In the Persian Empire of the book of Esther, the Gnostic fire ... - WBM

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A religious minority with communal and family structures similar to those found within Judaism. Parsi children, Bombay, from India and Its Native Princes by Louis Rousselet, 1878 The Jewish Journey through History exilic communities. And in certain respects, the Parsi story resembles the Jewish American one. As for the longue durée, Jewish history has been intertwined with its Zoroastrian counterpart for thousands of years. Still, from a theological perspective, Jews and Zoroastrians could not be more different. Judaism is the classic expression of monotheism; Jews believe in a single, exclusive divine power, who is worshipped though the performance of commandments and the avoidance of sin. Zoroastrianism, on the other hand, is quintessentially dualistic. Two powers, the good Ahura Mazda (“Lord Wisdom”) and Zoroastrianism the evil Angra Mainyu (“Evil Spirit”), face off in a millennia-long cosmic battle. The duty of good Mazdayasnians – or worshippers of Mazda, as Zoroastrians are also known – is to fight for goodness and oppose evil in its many permutations, including falsehood, impurity, and insects. If we take a closer look, however, this apparent dichotomy is not nearly so stark. Jews and Zoroastrians met in the wake of Cyrus the Great’s conquests of Judea and Mesopotamia in the mid-sixth century BCE. As the first Persian emperor, Cyrus had a pragmatic, even pluralistic approach to the many religious communities and temples dotting his vast new empire. Cyrus’ own religious convictions seem to have included worship of Ahura Mazda as well as fire – a central Zoroastrian precept. Two generations later, Darius I had an inscription carved in a rock not far from Kermanshah, in Western Iran. There, in Old Persian, the king declared his allegiance to Ahura Mazda, to whom he felt he owed his kingdom. In typical Zoroastrian fashion, Darius’ archenemy is presented as none other than The Lie – the conceptual counterpart of Angra Mainyu. The earliest source relating to the Jewish- Zoroastrian encounter depicts it as a clash between monotheism and dualism. In addressing Cyrus’ conquests of the Near East, Shevat/Adar 5772 33
Zoroastrianism Good vs. Bad Zoroastrians live in a world divided The Superpowers: The force of good, Ahura Mazda (Lord Wisdom), and the force of evil, Angra Mainyu (the Evil Spirit) are locked in eternal conflict Head over Heels: The upper part of the body is ruled by positive powers, while the lower half is controlled by negative forces. The two halves should be separated by a belt or girdle Fighting the Fight: A good Zoroastrian fights on the side of good and opposes evil in its various forms, which include lies, impurity, and insects the prophet Isaiah has this to say: Thus said the Lord to Cyrus, His anointed one, whose right hand He has grasped, treading down nations before him.... I am the Lord, and there is none else; beside Me, there is no god; I engird you, though you have not known Me.... I form light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe – I, the Lord, do all these things. (Isaiah 45:1, 5, 7) According to the famous Cyrus Cylinder, the chief Babylonian god Marduk chose Cyrus to bring peace to the Babylonians. Similarly, as reflected in the biblical passage above, Judaism viewed the Persian destruction of Babylonia as an opportunity to reconstruct what had been destroyed. Cyrus had the power to bring the Jews back to the Land of Israel and, as he did for Marduk, to help rebuild their Temple. From the prophet’s perspective, however, there was a problem. Since Cyrus did not recognize the Jewish God, nor did he understand the cosmic significance of his conquests, he required a lesson in Monotheism 101. Isaiah 40–48 presents itself as a kind of theological primer addressed to Cyrus, and it does not mince words: The Jewish God is exclusive and allpowerful. He is the Creator of heaven and earth and everything therein. Most important, this God is responsible not only for all that is light and good, but for darkness and misfortune as well. When the verses from Isaiah are juxtaposed with parallels from the Avesta – the Zoroastrian sacred texts, which were transmitted orally from as early as the second millennium BCE – a fascinating mirror effect emerges. The attributes associated with Ahura Mazda in the Avesta are defiantly attributed to Isaiah’s God, but while the Avesta does not hold Ahura Mazda responsible for misfortune, the God of Isaiah 45 proudly associates His name with “woe.” This early intersection was to set the tone for future interactions between Jews and Zoroastrians. Interestingly, unlike the polemics against other cults found in the Later Prophets, which include parodies of icon production and idol worship, the Jewish-Zoroastrian encounter took place primarily in the intellectual and theological spheres. From the Scroll of Esther to the Dead Sea Scrolls Cyrus did not finish building the Second Temple, but the process was indeed completed under Persian auspices, as we read in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. One might have expected the dispatches between Persia and One of the great Jewish intellectual mysteries is how Second Temple sects engaged in a protracted dialogue with Iranian ideas Fire altars. Left: a coin from the Persian Sasanian era, contemporaneous to the talmudic period Courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago Right: Coin of the Sasanian emperor Hormazd II, fourth century Classical Numismatic Group 34 February/March 2012 www.segulamag.com
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In the Persian Empire of the book of Esther, the Gnostic fire ... - WBM

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