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Persians and Purim: Make the Connection |
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Written by Debbie Shofet
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"Mommy, I want to be Queen Esther for Purim."
"Sure, sweetie, let's dress you up and get you a pretty blond wig."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Purim story happen in Persia, a.k.a. Iran? As in the Middle East. As in there are no freakin' blondes there!
Every year, growin' up, when Purim came around we would draw pictures of Esther, and naturally she was always blonde with blue eyes and fair skin. How could we have let this happen? She was Persian with dark hair, dark skin, and yes, connected eyebrows. I think that it is appalling that the image of Esther has been perverted in this manner. Doesn't it say in the Megillah that Esther was "green"? Hence olive skin, hence the strange grayish green color we dark people turn in the winter. I'm not saying that it's anyone's fault, just that we must right this wrong.
Which brings me to my point, namely, that many of the things that happened in the Purim story can be understood by taking a closer look at the Persians we have all come to know and love. Achashverosh was probably a big, balding, hairy, Bijan-wearing Persian who had a party for seven days. You may ask, who can party for seven days? Have you been to a Persian wedding? We never stop. As long as there is Persian food – we're talkin' rice, kabob, sabzi, and tahdig – the Persians will party. And for that matter, the whole story happened in Farsi, so you KNOW some funny stuffs went down. There's no accent more precious than a Persian accent. And let's not forget Haman with his oh so pushy wife. Only a Persian woman can whip a man that bad.
Purim is a happy time. A time to embrace your fellow Persian and feel the "we cover all our furniture with plastic" love. So, this holiday season, don't forget without us Persian Jews, there would be no Purim. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
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Comments
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ajab bamazeh hastee
Posted by arik, on Monday, 06 March 2006 at 2:51
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