The Miracle of Purim

Mordechai sent word to Esther that silence was not an option: 'If you keep silent at such a time, relief will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish.' Esther demanded a three-day fast from all the Jews of Shushan, then entered the king's presence uninvited—an act punishable by death—and was met with the extended golden sceptre.

What followed looked like a chain of coincidences. The king could not sleep, had the royal chronicles read aloud, and learned that Mordechai's exposure of the plot of Bigthan and Teresh had gone unrewarded. Haman arrived to ask permission to hang Mordechai and was ordered instead to parade him through the square on the royal horse. At the second banquet Esther revealed her people and named her enemy; Haman was hanged on the fifty-cubit gallows he had built.

Persian law did not allow a royal edict to be revoked, so a second decree granted the Jews the right to defend themselves. On the 13th of Adar they did so across the empire, and in Shushan the fighting continued a day longer. Mordechai and Esther established Purim: reading the Megillah, sending portions of food, gifts to the poor, and a festive meal.

The traditional Seder Olam chronology of the Persian period differs from the accepted academic one by about 165 years. On this timeline the event may therefore fall earlier or later relative to parallel world events than it does in standard history books.