are issued from the residence of the King. Judgements are aroused and executed on that day." (Zohar Vayikra - 31b)Many of us celebrating Purim today equate Hitler with Amalek or Haman. On the 7th day of Sukkot, in the year 5707, corresponding to October 16th, 1946, the 10 aids to Hitler were hanged after being found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nurenberg trials. Newsweek magazine (October 28, 1946, Foreign Affairs Section, page 46), ran a story on the hanging. The last paragraph describes the death of Julius Streicher:
"Only Julius Streicher went without dignity. He had to be pushed across the floor, wild-eyed and screaming: 'Heil Hitler!' Mounting the steps he cried out: 'And now I go to god.' He stared at the witnesses facing the gallows and shouted: 'Purimfest 1946'." !!
http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/rosenzweig/archives/vayikra.htm
Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, a week before Germany's surrender. The "heroic" leader of the German people chose not to face the consequences of defeat. But twenty-one other Nazi leaders mainly responsible for the criminal acts of the Germans survived.
It was at Nuremberg, in 1946, that an international tribunal was formed to bring these murderers to justice. No power on earth, of course, could bring the eleven million victims – six million Jews and five million others – back to life. But perhaps this act of the world going on record that it would not tolerate inhuman acts on this scale might serve to prevent similar horrors in the future.
Nuremberg represented a giant leap forward in the legal thinking of mankind. The defense of the Nazi officers, that they were "only acting under orders," was rejected; people must obey a "higher law" if the law of the land is completely immoral. Murder can never be justified, even when the government approves of its practice.
Do you remember how the prophet Nathan had expressed this very same truth to King David, that even the most powerful ruler could not place himself above the law? It took many centuries but at long last, at the price of eleven million people, the world finally understood what the Bible had taught ages ago!
As Julius Streicher was being led to the gallows, he inexplicably shouted out "Purimfest – Purim festival." Amazingly enough, Streicher had made a connection with an ancient story about the first attempt in Jewish history - the story of Haman - to destroy the entire Jewish people. The story ended with the ten sons of Haman hung and the Jews surviving. Is it simply a bizarre coincidence that the judgment of Nuremberg, too, ended with exactly ten Nazi leaders condemned to pay for their crimes by hanging? And was Streicher's last word a "coincidence" that forces us to acknowledge this incredible linkage?
http://www.aish.com/holocaust/issues/The_Nuremberg_Trials.asp
During the Nuremberg Trials after World War II 23
Nazi war criminals were tried. "Originally 11 were to have the death
penalty imposed if found guilty. Everybody in those days thought that they would
be shot - as is customary in military executions - or get the electric chair -
as was common in the United States. But when the judges announced the verdict of
guilty, they also said that hanging would be the method of execution. Two hours
before the execution, they found Hermann Goering dead in his cell. He had
committed suicide. That left only 10 Nazis to execute."
"There is more to this story than meets the eye. In Megilat Esther
(9:7-9), when it describes the execution of Haman's ten sons, their names are
listed in a vertical column. If you look at the Hebrew closely, you'll notice
extra-small letters in three of the names. The first name, Parshandata, has a
small tav. The seventh name, Parmashta, has a small shin. The
tenth name, Vayzata, has a small zayn. Hebrew letters are also used as
numbers, as well as for dates in the Jewish calendar. Tav, shin, zayn
numerically means 707, corresponding to the year 5707, which began with Rosh
HaShanah - the Jewish New Year - on September 25, 1946. On October 16, 1946,
as foreshadowed in the names of Haman's ten sons, ten Nazi leaders were hanged
as war criminals. And if that doesn't impress you, out of nowhere, with the rope
around his neck, Julius Schtreicher - editor of Der Sturmer, the Nazi
propaganda newspaper - shouted out with flaming hatred in his eyes, just as the
trap door opened, "Purimfest 1946!" It was reported in the
international press of the day."
http://www.adlusa.com/adl/warforus.htm
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Feb 26, 2004