COMMENTARY: There’s a biblical parallel with Iran’s Khatami

c. 1998 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee.) UNDATED _ CNN, the Cable News Network, recently aired an interview with Mohammad Khatami, the president of Iran. It was Khatami’s first extended appearance in the Western media and he used the opportunity to say a few […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ CNN, the Cable News Network, recently aired an interview with Mohammad Khatami, the president of Iran.


It was Khatami’s first extended appearance in the Western media and he used the opportunity to say a few positive things about America, a nation officially labeled “the Great Satan” by the Muslim mullahs who have tightly controlled Iran since 1979.

Some editorial writers and government officials in this country were ecstatic about Khatami’s somewhat benign rhetoric. They suggested Iran, the modern name of Persia, had perhaps changed its 20-year policy of fierce opposition to the United States. Maybe these optimists are correct, but only time will tell.

Unfortunately, the Khatami interview also included some vicious anti-Israel comments that were generally overlooked amidst the euphoria surrounding the Iranian’s remarks about the United States. While praising the “great American people,” Khatami vehemently attacked the Jewish state calling it “a racist, terrorist regime.”

Khatami also expressed “opposition to the Middle East peace process because … it will not succeed.” A part of that opposition is Iran’s vigorous military and political support of the anti-Israel Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon.

The combination of Khatami’s outburst against Israel and the forthcoming arrival of the Jewish holiday of Purim on March 12 set me thinking about another leader of Iran who also suffered from a severe “Jewish problem” _ Prime Minister Haman of ancient Persia.

Haman is the murderous villain of the Biblical Book of Esther who sought to kill every Jew in the land. Happily, he was thwarted in his demonic plan by the intervention of Queen Esther and her cousin, Mordecai.

Although 2,400 years separate Khatami and Haman, their anti-Jewish attitudes are chillingly similar.

“There is a certain people scattered throughout the provinces of your realm … (who) ignore the royal edicts; it is not in the king’s interest to tolerate them,” Haman tells Ahasuerus, a weak-willed Persian King. “If it please the king to decree their destruction, I am prepared to pay 10,000 talents of silver.”

Despite Haman’s eagerness to pay a high price to carry out genocide, Ahasuerus would not take his prime minister’s money. Instead, Haman can kill Jews for free. Sadly, it would not be the last time in history a ruler authorized mass murder within his kingdom.


Purim _ the Hebrew word means “dice” _ is a poignant annual reminder of how Haman capriciously selected the date for the annihilation of the Jews.

Naturally, the murder of the Persian Jews was to be perfectly legal. Ahasuerus sent letters to every province “ordering the destruction, slaughter and annihilation of all Jews, young and old, women and children, on the one chosen date. … and the seizing of their possessions.” Even Hitler could not have composed a more comprehensive edict of murder and expropriation of Jewish property. All he needed to do was copy Ahasuerus’ ancient words.

Purim tells a story of secular power, evil public policy, and royal court intrigue. God’s name is not mentioned in Esther, and the Jews are ultimately saved by their own political efforts, not divine intervention. There is even a beauty contest to choose a new queen. A Jewish woman, Esther, wins the contest and weds King Ahasuerus.

And when Haman’s plan is revealed, Ahasuerus rescinds his earlier orders and sends out new letters to the provinces granting the Persian Jews “the right to assemble in self-defense” in order “to rid themselves of their enemies.” Mordecai, who played a key role in blocking Haman’s plans, wrote down the entire Purim story and urged his fellow Jews to celebrate their deliverance from death with a holiday of “festivity and gladness with … gifts for the poor.”

Today Purim is celebrated with gaiety, parties, and costumes, but is suffused with a sense of collective relief that an entire community escaped physical destruction.

Hopefully, it will be too long before Haman’s modern political descendants lose power in Iran, but one thing is certain. The joyous holiday of Purim and its message of deliverance will outlive Khatami and the mullahs.


DEA END RUDIN

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