Newspapers recently displayed pictures of a vicious looking woman named Gisela, a Nazi guard at Auschwitz, now ninety years old, who is set to be trialled for her atrocities.
It is probably of no coincidence that this report coincided with Purim. In fact there seems to be a strong link between retribution to the Nazis and the Megilla. The following fascinating observation displays this beautifully…
In the section of the Megilla detailing the death of Haman’s ten sons there are four letters that are written in a different size to the rest. A closer look shows that the letters toff ת)) shin ש)) and zayin ז)) are written in a smaller size whereas the letter ו)) vav is larger. For thousands of years, no one seems to have confidently explained these anomalies. However following the year 1946, it seems that a possible explanation has emerged, how so…?
On the 16th of October 1946, ten Nazi criminals were sentenced to death by hanging at the Nuremberg trail. Both the Nazis and Haman had the same objective in life ‘to destroy and annihilate all the Jews, from young to old’ (Esther 3:13). It is noted that the small and large letters mentioned above correspond exactly to the secular year 1946, where a contemporary version of the ten sons of Haman were hanged. (1)
Additionally when Esther requested from Achashverosh that the ten sons of Haman be hanged, she said ‘let the ten sons of Haman be hanged tomorrow’ (2). The Hebrew word used for tomorrow is machar. Interestingly our sages comment on this word ‘there is a tomorrow that is now and a tomorrow that is in the distant future’. It could be suggested that Esther was prophesying a future hanging, one she could certainly not have known about without divine insight.
Finally these thoughts appear to have been replicated by one of the Nazi criminals themselves. As Newsweek reported in it’s 1946 account of the trials ‘Only Julius Streicher went without dignity. He had to be pushed across the floor, wild eyed and screaming “heil hitler”. Mounting the steps he cried out: “And now I go to G-d.” He stared at the witnesses facing the gallows and shouted “Purimfest, 1946” (Purim is a Jewish feast)’. It seems that Streicher’s words had far reaching connotations,far beyond what he meant them to mean.
The Torah is not a Joke, nor the product of brilliant human ingenuity – rather it is from the creator of the heavens and earth. It is the truth.
Shabbat Shalom
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1. (tof=400) + (shin=300) + (ayin=70) + (daled=4) = 707. The Big vav represents the sixth millennium, i.e. the years 5000 to 6000.
2. Book of Esther, chapter nine