Community Magazine March 2016

The Tomb of Mordechai and Esther In the Kurdish region of Iran, about 200 miles west of Tehran, lies a tomb that has been the destination for countless Jewish pilgrimages and celebrations, perhaps going back two millennia. Esther and Mordechai are said to be buried in a shrine in Hamedan, formerly known as Ecbatana, and before that, Shushan. In that shrine Hebrew writing still adorns the walls. Texts have been discovered which were written by various explorers, dating back to the twelfth century. In these texts explorers recorded their experiences while visiting Shushan, as well as illustrations and descriptions. Many of those recollections discuss pieces of paper written in Hebrew, which were left near the tombs. This is similar to a custom we know today whereby people tuck notes in between the stones of the Western Wall. It is believed that Iranians in centuries of old used the tomb as the next-best and nearest holiest place to Jerusalem. During those times travel to Jerusalemwas prohibitively expensive, was very labor-intensive, and was exceedingly time consuming. Jewish tombstones in the proximity attest to how important people felt the site was. The shrine area today is different – at least in appearance. In an effort to make it more accessible and aesthetic, the houses that surrounded it were bought and demolished in the early 1970s, in a goodwill gesture by the Iranian Jewish Society to honor 2,500 years of Iranian monarchy. Architect Yassi (Elias) Gabbay was commissioned to renovate the area, building a bridge on the main street to provide easy access. This bridge made it possible for people to avoid navigating a narrow dirt alleyway in order to enter. Gabbay built a partial- underground synagogue there, with a Star of David skylight. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Gabbay fled to Los Angeles. According tomedia reports, in 2011 Iranian authorities removed the site from the National Heritage List. Additionally, a sign denoting the site’s significance was taken down. These moves were sparked by the threats of over 200 students who sought to destroy the site. At that time the state’s news media, Fars, reported that the story of Purim was really about 75,000 ancient Persians who were the victims of a Jewish-led massacre, dubbed a “holocaust.” Meanwhile, another tradition holds that Esther and Mordechai were buried outside the village of Baram, near Tzfat, Israel. The tomb is located in Baram National Park. In the early thirteenth century, Rabbi Menachem Ha-Hevroni wrote that he visited the site. Additionally, just after Israel’s War of Independence when the area was liberated, it’s said that some Jews ventured to the tomb to read the megillah there. The Royal Game of Ur Some historians believe that Haman used a dice game, called the Royal Game of Ur, to determine the fate of the Jewish people. Documentarian Simcha Jacobovici has shown the resemblance of hamantashen to dice from the ancient Babylonian game, thus suggesting that the pastries are meant to symbolize the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman to determine the day of the massacre of the Jews. Tomb of Mordechai and Esther? Hamadan, known in antiquity as Ecbatana, and before that as Shushan, is in the Kurdish region of Iran. One tradition has it that Esther and Mordecai – after spending their final years at the royal palace – were buried in the city, next to one another, with a shrine constructed over their graves. In that shrine Hebrew writing still adorns the walls. Who was Achashverosh? The Persian emperor who assumed the throne at age 36 after his father Darius died in 486 BCE, was known by various names in different regions. In Hebrew and Babylonian he was known as Achashverosh, an attempt to pronounce the Persian “ Khshayarsha .” In Greece, where his father’s military had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon, he became known as Xerxes. The pyramid dice used in the Royal Game of Ur ADAR I - ADAR II 5776 MARCH 2016 37