Purim is an important Jewish holiday with much gaiety and even a specific call to wine drinking. “You are not supposed to get rip-roaring drunk on Purim, but happily tipsy,” WWW.myjewishlearning.com. The holiday often has a distinctive female theme primarily because Queen Esther commanded it as an annual holiday. Please see the biblical book of Esther.

A cantor is a religious official that sings solo in some formal Christian and Jewish worship. Traditionally this role has usually been held by men in both faiths.

Holy, holy, holy, this is kriat ha-megillah, the reading of the scrolls. All be silent out of respect for we will read of a queen, perhaps the greatest queen of all queens, ever! EVERYONE, be silent. First though, let the cantor sing.

It was se'udat Purim, the celebratory meal, with fine food, children playing and family laughing together. No one was alone, unprotected and isolated. The guarding arm of family was around everyone tonight with a bright fire roaring in the fireplace. Cold and evil of the dark outside was far away. The great hall quieted as everyone “shushed” each other. Servants stood still from their constant moving, their dishes heavy with the best of foods. Then the cantor did a strange thing.

The song that she started was sad. Instead of a celebration of the glamor of a powerful and great queen, she started a lament, a beautiful one but still a lament. The smiles on all faces were gone immediately. A question was in everyone’s mind. Why the sadness? Wasn’t this holiday, this Purim, about the great Hebrew Queen Esther, who with her uncle Mordecai, saved the Hebrew people from genocide? Wasn’t this a celebration of great victory, of thousands of lives saved? The cantor continued most strangely.

I know that you’ve been hurt

By someone out there

I can tell by the way

That you carry yourself

But if you listen to

my testimony to the end.

I can show you a protecting whisper friend

I….I loved and lost

Same as you

So you see?  I know just what

you have been through.

But if you’ll listen to me

You can stand up again

By having my whisper friend

How strange! Most of the people in the hall loved the beautiful song but saw no association of it with this great holiday. The elders understood though. They understood because they knew the full story.

They knew of the mighty Babylonian queen Esther achieving the office because Queen Vashti, her predecessor refused to follow her king’s commands. Vashti wouldn’t debase herself to dance before an all-male audience. Therefore Vashti was “fired” and Esther, along with possibly hundreds of other young women, were “tried out” by the king. The long line of slaves had no input in even keeping their lives let alone their personal respect. In all of this horror, Esther was “picked” to be queen. Once in office and driven by desperation, she used her new power to save her Hebrew people.

Even when you worry.

Even when you cry.

Our whisper friend will be with you.

To dry your weeping eye.

So my friend, tell God

That you will be true

That you will do everything

That the Bible tells you to do.

And just as sure as one and one is two.

Our whisper friend will find justice for you!

He’ll take care of you.

Take care of you.

Then the cantor did something unimaginable.  With tears streaming from her eyes, she cried!

Talk to God right now!

This done, the cantor just walked out of the great hall even as her accompanying musicians finished. The audience sat stunned. Now they might understand though.

What is a queen to do? Even though it is true that history concludes that to be a woman can mean to be defamed from birth depending upon the culture around her, the fact doesn’t make any gender unable to do wrong. Queens still are only people and all people can be most evil. Throughout time and throughout the world, Queens like Cleopatra of Egypt killed everyone in their way including family, all for that human lust for power like any king. Evita Peron filled the beautiful pampas of Argentina with unmarked graves as she continued making promises like any dictator. The elders understood this as well including all of our ability to lie to a judge.

One elder caught the cantor’s elbow as she left the hall. “Remember” he smiled. “Your cause of advocating justice for women is good but it can only be achieved by a fair trial for everyone, not revenge.” The cantor stopped and looked at him.  Anger boiled up from her very soul. They both waited as a servant ran past before continuing the conversation. The Gluhwein that the servant had been offering had cooled off and needed to be warmed up again in the kitchen.

“So then oh great wise one,” she was angry. “What is a young girl to do when some power figure misuses her and everyone ignores her testimony if she even has the courage to share it?” The door elder understood the anger. “Justice for all is the Biblical standard, even justice for the accused,” he quietly answered. They both glanced back into the great hall as the eldest of the elders rose to read the scroll. The doorway elder continued. “Surely you cannot presume that a correction to this issue is accomplished by making the accused person guilty even before a trial? If you don’t have justice for all then you don’t have justice at all.” The cantor stared at the door elder so he continued. “Maybe instead of MeToo, call it Listen2Every1.” The cantor nodded. Maybe she agreed and maybe she didn’t. “The Bible never teaches domination by anyone, it clearly teaches equal partnership,” she said.

“You are correct” the door elder nodded.

“I will stay and join the festivities” the cantor though out loud as she looked at a table filled with young people. “A fantastic idea” the door elder agreed. The cantor turned and headed back into the room as several people smiled at her. She pushed her shoulders back, held her head high and knew right then that she would mentor at least three girls into the cantor role this year. (There just isn’t enough of us doing this ministry yet.) The eldest of the elders in the great hall began in a beautiful, bass, voice.

“This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. Esther 1:1 NIV.