Wednesday
Mar232022
Megillat Esther - The Great Chess Game
Chess came to Persia very early in its history.
To me the megillah feels like a chess game.
Player A: King Achashverosh, queen Vashti, knight Haman.
Player B: King G-d, queen Esther, knight Mordechai.
Player A's queen is knocked out very early in the game (BAD move) and that player then tries to get a variety of pawns to become a new queen. Unsuccessfully though: in the end, player B gets her queen (Esther) in among A's pieces.
This queen (Esther) starts causing havoc, along with her knight (Mordechai). In the end, she massacres A's pawns (Haman's sons and allies). She also uses A's own knight (Haman) to create a close to checkmate situation (1st party), followed by true checkmate (2nd party and the overturning of the decree).
P.s. Checkmating G-d was never really on the table 😉
And of course G-d is not just the King, but is also the player.
tagged Achashverosh, Esther, Haman, Mordechai, Purim
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