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Self-Defense


          … the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand but did not lay their hands on the plunder. This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other. (Esther 9:16-19) 

          On the day appointed that the Jews were to die, they banded together and defended themselves. Seventy-five thousand people died out in the provinces, and more than five hundred died in Susa. Xerxes even let Esther extend the self-defense for a day in Susa, but they did not touch the plunder. It wasn’t about enriching themselves. It was about defending themselves against an unjust law. I’m not comfortable with violence, probably because I’m inept at it, but I have to applaud the Jews for their choices here. I wish people would follow their example today.
          Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Civil Rights was about unjust laws. Today, it’s about personal gain. It was about humanly insisting on humanity. Now, it’s about destruction and revenge against people who have done no harm, and not just harm, but destruction. There is no eye-for-an-eye. It’s now, a life for an insult, a business life for a perceived snub. Now, for example, there are calls to take from those who never owned slaves remuneration for the injustice done by those who did. Protests now involve the destruction of the property of someone who has done no harm, or for harm that involves saying, “Sorry, no, I can’t make something and put my name on it that supports or celebrates something I believe to be wrong.” 
          There are very specific parameters to self-defense and “Stand your ground.” One of those parameters is that you don’t exceed the level of threat. You can’t shoot someone who stands on your front lawn and calls you names. I don’t like violence, but the violence of the Jews resulting in the establishment of the Purim holiday was not as great or as wicked as the violence being used today (legally or otherwise) against individuals who have doing nothing worse than running a business according to their conscience.

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