The Jewish holiday Purim and the Book of Esther’s lesser known ending

Jewish men and children in Purim costumes celebrate in the Mea Shearim ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, on March 18, 2022. The Purim holiday is celebrated with parades and costume parties to commemorate the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them in the ancient Persian empire 2,500 years ago, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther.

Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images

The Jewish holiday of Purim begins at sunset, Saturday, March 23. At synagogues across the world, people will read the Book of Esther. But its story of celebration is followed by another, darker chapter — one many Jews are thinking about this year.

Attempted destruction, deliverance, and a celebration

Aaron Koller teaches Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, and has written about the Book of Esther, which tells the Purim story. It’s a story that takes place after the destruction of the temple, when Jews were scattered throughout the Persian empire.

“There is an evil advisor to the king, who essentially randomly gets upset at the Jews for no good reason,” explains Koller. “He sends out messages throughout the entire kingdom — 11 months from now, everyone should just kill their Jewish neighbors.”

But then the king’s wife, Esther, reveals that she’s Jewish. And the evil advisor, Haman, is killed instead. The story has been told for thousands of years, and it’s always sort of a party.

Even in ancient times, Koller says the reading has been accompanied by what he calls a “carnivalesque” atmosphere — drinking, costumes, cross-dressing — that enact the upending of the social order that underlies the story. There are Purim spiels which re-enact the story (with the audience…