Reading Megillas Esther this year, I’ve come to realize that the most important line of the entire Megillah is at the very end. No, I’m not talking about the tax raise that many jokingly boo at. I’m referring to the last line of the entire Megillah – one of the few we say aloud.
“For Mordechai the Jew was viceroy to King Achashveirosh, and great among the Jews, and accepted by most of his brethren; seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all their children.”
I’ve never given much thought to the line before, but something struck me this year. The entire Book of Esther is the story about how the Jews were in mortal danger of a genocide that would be perpetrated against them. The second-in-command to the most powerful king in the world convinced that king to sign the death warrant for the Jewish people. Mordechai not only discovered this plot, but he created a plan to counter it and convinced the king to arm the Jewish people for a counterattack. He, along with Queen Esther, saved the Jewish people.
How is it possible that only “most of his brethren” considered him “great”? Mordechai didn’t have a 100% approval rating amongst Jews after what happened? By the strict interpretation of the text, it could have been as low as 50.1%!
This is a valuable lesson that the Megillah is teaching us, and it’s incredibly prevalent today. The very week of Purim, a Hamas-sympathizer who came to this country on a student visa and then was issued a green card had his residency status revoked and is now subject to deportation. Mahmoud Khalil is the modern-day equivalent of a recipient of Haman’s letter telling him to carry out an attack against the Jewish people, a task he readily and eagerly signed up for. President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio wisely decided that America does not need people like that in this country – something that is well within their legal authority.
Democrats jumped on the opportunity to defend this man, wrongfully claiming that the revocation of his residency status was a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech. This is a protection that Democrats have completely thrown away over the past 20 years, from Citizens United to censorship on social media. Democrats have been openly attacking free speech since the early days of Obama, but now they claim to be champions of free speech for the sake of a terror supporter who organized chaos and violence at Columbia University.
Instead of Jews supporting this endeavor and thanking President Trump for taking steps to protect the Jewish people, they are attacking him for potentially increasing anti-Semitism as a reaction. When the White House put out a graphic saying “Shalom, Mahmoud” along with the statement from Trump saying, “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again,” Leftist Jews were apoplectic. Mairav Zonstein, Senior Israel Analyst for the NGO Crisis Group, wrote on X, “The “Shalom” part is a perfect encapsulation of how anti-Semitism/Judaism/Israel is weaponized against Muslims/Arabs to cover up for their own anti-Semitism.” According to Mairav, Trump is anti-Semitic when it’s deporting anti-Semites. Other radical Left Jews on X called it “authoritarianism” and that this action is “making speech illegal.” None of that is true.
It didn’t stop on social media. Leftist Jewish group “Jewish Voice for Peace” (which is neither Jewish nor for Peace) violently stormed Trump Tower in New York City in defense of Khalil. Over 150 demonstrators broke into the building and refused to leave, even after being warned three times by the NYPD. Over 100 were arrested.
Trump isn’t Mordechai, but the hatred of someone who is obviously and clearly acting in the defense of the Jewish people by Jews themselves is nothing new. Even today, Leftist Jews are relitigating the Purim story itself, proving that Mordechai still does not have 100% approval ratings 2,000 years later. Peter Beinart, a man who has been trying to destroy Israel for the entirety of his professional career, published an article in the UK Guardian entitled, “As Jews celebrate Purim, let us end the slaughter in Gaza committed in our name.” In it, he argues that the Jewish people should not have engaged in the defense of their own lives at the end of the Purim story, and that we were the aggressors in that conflict like we are the aggressors in Gaza. “Purim isn’t only about the danger Gentiles pose to us. It’s also about the danger we pose to them,” he writes. Beinart, as always, has the narrative completely backwards, which is why David Bernstein wrote a rebuttal in Reason Magazine claiming that “Peter Beinart Has Gone Full Anti-Semite.”
Not to be left out, The Forward published an article by Elizheva Hurvich entitled, “I’m A Rabbi. Here’s Why I’m Boycotting The Megillah Reading For Purim This Year.” In it, she foolishly compares the King’s edict that men are in charge of their households to women’s rights in America today because Republicans are trying to take away women’s right to vote or something (they’re not). “But an even bigger problem is how the Megillah, to my eyes, normalizes hatred,” she writes.
Hurvich claims, like Beinart did, that it was wrong for the Jewish people to take up arms against those who sought to kill them and won. “The violence in this text is not something I want to emulate or promote,” she said. “I do not want to teach a narrative whose basic premise is that people are hated and worth exterminating.” She claims that, based on this, she is going to boycott the reading of the Megillah.
Like Khalil’s residency status, that Cracker Jack ordination that Hurvich received should be revoked.
Leftist Jews relitigating the Purim story is exactly why we must say the last line of the Megillah out loud. While many rabbanim maintain that the line claims that the “multitude” of Jews, meaning all of them, praised Mordechai, contemporary evidence shows that the literal translation of “most” is more likely correct. There will always be those Jews who seek the destruction of the Jewish people in the vain hopes of social integration with the dominant culture. Those Jews not only fail to do so, but they also become irrelevant and forgotten in Jewish history, a minority within a minority, never to be heard from again.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
