Israel’s Repeating Enemy: Ancient Haman and the Modern-Day Ayatollah

“In every generation, Amalek rises to destroy [the Jewish people] and each time he clothes himself in a different nation.” – The Me’am Lo’ez, Commentary on the Bible.

In our day and age, we are constantly reminded that Iranian politicians and “spiritual leaders” represent modern-day Hamans – Amalekites who seek to slaughter the Jewish people. As Rabbi Israel Rosen explained, both current Iranian politicians and Haman are “characterized not only by their meaningless hatred, but by their compulsive animosity. A ‘real’ Amalekite is absorbed and consumed with hatred of Israel which nourishes him 24 hours a day, when he’s awake and in his dreams. A ‘pure’ Amalekite is possessed by a crazed and deep hatred of Israel; it’s his spirit, his heart’s desire, his soul and his passion, exclusively.”

In the Book of Esther, Haman proclaimed to the Persian King, Achashverosh:

“There is a certain people scattered and separate among the peoples throughout all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws differ from [those of] every people, and they do not keep the king’s laws; it is [therefore] of no use for the king to let them be. If it pleases the king, let it be written to destroy them, and I will weigh out ten thousand silver talents into the hands of those who perform the work, to bring [it] into the king’s treasuries.”

Fast forward several thousand years to statements by modern-day Iranian leaders, such as :

“The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumor. Even if the Zionists remain on one span (inch) of the Land of Palestine it is dangerous, because they will come to have a legal and official government. … Zionists, who have no faith in religion or even God, now claim piety and intend to take away the Islamic identity of the Holy Quds. This ridiculous move is in fact the continuation of the colonialist polices of oppressors, which will not save the Zionist regime, but also take the regime closer to the endpoint of its existence. … If the Zionist regime wants to repeat its past mistakes, this will constitute its demise and annihilation…With Allah’s help the new Middle East will be a Middle East without Zionists and imperialists.” (Former President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)

Iranians burn a Israeli flag at Quds Day rally. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Haman specifically targeted the Jewish people because Mordechai refused to compromise his religious beliefs and conform to the Persian idolatrous norms set by Haman. Current Iranian leaders similarly declare that Zionists have perverted “cultural concepts” and are guilty of having “no faith in religion or even G-d” because they don’t conform to Islamist beliefs. For this reason, they claim, Jews should not be permitted to build a state in the heart of the Islamic Middle East. Just as Haman unsuccessfully tried to destroy the Jewish people, modern-day Iran will fail.

As one Midrash explains:

“What is an apt parable for Haman the Evil One? To what can he be compared? To a bird which made its nest on the shore of the sea, and then the sea came and swept away the nest. The bird said: I will not budge from here until the sea becomes dry land, and the dry land becomes the sea. What did the bird do? It took some water from the sea in its mouth and dropped it on dry land, and took dirt from the land and dropped it into the sea. Its friend came and stood alongside. He said to the bird: You ill-fated, hapless one! How do you ever hope to succeed? Similarly, G-d said to Haman the Evil One: Fool of fools! I myself planned to destroy the Jewish people and was, as it were, unsuccessful, as it is written. He intended to destroy them [and would have] were it not that Moses, His chosen one, stood before Him in the breach to return His wrath from destroying,’ and you, Haman, think you will be able to decimate and annihilate them?! I swear by your life, that your head will be in place of theirs; they will be saved and you will be hanged.”

Similarly, the modern-day Haman will also not be victorious.

By: Rachel Abraham, United with Israel

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