Ki Thisa and Purim: the Beloved Petitioner

This year, in most of the world, Purim is celebrated the day before parshath Ki Thisa is read. On the day before Purim, the  Fast of Esther , we read the a special Torah portion for public fact days: a selection from KiThisa. Purim and Ki Thisa are tied together. 

Purim is the celebration of rescue from annihilations.  Its text, the Megillah of Esther, does not mention Gd, The evil advisor, Haman, presents a plan to the foolish Emperor to destroy the Jews. ( The Megillah identifies the Jews, יהודים , as opposed to Hebrews or Israelites).  Mordechai, a Jewish minister to the Emperor gets wind of the plot. Esther, Mordechai's former ward (or wife) is now the Emperor's favorite in his harem. Mordechai convinces Esther to use her erotic wiles to  convey the  information that will upend Haman's evil plot.  

Ki Thisa  contains the story of the golden calf. Moses is on Mount Sinai, receiving the Divine Law. His absence allows the emergence of ritual by popular demand - which is a deep offence to Gd. The breach of the covenant  is great enough to raise the possibility that  Gd  will abandon this people, destroy them ( or let them be destroyed)  and create a replacement nation. Moses pleads for the people. Moses uses his intimacy with Gd as a fulcrum to plead with the Master of the Universe, the King of Kings. The plea of Moses, like the plea of Esther, is successful and the nation is spared... albeit with a debt to be repaid .  The call and response of forgiveness to the prodigal nation  is a paradigm.  We repeat it as a mantra in Yom Kippur. These words, which encompass the thirteen faces of Divine mercy, are a source of hope. The golden calf experience proves that Gd can forgive.  And we hope that the recitation will induce amnesty. 

Both stories are difficult. The golden calf is a rejection of Gd and the principles that underlie the faith. Ignoring Gd is  less of a problem than creating an idol. The idol implies that Gd's functions can be replaced by a fantasy. Once the uniqueness of the Universal creator has been deeply denied, it is very hard to return. The Israelites had moved into a realm that would make acceptance of the yoke of the law very difficult and unlikely. Forgiveness for this offense was a big ask. But it was granted. 

Gd seems absent from the Megilla.  The community that read Ki Thisa the day before, and will read it again tomorrow, considers a godless world that hates the Jews. Doesn't this harsh persecution require a crime? The humans, who are planning to carry out the destruction, have almost certainly identified the requisite capital offenses: usury, poisoning wells, replacing natives, excessive wealth, etc.

The Talmud (Megilla 12a) says that the reason was that the Jews:  partook of the feast of that wicked one, Ahasuerus, 

מִפְּנֵי שֶׁנֶּהֱנוּ מִסְּעוּדָתוֹ שֶׁל אוֹתוֹ רָשָׁע 

and Steinsalz  adds: ואכלו בה דברים אסורים 

they ate forbidden things.

I do not want to believe that the a single indulgence of the Shushan Jews in  food and wine that was questionably kosher brought the wrath of Gd through Haman.  Rather, I think that there was a general attempt at assimilation. The Megillah hints at that as well. Mordechai is connected to the Royal government.  Esther is able to hide her nationality. The planned destruction of the Jews is more ironic if  it occurs through the hands of the people they want to assimilate into. If assimilation was the sin, it also brings the story closer to the golden calf. The Jews want to be like everyone else

But how do the Jews justify Gd's silence?  This is not a problem with Purim - the destruction was averted. It is a big problem later. 

The Megillah and Ki Thisa are disaster aversion stories and the the close relationship between the pleader and the power is crucial.  This system seems to works...up to a point.