It is beginning to appear to me that Obama is playing the part of of the wicked king Achashverosh from the Purim story while the short little despot Achmadinajad is playing the part of the wicked Jew hater Haman. The Talmud teaches us that both of these bastards are Jew-Haters through and through. While most people who read the story of Esther come away with the idea that the King is just a 'rolly-polly' party animal while the Jew hatred is mostly coming from Haman.... But the background of the story clearly indicates that the KING hated Jews just as much, if not more, than Haman did.
It seems that Obama would just like the Jewish people to 'go away', he has his own version of a 'jewish problem'. Because of us pesky Jews who, in his opinion, are responsible for more problems in the world than we are worth he is not achieving his pipe-dream of solving the middle east problem. To him solving the middle east problem involves making Israel disappear. If only he could orchestrate this feat he would go down in history as the 'peace loving' president who solved the middle east crisis. He needs someone to play the part of Haman, who will actually do the killing and the threatening of the Jewish people.... This is where Achmadinajad comes in... Obama, in my opinion, has a pact with the leaders of Iran in which he will hand over the Jewish state to the Iranians once they have completed the building of their nuclear arsenal.
My Rabbi brought up this story last night over the Purim feast. Obama has a pile of dirt, and Achmadinajad has a ditch... It is taught in the Talmud:
http://koltorah.org/ravj/The_Dangerous_Achashveirosh.htmlAchashveirosh as a ManipulatorThe Gemara (Megillah 13b-14a) continues, citing Rabi Abba's alternative analysis of Achashveirosh. He presents a Mashal (analogy) that illuminates Achashveirosh's thinking and tactics. He tells a story of two field owners, one who had a big mound of dirt in his field and one who had a big ditch in his field (this Mashal is alluded to in the Selichot recited by Ashkenazim on Ta'anit Esther). The one who had the ditch admired the big mound of dirt and wished he could purchase the mound of dirt to fill his ditch. The one who had the mound of dirt wished to purchase the ditch in order to dispose of his dirt. One day the two field owners met and the ditch owner asked if he could purchase the mound of dirt. The individual who owned the mound, in turn, enthusiastically urged the ditch owner to take the mound free of charge.
Haman is analogous to the ditch owner and Achashveirosh can be compared to the individual who owned the mound, as Haman was missing something and Achashveirosh had something he wanted to dispose. Haman wished to eliminate us, but he lacked the legislative authority that would permit him to do so. Achashveirosh, on the other hand, wished to do away with the Jews but was unwilling to do so himself. He feared profoundly negative consequences if his plan backfired. When Haman offered to annihilate the Jews, Achashveirosh was willing to give him the authority to execute his plan. If the plan backfired Haman would take the blame and serve as the "fall guy", and Achashveirosh could emerge, politically speaking, smelling like a rose. A proof to this approach is Achashveirosh's decline of Haman's offer of 10,000 silver pieces as compensation for destroying the Jews (Ester 3:11), which demonstrates Achashveirosh's eagerness to destroy us. According to Rabi Abba, Achashveirosh is an evil individual who brilliantly manipulated Haman.
Practical LessonsBoth approaches to Achashveirosh teach very sobering lessons for today's less than ideal circumstances. The opinion that he was a fool is quite frightening, as it teaches that at times foolish individuals assume positions of great responsibility. Such leaders can be easily manipulated by corrupt advisors who guide the leader solely with the aim of advancing their own personal agendas.
On the other hand, the opinion that Achashveirosh was shrewd presents an even more sobering message. The Megillah ends with Achashveirosh still in power. Thus, a powerful individual who desires to destroy us remains on the throne of the Persian Empire. Moreover, it teaches that we need be concerned for not only the Hamans of this world, but of the Achashveiroshes as well. Unfortunately, there are many Achashveiroshes in the world who wish for the Jews to be eliminated but do not want to assume the risk entailed in doing so. They do not actively seek to harm us, but if another assumes the risk in doing so, they support him and might even cooperate with him if they feel it is safe.
A poignant example of this phenomenon would be the many Germans, Poles, Lithuanians and other Europeans who quietly harbored their hatred of Bnei Yisrael for many years but did not act on that hatred due to fear of severe negative consequences. However, when Hitler (Yemach Shemo VeZichro, may his evil memory be erased) assumed power, many Europeans eagerly served as accomplices to the Nazis' crimes.
ConclusionThe ambiguity regarding the character of Achashveirosh is, much to our chagrin, quite relevant today. The same uncertainty applies to the ugly anti-Israel bias expressed by leaders of the United Nations and European Union. It is unclear if these leaders are fools who are duped by Arab lies and manipulations or if they harbor a deep-seated hatred of the Jewish nation and therefore lend support to Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Gemara (Megillah 14a), after presenting the opinions of Rava and Rabi Abba, discusses why we do not recite Hallel on Purim like on our other celebratory days such as Chanukah. The Gemara's last answer is that "we remain slaves of Achashveirosh." We may interpret this passage as teaching that we omit Hallel on Purim because the Purim story does not have a completely happy ending. Although Haman was removed from power, Achashveirosh has not. We Jews must exercise caution and not be naïve; we must beware of the Achashveiroshes of this world as well as the Hamans. We daven that just as Hashem saved us from Haman and Achashveirosh in the past, He should save us today from Ahmadinejad and Solana.
Topic: (OBAMA == KING ACHASHVEROSH) && (ACHMADINAJAD == HAMAN) (Read 1159 times)