And this holiday is really very fun for the winners. This is the only day on which the sober and pedantic Talmud does not even allow, but prescribes to get drunk: "In the afternoon they eat a festive meal and drink alcoholic beverages, until they cease to distinguish between the words "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai"[258]. This is because "We must drink the wine and lose the ability to separate these two aspects – and feel that the destruction of Haman is the blessing of Mordechai... The miracles of Purim are associated with wine: at the feast of Ahasuerus, Queen Vashti was deposed, and Esther was in her place; the fall of Haman took place during a feast given by Esther." "The Talmud relates: Once Rabbi Zeira came to visit the Rav, and they celebrated Purim together. And they got drunk to such an extent that Rava got up and stabbed Rabbi Zeira. Only then did he realize what he had done, he was frightened, sobered up and began to pray to Hashem that Rabbi Zeira would come to life. God showed him mercy and revived Rabbi Zeira. The next year, Rava again invited Rabbi Zeira to visit him to celebrate Purim. But Rabbi Zeira refused and said: 'A miracle does not happen every year...'"

The festive meal includes pies with the poetic name "Haman's ears"[261]. "The most popular dish of Purim is "Haman's ear" (in Yiddish "gomentash") - a triangular bun stuffed with poppy seeds with honey... The Midrash tells us that Haman, after his defeat, walked 'bent and sad, with his head closed in shame and his ears incised.'"

Such a sweet family scene: a parent, who no longer distinguishes the name of Haman from the name of Mordecai, asks his son: "My dear, would you like to eat the flesh of our enemy?" [263].

And this holiday is considered the greatest. Among the Talmudic sages "there is even an opinion that when all the books of the prophets and hagiographers are forgotten, the book of Esther will not be forgotten after all, and the holiday of Purim will not cease to be observed."

In Judaism, Purim is primarily a children's holiday. "In the evening and in the morning, the scrolls of Esther are read in the synagogues. It is customary to make noise (knock your feet on the floor, fists on the tables, and twist special Purim rattles) at the mention of the name of the villain Haman. Of course, children are especially zealous in fulfilling this custom."[265]

Now, I hope, it is clearer why Christians are concerned about the fact that the Jews remained "for the second year in the first class", in the class of the Old Testament: in this class they taught quite cruel things. And if the Jews remain with their Old Testament "primer", then we can expect "preventive" outbursts of aggression from them.

This is the monstrosity of this "merry holiday": from generation to generation, it reproduces the pattern of dealing with those whom the Jews will one day consider their enemy. There is no history, no progress. There is no growth of spiritual consciousness and morality. The Old Testament bloodthirstiness was not transformed. Those norms are still alive. The archetype has not been abolished. It continues to be regarded as a model worthy of reproduction (for the time being, ritual and symbolic, and on occasion real)[267]...

This is the most serious line between Judaism and Christianity. For Christians, the Old Testament and its cruelty are a past that no longer needs to and cannot be imitated. For the Jews, their covenant did not become "Old", for them it is still a model to follow and a guide to action. A Christian will not accept as normal the command that Moses received before the Exodus, which consisted in robbing the houses of the surrounding Egyptians. But can a Jew say that the event of three thousand years ago has lost its literal normativity for him?

The blood and cruelty of the Old Testament for Christians is nothing more than a pedagogical measure, a temporary necessity that has gone forever with the advent of the Gospel. For Judaists, these are not temporary measures, but eternal constants, not pedagogy, but the ontological norm of the existence of the Jewish people. Therefore, Christians do not celebrate Purim – although this holiday is rooted in the history that is sacred to us.

It is customary for Christians to interpret symbolically, allegorically the wars of the Old Testament and the events of the Babylonian captivity: "Satan has drawn me into the captivity of sin. Well, let's fight. I have a conspiracy against him, and a very insidious one. I'll go to the priest's church and confess all the sins into which he drove me — that's Purim for him." In Judaism, however, a completely literal understanding of the norms and examples of the Old Testament is preserved.

Christians do not reject the book of Esther. But we do not believe that what was necessary then is worth repeating today. We live in an open world. We can take something from the experience of other peoples and epochs – from their rituals, cuisine, clothes, songs. But if we take something, then it is better to take a closer look at this humanitarian aid: whether the expiration date has expired. The expiration date of Purim expired in 30 AD - at the Crucifixion of Christ. The Jews are still ready to feed themselves with this product.

I will not say words of condemnation against the characters of the Holy History. But I would like that pogrom to remain in history, and not be dragged into the future.

I am not writing a theological study now, I am not engaged in the interpretation and apology of the Old Testament.

I will only note that the Supreme, Divine assessment of the actions of Esther and Mordecai is absent in the Bible. In the Hebrew text of the book of Esther, the name of God is never mentioned at all[268]. God does not enter into a dialogue with them. The words "You have done well, Mordecai" are not in the book of Esther. And the holiday of Purim is established not by the revelation of the Creator, but by the Jewish diaspora's own initiative: "The Jews who are in Shushan made it a day of feasting and rejoicing" (Est. 9:18). We have before us a historical tale rather than a revelation of God[269]. The New Testament writers never quote the book of Esther.