The totalitarian instinct is on the march again. This evil has accompanied humanity since time immemorial, but the West has evaded this danger since the end of World War II. Our respite is ending.
Our totalitarian challenge includes a vicious cancel culture, propagandized news, ubiquitous corporate and government surveillance, and China and Russia’s renewed imperial ambitions. A novel form of investing, called ESG, forces companies to display their bona fides on the environment, social responsibility and corporate governance, none of which is directly related to the duty of increasing profit for shareholders. If a company satisfies a monopolistic group of investor funds, it gets a high ESG rating. This Maoist social scoring is a sham. Often, the worst corporate actors have high ESG scores, allowing them to participate in this $35 trillion dollar industry.
The power elites are trying to corral We The People on a grand scale. Can’t you feel it?
Did all of us take the vaccines purely for health concerns? How many of us have our money in risky assets and instruments because central banks are eroding the value of our hard earned fiat currency? How many small retail businesses have died because of the virus mandates, uncontrolled shoplifting, and the monopolistic tyranny of internet retail giants and social networking platforms? Entire sectors of the economy have to rebuild from scratch, such as tourism, hospitality, and live entertainment.
For decades, Israel’s unelected activist Supreme Court has eviscerated the legislative branch and has been at war with Jewish land rights in Israel. Its latest ruling regarding the Shiekh Jarrah neighborhood is but the latest demonstration of this Court’s hostility toward We The People.
The primary victims of this totalitarian wave are the middle class, the small business class who are the backbone of republicanism and the civil society.
Totalitarianism’s outstanding features include concentration of power in the hands of a small clique, buttressed by a massive unelected bureaucratic infrastructure to enforce the whims of the few against the many. These diktats are concocted in secrecy and enforced with the trappings of legality in an effort to dupe their population into acceptance.
The Book of Esther dramatically illustrates these features with literary flair. All the earthly power in the story is in the hands of an absolute monarch who rules vast swaths of territory. This King has his small coterie of advisors who appear to kowtow to his every whim and give it the imprimatur of legal process. In truth, these advisors try to manipulate the King and offer suggestions that benefit their own agendas. They make many of the important decisions of this empire in secret, often when the King is drunk or at a party. This emperor king has legions of officials to impose these mandates on an unsuspecting public. Yet the Book of Esther mocks this tyrant and satirizes his absolute power.
In the first chapter of the Book of Esther, the inebriated King becomes furious with his wife, Vashti, during a prolonged drinking party. He summons his seven closest advisors to consult with them on Vashti’s fate. Verses 13-22 of chapter one describe the conversation between King Achashverosh and this elite group.
First, the text tells us in verse 13 that the King’s “procedure” is to turn to these “wise” men who know “law and judgment” דת ודין. The word law, דת, is repeated again in verses 15 and 18. The advisor, Memuchan, convinced the King to murder Vashti with a legalistic call to precedent. If the King does not order Vashti’s execution, argued Memuchan, this will set a dangerous precedent for the other women in the empire who will disobey their husbands. Thus, Vashti’s murder was legitimized and legalized for the “greater good”.
How many 20th Century totalitarians have used this same logic and arrogant perversion of the law?
The next major royal decision in this epic tale escalates the crime of murder. In chapter three of the Book of Esther, Haman persuades the King to wipe out all the Jewish subjects of his empire. Again, legalities are enlisted in the service of evil. Haman tells the King that the Jews have different laws, דתיהם שונות. They do not obey the laws of the King דתי המלך. Of course, Haman uses booty for the royal coffers to sweeten the deal, appealing to the boundless greed of the absolute tyrant. Verses 12-15 of chapter three relate in repetitive detail the bureaucratic machinery of the scribes and couriers who spread this capricious edict throughout the empire. True to form, Haman and Achashverosh drink alcohol to seal this decision while the public is baffled and disoriented.
The final decision process for this caricature of a ruler occurs, yet again, during a drinking party in a fit of royal fury. Esther understands that this despot, who they have forced her to wed, operates in a party milieu. She arranges two drinking banquets in succession. During the first banquet, she piques the suspicions of the paranoid tyrant who knows his hold on power depends on fear-induced loyalty. During the second banquet, she finally discloses Haman’s plan and her identity as a Jew. Esther’s first banquet and Achashverosh’s paranoia-filled dream prepped him to suspect Haman, and the King used Haman’s posture on Esther’s couch as a pretense to take him out. The rapid reaction of one of the court minions, Harbonah, ensures this happens without legal deliberation.
The remedy for the genocidal decree employs the same bureaucratic rigmarole as its inception. Chapter 8, verses 9-14 describes the activity of the satraps, governors and officials from Hodu to Cush required to reverse Haman’s decree.
So what lessons should we draw from this timeless, insightful portrayal of totalitarianism?
First, Esther and Mordechai were in the Diaspora, so were forced to conform to the rules of a foreign polity. We, in Israel, are no longer in that trap. As our national anthem Hatikvah proclaims, we formed the modern state of Israel to be a free nation in our land, להיות עם חפשי בארצנו. Thus, we must insist that our elites do not succumb to the totalitarian instinct. The moment they do, we need to hold their feet to the fire. If we don’t, no one else will derail the tyranny we suffer.
Second, the Purim story stands in sharp contrast to the Passover narrative in Exodus. In the Book of Esther, God is absent in the storyline as an active character. In the Exodus story, God is writ large with supernatural miracles where he helps the powerless overcome the powerful. In the Purim narrative, God’s absence serves to highlight the powerful human tyranny. The human King looms large while God is hidden.
This has been the pattern for much of Jewish history in the Diaspora, leading to a crisis of belief in Judaism. Yet it is Esther and Mordechai’s trust in the invisible, transcendent God that ultimately triumphs over this unworthy authoritarian. The entire Jewish community of Shushan displayed their faith with communal fasting and prayer. This faith elicits the courage to fight the totalitarian. It would do us well to remember that now, and be confident that We The People can regain control of our destiny.
Ann P. Levin lives in the biblical heartland of Israel. She is a legal writing instructor. Her book, Burning But Never Consumed: The Hebrew Bible in Turbulent Times, is available on Amazon. Follow her on Facebook at Ann P. Levin Author.