Thoughts on Purim: Hate vs Love

When I spent my year abroad in Jerusalem at Hebrew University, a group of us went to Spike Lee’s movie, “Do the Right Thing.” Short summary for those who didn’t see it or don’t remember it: Spike Lee plays the main character, a black man who works at an Italian pizza place, in a multi-ethnic neighborhood where on the surface, everyone seems to get along. It is a hot Summer, with the temperatures peaking beyond normal and getting worse every day. As the movie progresses, tempers flare amongst the neighbors, sparks eventually turning into flames. And when it is time for violence, it is the Spike Lee character who acts first, throwing a garbage pail though the window of the Italian pizza place, where he has always been treated “like family.” (Spoilers)

One character a large muscular black man who never speaks but carries around a boom box – his name is Radio Rahim – wears two rings, one on each hand. One ring reads “Love” and one reads “Hate,” in large gold letters.

Which brings me to the topic of Purim, and the state of the Middle East, and for that matter, the global homo-sapien community.

What element unites all these words: anti-Semitism, bigotry, racism, jihad, genocide, White Supremacy, Intifada, apartheid et al?

HATE.

For a reason or for no reason in particular, but rather the basic human need to define themselves against the “other.” I am Christian because I am not Jewish, even though Jesus was in fact Jewish, and Christianity is based upon Judaism. Jews killed our Lord and Saviour, so I hate the Jew, says the Christian, and that is how I justify centuries of pogroms and inquisitions. Minorities are taking our jobs, so they deserve to be beaten up and deported, put in camps and separated from their children. Jews ruined my reputation and stole my fortune, says Kanye West, so I have the right to proclaim “I am a Nazi! I love Hitler!” and face no retribution or consequences. Waaah, Jews ruined my career, says Susan Sarandon, just because I supported Hamas. Not fair!

Trump, in his first presidency, said there were “fine people on both sides,” after Neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville with torches, shouting “Jews will not replace us.” Trump regularly signals his support to White Nationalist groups and regularly quotes language out of Mein Kampf. Co-President Elon Musk re-tweeted a post that blamed civil servants instead of historical dictators like Hitler and Stalin for the murder of millions. Musk only removed the tweet/X when it polled badly, but not because he felt it was ignoble or untrue.

I remember a scene in the nine-hour groundbreaking movie Shoah, in which they take a Jewish boy back to his little village, now a grown man who survived the concentration camps. At first, the elderly men and women surround him with warmth, remembering him as the boy with the beautiful voice. After the love-fest, the man behind the camera asks the people of the town why they think the Holocaust happened and the Jews were murdered by the Nazis. “Their women were too beautiful, they stole my husband!” “They were too wealthy and they hoarded all their money while my family starved!” And on and on, clustered around the Holocaust survivor, whose eyes showed terror and sadness.

Can love combat hate, is it the yang to hate’s yin, the light to hate’s dark? I don’t know how to answer that question these days. It is far more complex than the nature/nurture debate.

In order to understand Hamas, consider this: on October 4, 2023 – three days before the October 7 Massacre – women from Kibbutz Beeri attended a peace conference for Israeli and Palestinian women. Photos from the event shows Palestinian women hugging and crying with Israeli women, finding their common ground.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas used an attendee list from that peace conference to hunt down these women and murder them, deliberately targeting the women who aspire to peace and quiet between our people.

Hamas steals food and supplies from their own people, even shooting a Gazan who dares to take a bag of flour off a truck. Israel supplies free electricity and Wi-Fi to the Gaza Strip, has been for years, and yet Hamas manages to convince the world that they are starving, that they are the victims of the evil Zionist Entity. Victims do not kidnap innocent civilians, starve them/rape them/torture them for 527 days.

You may have heard that Hamas has agreed to free the five Israeli-American hostages – one alive, four dead – and think, “Now look at that, finally some flexibility and some humanity.” Stop.

Just like various other countries conducted private negotiations for their citizens, America seems to have used some political lever as well, leaving 54 in Aza, suffering. What happened to President Donald “There will be Hell to Pay” Trump, who insisted that all the hostages be released? What happened to the man who met with released hostages in the Oval Office and said that this was a humanitarian imperative?

One last cultural reference, to answer (or not answer) that question. In high school we read “Lord of the Flies,” and I remember that all of us felt quite disturbed by the violence. After we finished the book, our assignment read as follows, “Do you believe that humans are inherently good or inherently selfish and evil? In the absence of a powerful authority figure and a clear enforceable set of rules, do you believe we would spiral to our most degenerate self, or would we find our humanity?”

Haman wanted to kill all the Jews, because one Jew wouldn’t feed his ego and bow down to him. You could argue that Haman, a descendant of Amalek, didn’t need a reason or excuse, because he had Hate, genetically programmed into his being. King Achashverosh also went along with the plan because Haman promised him money, lots of gold and properties of murdered Jews across his realm; and maybe, just maybe, he too was an anti-Semite who was more than happy for Haman to do the job.

That way, if it backfired – and it did – Haman and his sons would take the fall and he, Achashverosh, was the stooge who was taken advantage of by the power-hungry Haman. Either way there would be dead Jews. As well, brilliant political strategy, ridding the King of Haman’s power base, as Achashverosh already knew that Haman was eyeing the throne.

Which makes the irony even more delicious, in that Esther and Achashverosh’s son, Darius, is the (Jewish by birth) King who facilitated the return of Jews to Israel, the start of the rebirth of the Jewish people in their land.