In this pre-Purim shiur, I look at the words of Al Hanism that we recite in the Amida on Purim.
I try to answer some of these questions:
- Why do we say, “In the days of Mordechai and Esther” rather than in the days of Achashverosh and Haman, or in the days of the Babylonian exile?
- Why do we specify Shushan, when the Purim miracle was the saving of all the Jews, throughout the kingdom?
- Why do we specify “on one day”?
- Why do we mention the date – we don’t mention the date in the prayers of any other festival?
- Why do we specify that Haman was hanged on a tree?
- Why are his sons mentioned, when they were very tangential to the story of Purim?