Page 277 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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256 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
Esther means, in Hebrew, “to hide.” This immediately brings to mind how the
catastrophes that would befall the Jewish people are depicted in the Bible:

• “Then my anger will be kindled against them on that day, and I will
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forsake them and hide [histarti ] my face from them, and they will be
devoured, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that
they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our
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God is not among us? And I will surely hide [haster astir ] my face in that
day” (Deut. 31:17–18).
• “I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgres-
sions, and hid my face from them … and I will not hide my face any
more from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the House of Israel,
says the Lord God” (Ezek. 39:24, 29).

Thus the book of Esther, perceived by many to be devoid of any religious sig-

nificance because the name of God is not mentioned, turns out to be the story of

the realization of God’s will.
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Summing up, Tishah B’Av stands in the collective memory of the Jewish people
as an epitome and a landmark for disasters that descended upon the Jewish people
throughout history (some of these in fact took place on exactly that Hebrew calen-
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dar day). By contrast, Purim symbolizes the rescue of Jews from such calamities.

Given this background with respect to the significance of the two festivities,

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Tishah B’Av and Purim, can one recall a recent historic event that
A. posed the greatest threat to the physical survival of Jews as a collective
since the Holocaust?
B. contrary to most pessimistic expectations, ended with relatively few
casualties to Jews?
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C. started on the last hours of Tishah B’Av and ended (“prematurely,” so it
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was told at the time) on the first day of Purim the same (Hebrew) year?
20.2.2 A Gathering Threat and the Rescue: Two Recent Historical
Events

It is time to be more particular. To detail the extremely strange coincidence, the
subject of this section, major events that took place in the Middle East in the last
dozen years or so (as of the time of authoring this book) are enumerated.