Once upon a time, there lived a Persian king, whose name was too difficult to pronounce. His wife, Queen Vashti, disobeyed him, so he divorced her and had a beauty pageant to choose the next queen. Mordechai sent Esther to the contest; she defeated all the other beauties and became the new queen, but she did not mention that she was Jewish. At around that time there was a very bad man with a very easy name to pronounce—Haman. He was the king’s prime minister, and he could talk the king into almost anything. Haman had a special quirk: he could not stand Jews. One day, he went to the king and told him: “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the peoples.” Haman explained to the king that he’d be better off without them because they don’t keep his laws; the king agreed and gave him the go-ahead to kill them all. When Mordechai heard this, he was shocked. He started yelling about it all over town, all the way to the king’s gate. He told Esther about the plan to kill the Jews, and that she must go and beg the king to undo it. Esther was frightened because she didn’t think the king would agree to her request, but she finally agreed. She had one condition – that the Jews would gather and unite in thought of her success. “Then,” she said, “although it’s against protocol for...
