Purim is around the corner!

The Purim story centers around the plot of the King’s minister, Haman, to kill all the Jews in the Persian empire — which, at the time, encompassed all the Jews in the world! And he knew exactly what he was doing.

King Achashverosh knew that the Jewish Prophet Yirmiyah (Jeremiah) had said the Jewish exile would last 70 years. He waited until 70 years had elapsed from the exile of the Jewish King Yechonyah, and then threw an elaborate party, at which the serving vessels from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem were used to serve food and drink to the guests. Haman engineered the party to lure the Jews into violating Torah law, to ensure the Jewish G-d would abandon his people entirely.

Mordechai insisted the Jews should not go, but many violated his words — and according to the Sages, this is what enabled Haman to come so close to success with his evil scheme. But in the end, as we all know, he failed, and he and his sons were hanged. And as for the exile, the next King, Daryavesh (Darius), permitted the Jews to return and the Holy Temple to be rebuilt just a few years later — 70 years after the exile of the majority of the Jews.