Purim Then and Now

[Ismq]

First -

PURIM 1946
 
The claim: We all know the story told in the Book of Esther. Haman the son of Hamdata wanted "to destroy, to kill, and to exterminate" all Jews, but in the end the Jews defeated their enemies. The culmination of their victory was the killing of the ten sons of Haman, whose names the book details.
An intriguing dialogue takes place between Queen Esther and Ahasverus a few verses later: (Esther 9:12-14)
And the king said to Esther the queen: The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the capital, and the ten sons of Haman...Now whatever your petition, it shall be granted; whatever your request further, it shall be done.
Then said Esther: If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews that are in Shushan to do tomorrow also as this day, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
Esther's request seems somewhat strange. The ten sons of Haman had already been killed, why bother to hang them?
In the writings of the Sages and the commentators, we find several ideas that could clarify this:
On the word "tomorrow," in Esther's request, the Sages comment:
"There is a tomorrow that is now, and a tomorrow which is later." (Tanchuma Bo 13 and Rashi on Exodus 13:14).
In other words, Esther was asking that the hanging of Haman's ten sons not remain an isolated episode in history...


Has it in fact come true?
In answer to this question, let us look at the scroll...which clearly shows, at first glance, that the list of Haman's sons appears on a separate page, written in a prominent, unusual manner....
The left-hand column contains the word v'et (and) ten times. According to the Sages, the word v'et is used to denote replication. Thus, we have to conclude that another ten people were hung in addition to Haman's ten sons.
Which ten others were hung?
For the answer, we must jump 2,300 years forward....Special newspaper editions on October 16, 1946 reported the execution of ten Nazi war criminals found guilty by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal.
Amazingly, this outcome is hinted at in the Book of Esther!...
[W]e quoted Nachmanides's assertion (the introduction to his commentary on Genesis) that any change from the usual way of writing a word or letter indicates some hidden meaning.
If we examine the list of Haman's sons, we notice that three letters are written smaller:
the taf of Parshandata
the shin of Parmashta
the zayin of Vizata
(The enlarged vav of Vizata may refer to the sixth millenium.)
The three letters together form taf-shin-zayin, the Jewish year 5707 (1946 C.E.), the year that the ten Nazi criminals were executed.
Of the 23 Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, 11 were in fact sentenced to execution by hanging. Two hours before the sentence was due to be carried out, Goering committed suicide--so that only 10 descendents of Amalek were hung, thus fulfilling the request of Esther:
"let Haman's ten sons be hanged."
Furthermore, since the trial was conducted by a military tribunal, the sentence handed down should have been death by firing squad, or by electric chair as practiced in the U.S.A. However, the court specifically prescribed hanging, exactly as in Esther's original request:
"let Haman's ten sons be hanged."
Though doubts may linger about the connection between the Book of Esther and the Nazi war criminals, the condemned Julius Streicher certainly had none....[as The New York Herald Tribune of October 16, 1946 reported after he ascended to the gallows] "With burning hatred in his eyes, Streicher looked down at the witnesses and shouted: "Purim Fest 1946!"...
If these "coincidences" are not enough, examine the calendar for that month. The date of the execution (October 16, 1946) fell on the Jewish festival of "Hoshana Rabba" (21 Tishrei), which is the day G-d's verdicts are sealed.
This was the very day they were hanged, As we have said, all is hinted at in the Torah! (Dr. Moshe Katz, CompuTorah, pp. 99-107).

It's amazing.