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加拿大英文教练（原温哥华英文教练），致力于地道英文表达
犹太人灭国之后，曾在波斯王朝的统治之下。在波斯国王居鲁士的统治时期，居鲁士对犹太人相当宽容和友好，到波斯国王亚达薛西（亚哈随鲁Ahasuerus）统治时期，亚达薛西在全国范围选王后，选上了犹太人以斯帖。以斯帖本是一个孤儿，被末底改抚养成人。当上皇后之后，本就有一定财富和社会地位的末底改更是水涨船高，父随女贵，在宫廷里逐渐得势，这样就与另一位权臣，阿拉伯人哈曼结了梁子。权斗中，哈曼先发制人，在亚达薛西面前谗言说犹太人的种种不是。亚达薛西本就是个喜怒无常的人，以至于后来有人把他比作英国国王亨利八世，他下了一道命令，要在二月的某天，将境内的犹太人全部吊死。得知消息之后，以斯帖紧急面见亚达薛西，向其陈述冤情，最终，亚达薛西收回成名，并将准备好的绞刑架用在了始作俑者哈曼的头上。
上图：以斯帖去见亚达薛西
在《圣经》中叙述犹太人的历史时，专门留出一章给以斯帖这位女英雄，还设立普珥节以纪念她对犹太民族的贡献。下面这篇文章叫做《今天怎么来纪念普珥节》，我们来导读一下，以便对这个故事的社会背景和历史影响做深入的思考。
A perplexing paradox lies at the heart of Purim（普珥节，犹太人为纪念躲过哈曼之害，也纪念以斯帖的功劳而设定的节日）, the holiday celebrated this week by Jews around the world. No day is more associated with Jewish joy; yet rightly understood the scriptural source of our celebration — the biblical book of Esther — proclaims a terrifying teaching.
Let us briefly review the plot. The Persian king Ahasuerus — the character in the Bible most akin to Henry VIII — is overcome by drunken rage and rids himself of his wife. In a contest eerily akin to reality shows today, he conducts a search for a new queen, ultimately choosing a beautiful Jewish woman named Esther, who is advised by her cousin Mordecai not to disclose her religious identity. Haman, the high-ranking minister to Ahasuerus, convinces the king to decree a genocide of the Jews. Urged into action by her cousin, Esther plays on the king’s paranoia, engaging in court intrigue to turn him against Haman, who is hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. At Esther’s initiative, and with Ahasuerus’ encouragement, Jews across the empire wage war against Haman’s allies, and Mordecai is given the political position once held by Haman. The central ritual of Purim is the reading of this biblical book aloud in synagogue as a celebration of Jewish salvation and the defeat of anti-Semitism.
这一段将末底改说成是以斯帖的cousin，严格讲也对，因为《以斯帖记》是这么写的，He (Mordecai) was bringing up Hadassha, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother…Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 从这里我们可以看出，末底改和以斯帖本是cousin的关系，因为以斯帖没了父母，所以末底改将其做为养女养大，可能二人之间的年龄悬殊也比较大，所以，表兄就成了养父。
Yet as the final words are read, and joyous song erupts in the sanctuary, the careful reader realizes that the security of Persian Jewry, and of Mordecai and Esther, is anything other than assured, and that even the swift nature of Haman’s fall is a reflection of terrifying political instability. In such a society, with such an unbalanced and capricious king, could not another Haman easily arise?
上图：以斯帖向亚达薛西陈情
简述了这段故事之后，本段话锋一转，提出疑问说，哈曼虽然被绞死了，但是对亚达薛西这样反复无常的国王来说，犹太人的命运并不能assured。这里，我们就要提到亚达薛西的另一个故事，也就是为什么有人把他比作亨利八世的理由，因为二人都有心血来潮反复换老婆的历史。亚达薛西之前的王后Vashti本是一个非常漂亮、有德行的女人，亚达薛西倒是“慷慨大方”，不想独占王后的美色，要王后打扮好，在自己的群臣面前露露脸。而王后以女人不能随便抛头露面为由，拒绝了亚达薛西的不合理要求。这就让国王觉得自己在大臣，甚至国民面前丢了面子，于是一气之下，将王后休了。正因为亚达薛西的心性反复无常；他先听从哈曼的建议，后来又杀掉哈曼，也证明他没有主见，那么，谁能保证，今天他免了犹太人一死，要明天出现另外一个哈曼，不会说动他又再次朝令夕改？
The disquieting conclusion of Esther’s tale was eloquently described by my great-uncle, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. “If a prime minister who just yesterday enjoyed the full confidence and trust of the king was suddenly convicted and executed,” he reflected, “then who is wise and clairvoyant enough to assure us that the same unreasonable, absurd, neurotic change of mood and mind will not repeat itself?” The Purim tale reminds us that a government, and the society it oversees, can turn against its most vulnerable in a matter of moments. This is why, he argued, Esther’s story is no triumphal tale; on the contrary, it is “the book of the vulnerability of man in general and specifically of the vulnerability of the Jew.”
