{"id":46907,"date":"2019-02-28T11:46:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?p=46907"},"modified":"2020-09-08T15:51:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T15:51:30","slug":"the-real-story-of-purim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Story of Purim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Purim story is the last time when all the Jews lived under one empire.<\/p>\n<p>Normally when there is a war against one enemy we celebrate victory on one day, if the Jews in Shushan were still fighting on the 14th then the war wasn&#8217;t truly over until then.<\/p>\n<p>Shushan had a wall &#8211; is that a reason to define its Purim by whether a city has a wall?<\/p>\n<p>Why did Mordechai&#8217;s refusal to bow to Haman anger him so much that he decided to kill Mordechai? Why kill off a whole people because of one person? We know Haman wasn&#8217;t a madman; something doesn&#8217;t add up.<\/p>\n<p>Usually we are only told of a person&#8217;s forebearers once, why does the Megillah tell us Haman&#8217;s lineage multiple times?<\/p>\n<p>Why did Amalek embark on a suicidal mission to attack Bnei Yisrael in the desert &#8211; they travelled, armed, through five countries to wage war with a people who had just defeated the most powerful empire?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Shiur provided courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/torahthinking.com\/\">torahthinking.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Purim story is the last time when all the Jews lived under one empire. Normally when there is a war against one enemy we celebrate victory on one day, if the Jews in Shushan were still fighting on the 14th then the war wasn&#8217;t truly over until then. Shushan had a wall &#8211; is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133706,"featured_media":46909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purim","post_format-post-format-audio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Real Story of Purim - Jewish Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why did Mordechai&#039;s refusal to bow to Haman cause a desire to kill all Jews? Why did Amalek risk its existence to fight Bnei Yisrael who had just defeated the entire Egyptian army?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real Story of Purim - Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why did Mordechai&#039;s refusal to bow to Haman cause a desire to kill all Jews? Why did Amalek risk its existence to fight Bnei Yisrael who had just defeated the entire Egyptian army?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrthodoxUnion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-28T11:46:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-08T15:51:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/story.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1919\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Mendel Kessin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rabbi Mendel Kessin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/\",\"name\":\"The Real Story of Purim - Jewish Holidays\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-real-story-of-purim\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/story.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-28T11:46:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-08T15:51:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/675d689158df43ade088319594f79ef4\"},\"description\":\"Why did Mordechai's refusal to bow to Haman cause a desire to kill all Jews? 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He was also very close with Rav Chaim Friedlander ztz\\\"l and helped with the publication of his Sifrei HaRamchal. Rabbi Kessin has a PhD in Psychology from Fordham University and runs a private practice in Brooklyn and Lakewood. An internationally known lecturer and educator, Rabbi Kessin has spoken extensively throughout the world including the United States, Europe, South Africa, Canada and Israel, among other places, on Hashkafa, Learning Methodology and Shmiras Haloshon with emphasis on the writings of R\u2019 Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal). The Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation was started as a result of being inspired by one of R\u2019 Mendel\u2019s Loshon Horah Shiurim. Rabbi Kessin was also the featured speaker at one of the first Tisha b'Av video events; his was distributed on 200,000 tapes! 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