Purim

Foyle's War is an English TV detective series which I enjoy. It is set in the town of Hastings, in the WWII era and deals with a policeman's own war on crime which is very much affected by the larger (or perhaps smaller?) war which overshadows England. In the second episode the story revolves around a hotel where a group of those with Facist leanings start to gather. Their leader is a charismatic man who attempts to recruit Foyle's sergeant to his cause. He distributes some literature, amongst which is "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

Of course I looked this up. You can find a good summary at Wikipedia. It is an appalling read, as one realizes the horrible & tangible effect that false information can have.

There is a particularly haunting passage found there:

"I am the only living witness but I must say the truth. Contrary to the opinion of the National Socialists, that the Jews were a highly organized group, the appalling fact was that they had no organization whatsoever. The mass of the Jewish people were taken complete by surprise. They did not know at all what to do; they had no directives or slogans as to how they should act. This is the greatest lie of anti-Semitism because it gives the lie to that old slogan that the Jews are conspiring to dominate the world and that they are so highly organized. In reality, they had no organization of their own at all, not even an information service. If they had had some sort of organization, these people could have been saved by the millions, but instead, they were taken completely by surprise. Never before has a people gone as unsuspectingly to its disaster. Nothing was prepared. Absolutely nothing." - Nazi leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewsky

I couldn't help thinking of Esther and the entirely different outcome there.

"Haman immediately sent proclamations to all the king's land. These declarations, sealed with the royal signet ring, ordered the people to rise up against the Jews and kill them all – men, women, and children – on the following 13th of Adar."

It wasn't just the placement of Esther as queen that changed things, but perhaps more to the point the fact that all the Jews were aware of what was happening and fasted and prayed for deliverance, on Mordecai's urging. Throughout the Jews history there had been this cycle - deliverance into the hands of their enemies because of forgetting God; crying for deliverance, God raising up a deliverer who often together with some miraculous power routed the enemy. The end result in Esther's day was a new decree simply allowing the Jews to defend themselves. There wasn't any change to the original anti-Semitic decree, but the ability to defend themselves along with, perhaps, the evident backing of the king & queen (sure, we have a decree saying we can kill any Jews we want to - but what will happen to us if we do? Is this some kind of a trap?).

Carter Conlon recently did a series on Esther, here is one example. This reminded me of the musical that I co-wrote with Emerson Eads which can be seen here. It is something that I am still quite moved by, considering myself to have been more used than author as far as credit goes - discovery vs invention.

This is of course an incomplete thought process. Make of it what you will!