作者以其叔叔--一个犹太的拉比的话--发问，如果一个高官，昨天还得到国王的完全信任今天就突然被定罪被绞死，那谁能保证这个unreasonable, absurd, neurotic的国王的mind和mood不会重复呢？
That it was Rabbi Soloveitchik who understood this isn’t a coincidence. As a young man in the 1920s, he had traveled from Eastern Europe to study philosophy in the University of Berlin. The city was then a center of Jewish intellectual and cultural achievement; Rabbi Soloveitchik would have met coreligionists who saw themselves as both German and Jewish, who had served the kaiser in the First World War and were patriotically committed to their country’s future. They would have spoken of the Enlightenment, and progress, and religious acceptance in their society. Then that very same society embraced a Haman-figure, and the lives Jews knew in Europe disappeared forever. Small wonder, then, that a rabbi who escaped this inferno would recognize the frightening implications of Jewish vulnerability inherent in Esther’s tale.
正是这位拉比，1920年代从东欧来到柏林学习哲学，而那时的柏林，云集了相当多的犹太知识分子和文化精英，他也曾接触过许多有德国和犹太双重身份的人，那些人在一战时为德国皇帝效命。他们在一起谈论启蒙运动、进步和宗教宽容，而正是那样的一个社会，突然间就拥抱了另一个“哈曼”，犹太人在欧洲被连根拔起。这说明，寄人篱下，不管你一时间过得再舒坦，都是vulnerable的。
Why, then, is Purim marked as a holiday? If the conclusion of Esther is more nerve-racking than is often thought, what is the source of our joy? The answer, in part, is that it is this very vulnerability that makes Jewish heroism possible, and that is why, on Purim, we focus on the woman that gave this biblical book her name: it is Esther whom we celebrate. Precisely because of the constancy of Jewish vulnerability, we glorify Esther’s initiative, courage, and wisdom to inculcate these same virtues in our posterity.
作者拷问在当代过普珥节的意义。他认为，正是犹太人的这种脆弱性，让犹太英雄主义成为可能：This very vulnerability that makes Jewish heroism possible. 正因为这种脆弱性，我们才要让后人继承以斯帖的initiative, courage and wisdom.既生于忧患，就必须要靠自发的智慧和勇气。
Here we must understand how different the Book of Esther is from every other book in the Hebrew Bible. In this tale no mention is made of the divine; the Jews inhabit a world devoid of revelation. Whereas in every other scriptural tale political engagements are under prophetic instruction, in the Persian court God gives no guidance to the Jews facing a terrible danger. Esther, Rabbi Soloveitchik wrote, faced an unprecedented question: “How can the Jew triumph over his adversaries and enemies if God has stopped speaking to him, if the cryptic messages he receives remain unintelligible and incomprehensible?”
作者的第二个观点更有深度：从整本《圣经》来看，《以斯帖记》是非常不一般的一章。为何？因为这是唯一一篇没有天启的章节！(no mention is made of the divine…devoid of revelation)，在《圣经》的其他章节中，要么有上帝的话语，要么有先知的话语，这就对犹太人乃至所有的信徒提出一个没有遇到过的挑战，“在上帝沉默时，你该如何胜过敌人？”
In this sense, Esther is the first biblical figure, male or female, to engage instatesmanship. Previous heroes — Moses and Elijah, Samuel and Deborah — are prophets who are guided and guarded by the Divine, but Esther operates on instinct, reflecting a mastery of realpolitik. As Isaiah Berlin wrote in his essay “On Political Judgment,” great leaders practice affairs of state not as a science but an art; they are, more akin to orchestra conductors than chemists. Facing a crisis, they “grasp the unique combination of characteristics that constitute this particular situation — this and no other.” Esther is the first scriptural figure to embody this description, emerging as a woman for all seasons, a hero celebrated year after year.
在这里，以斯帖显示出来的是statesmanship, 靠的是instinct和realpolitik以及在以赛亚柏林的语中的 political judgement。简单说，就是政治能力、权术！
上图：哈曼向以斯帖求饶
Purim thus marks the fragility of Jewish security, but also the possibility of heroism in the face of this vulnerability. It is therefore a holiday for our time. Around the world, and especially in a Europe that should know better, anti-Semitism has made itself manifest once again. As Esther’s example is celebrated, and Jews gather in synagogue to study her terrifying tale, we are reminded why, in the face of hate, we remain vigilant — and why we continue to joyously celebrate all the same.
最后，作者认为，普珥节不单纯是庆典，庆祝犹太人活下来了，更是警戒，居安思危的警戒。我这里稍作引申，当下发生在以色列的战争，恰好就是犹太人放松警戒的结果，而这个教训不单是对犹太人有意义的。
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