(The Year of the Rat, 2008, according to the ancient Chinese tradition so adopted in Japanese Shinto shrines)ESTHER
(Esther, la reine)
SECTION 1: MEGILLAT ESTHER
Queen Esther was trying hard to prevent the first possible annihilation of the tribe Israelites, not in the 20th century but in the 5th century B.C., by appealing to her Persian King Achashverosh against plots machinated by the dignitary Haman.
According to "MEGILLAT ESTHER; SHE'ASAH NISSIM LA'AVOTEINU by Yitzchak Etshalom":
A) THE SECOND PARTY (7:1-9)
This is the denoument of the story as far as we are concerned. Haman still doesn't know who Esther is - but he is clearly shattered and his ego is as fragile as ever. Achashverosh is equally disturbed and must be getting more confused by Esther's repeated parties without asking for what she really wants (it is clear that the king knows she wants something more - which is why he keeps asking her).
Now, she pulls out all the cards. The king thinks that she and Haman are hatching a plot against him (and have been having an affair?) - and suddenly Haman is revealed as the villian who is plotting against her. Haman thinks that he is still on the road to satisfaction in the matter of the Jews; he'll just need to wait until Adar. He has no idea that Esther is one of "them".
Esther points to Haman and all is lost. The confusion and anger of the king, the confusion and fear of Haman - create an emotional jumble which ultimately leads to the king's explosion when he finds Haman lying on Esther's divan, begging for mercy. Haman is erased and (here we go again) Mordechai takes his place (compare 8:2 with 3:10). The capricious king has (for the meantime) elevated the Jews and they are saved. We all know, however, that the happy ending of the story isn't permanent and that the rocky shores of existence in exile (which is probably one of the sub-messages of the Megillah) are not safe for Jews.
http://www.vbm-torah.org/purim/pur-es.htm
SECTION 2: King James Version of Esther, the Queen
Esther said to her King who has discretion over her life, "Let my life be given me at my petition."
Est 7:1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
Est 7:2 And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.
Est 7:3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
Est 7:4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.
Est 7:5 Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?
Est 7:6 And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
Est 7:7 And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
Est 7:8 Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.
Est 7:9 And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
Est 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
The story of Esther is so dramatic, prominent, and moving, since a fate of a whole exiled tribe depends on a woman, one of them, who happens to be a queen to the king under whose rule the suppressed foreign tribe has been forced to live.
However, more importantly, the foreign tribe was Israelites and the king was one of ancient Persian kings.
SECTION 3: Israel and Iran
There are two special things common to Israelites and Iranians.
They are essentially races different from Arabs since their origin: Sumerians and Aryans.
They dealt with ancient Greeks in long history while Iranians failed to defeat Greeks by force and Israelites suffered intellectual superiority of the Greek Civilization, while today Iran is still a military factor and Israel has full of high-tech weapon systems.
It is time that Israel and Iran changed their view on history and the current situations so as to befriend each other for the peace of the Middle East, since Esther was the queen to Persian King.
Otherwise, they maybe lose their glory as the religious elite among mankind while a Religious Revolution may be coming, in the near term, in the U.S. or here and there.
SECTION 4: No More Development of Judaism Predicted
When Israelites returned to Palestine to build the second temple from captivity in Mesopotamia then ancient Iran newly occupied, they started to compile the so-called Old Testament under the reign of Persia between 538 B.C. and 333 B.C.
This development of (old) Judaism is, of course, to secure the "identity" of the tribe Israelites some of whom returned to Jerusalem but had to live on financial aid from others still living in Mesopotamia under the Persian rule.
Around 1st century A.D., When Israelites were also under the "identity" threat from the Roman Empire all over whose territory, however, many Israelites were making business to be rich, Jesus Christ appeared to save tradition of Israelites in a very mysterious way allowing for development of (new) Judaism, while saving all the mankind enabling development and deployment of the direct teaching of God which Europeans later, however, failed to expand beyond simply establishing a new religion called Christianity.
In the 20th century, when Israelite Europeans suffered an almost total annihilation plotted by German Nazis, they were saved by American Christians. After WWII, Israelites built the nation Israel and have continued to keep it with a help from American Christians and Judaists, since the current nation Israel gives tangible "identity" to Israelites living worldwide.
But, there seems no new development of Judaism in this era though the nation Israel has been rebuilt: No Newer Testament, No Newer Judaism, and No Messiah from Israelites.
That is why I am telling you that a 2000-Year Era is over just like a 4000-Year Era, when Israelites have been the true elite of religion so much as to be attacked by devils excessively, is over, for Israelites have shown no sign of further development of Judaism as such a holy elite among mankind.
Conversely, if Israelites today want another development of their religion, probably they have to give up the nation and the land of Israel (partly since no Germans came there to protect them or buy them the land and security as compensation, at which the God has not shown specific anger finally, while a German has become a Pope in the Vatican).
All of them have to immigrate to America, in that case, in my humble view.
Or, are there so many Esthers in the U.S. today, risking their lives for Israel?
(Indeed, it is a long story.
Yet, isn't it strange that we live in this era at the beginning of the 21st century, is it?
This is not 500 B.C., 50 A.D., or 1945.
It is as strange as you happen to view the EEE Report, taking whatever cue from an Angel or whomever the number of whom must be essentially very small, almost to the level that is regarded as the elite of some sort, for example, of religion.
Or can you see an Angel?)
"SHINING AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD"
(Lichter in der Nacht)