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Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus, part of the growing repentance remnant, cleansing as His Bride, getting ready for His soon return as our Bridegroom-----
This Purim is a clear connection to the first one, 2500 years ago. Rabbi Tuly Weisz has a key insight, connecting Purim to the war against Iran today:
Purim Pirate’s Booty: Should Israel Take Iran’s Oil?
By: Rabbi Tuly Weisz
MARCH 5, 2026
My wife Abby starts planning our Purim costumes months in advance. This year, she dressed our whole family as pirates — and somewhere between the eye patches and plastic swords, I found myself thinking about treasure and Pirate’s Booty. And about what the most meaningful Purim in thousands of years might be telling us to do with Iran’s vast oil reserves.
The holiday of Purim commemorates the miraculous salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia — modern-day Iran — roughly 2,500 years ago. The villain of the story, Haman, was a high-ranking official in the Persian court who persuaded King Achashverosh (Ahasuerus) to authorize the annihilation of every Jew in the empire. Through the courage of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai, the plot was foiled, the Jews were permitted to defend themselves, and Haman was hanged on the very gallows he had built for Mordechai.
Purim is usually celebrated with costumes, noisemakers, and generous gifts of food. But this year, with Israel at war with Iran, the ancient story feels urgently alive. And the question it raises — what to do with the spoils of a defeated enemy — may be more relevant than ever.
The Curious Case of the Unclaimed Treasure
The Book of Esther — the Megillah, or Scroll of Esther, read aloud in synagogues each Purim — has a great deal to say about spoils of war. The theme appears early: when Haman first presents his murderous plan to the king, he sweetens the deal with a staggering bribe of ten thousand silver talents (see Esther 3:9).
אִם־עַל־הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב יִכָּתֵב לְאַבְּדָם וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר־כֶּסֶף אֶשְׁקוֹל עַל־יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה לְהָבִיא אֶל־גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ׃
If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand kikarot of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.”
Esther 3:9
After the opulent 180-day royal banquet described at the story’s opening, Achashverosh’s treasury was likely depleted, yet the king waves off the offer. He wants Haman’s loyalty, not his silver.
The question of plunder resurfaces more dramatically when Achashverosh grants the Jews the right to fight back. The royal decree is explicit: the Jews are permitted “to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the forces of any people or province that would assault them” — and crucially, “to take the spoils” (Esther 8:11).
אֲשֶׁר נָתַן הַמֶּלֶךְ לַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בְּכָל־עִיר־וָעִיר לְהִקָּהֵל וְלַעֲמֹד עַל־נַפְשָׁם לְהַשְׁמִיד וְלַהֲרֹג וּלְאַבֵּד אֶת־כָּל־חֵיל עַם וּמְדִינָה הַצָּרִים אֹתָם טַף וְנָשִׁים וּשְׁלָלָם לָבוֹז׃
to this effect: The king has permitted the Yehudim of every city to assemble and fight for their lives; if any people or province attacks them, they may destroy, massacre, and exterminate its armed force together with women and children, and plunder their possessions—
Esther 8:11
This permission to plunder is repeated again in the decree’s summary (Esther 8:13) and once more in the narrative of the battle itself (Esther 9:10). Three times the text grants the Jews license to take the wealth of their enemies.
Then comes the stunning reversal. Three times — matching the three permissions granted — the Megillah records that the Jews declined.
After the fighting in Shushan, the text notes: “but on the spoil they laid not their hand” (Esther 9:10). After the battles throughout the Persian provinces: “but on the spoil they laid not their hand” (Esther 9:15). And in the summary of the entire episode: “but on the plunder they laid not their hand” (Esther 9:16). The repetition is clearly deliberate so that we notice something important.
עֲשֶׂרֶת בְּנֵי הָמָן בֶּן־הַמְּדָתָא צֹרֵר הַיְּהוּדִים הָרָגוּ וּבַבִּזָּה לֹא שָׁלְחוּ אֶת־יָדָם׃
the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the foe of the Yehudim. But they did not lay hands on the spoil.
Esther 9:10
וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ היהודיים [הַיְּהוּדִים] אֲשֶׁר־בְּשׁוּשָׁן גַּם בְּיוֹם אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר לְחֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר וַיַּהַרְגוּ בְשׁוּשָׁן שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת אִישׁ וּבַבִּזָּה לֹא שָׁלְחוּ אֶת־יָדָם׃
and the Yehudim in Shushan mustered again on the fourteenth day of Adar and slew three hundred men in Shushan. But they did not lay hands on the spoil.
Esther 9:15
וּשְׁאָר הַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בִּמְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ נִקְהֲלוּ וְעָמֹד עַל־נַפְשָׁם וְנוֹחַ מֵאֹיְבֵיהֶם וְהָרֹג בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶם חֲמִשָּׁה וְשִׁבְעִים אָלֶף וּבַבִּזָּה לֹא שָׁלְחוּ אֶת־יָדָם׃
The rest of the Yehudim, those in the king’s provinces, likewise mustered and fought for their lives. They disposed of their enemies, killing seventy-five thousand of their foes; but they did not lay hands on the spoil.
Esther 9:16
The parallel to an earlier episode in the Bible is hard to miss. Israel’s first monarch, King Saul, lost his throne precisely because he took valuable spoils from the Amalekites and spared their king, Agag. The prophet Samuel thundered at Saul:
וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁמוּאֵל הַחֵפֶץ לַיהֹוָה בְּעֹלוֹת וּזְבָחִים כִּשְׁמֹעַ בְּקוֹל יְהֹוָה הִנֵּה שְׁמֹעַ מִזֶּבַח טוֹב לְהַקְשִׁיב מֵחֵלֶב אֵילִים׃
But Shmuel said: “Does Hashem delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As much as in obedience to Hashem‘s command? Surely, obedience is better than sacrifice, Compliance than the fat of rams.
Samuel 15:22
Haman, the Megillah tells us explicitly, was an Agagite — a descendant of that very Amalekite king.
In refusing the plunder, the Jews of Persia were completing what Saul had failed to do: they demonstrated that their war was one of survival and justice, not greed.
An Unfinished Story
The victory of Purim was remarkable. But it was incomplete. Haman and his sons were destroyed, yet Amalek — the people who represent the primal force of evil opposed to Israel’s mission in the world — was not. This is why, to this day, Jews read a special Torah portion on the morning of Purim recalling the original command to blot out Amalek’s memory. The Torah states plainly:
וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי־יָד עַל־כֵּס יָהּ מִלְחָמָה לַיהֹוָה בַּעֲמָלֵק מִדֹּר דֹּר׃
He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of Hashem!’ Hashem will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”
Exodus 17:16
The rabbis understood this literally: God’s throne is, in a deep mystical sense, incomplete until Amalek is finally defeated.
Additionally, Purim is celebrated with joy, but without the full “Hallel” — the special psalms of praise recited on major festivals like Passover. The reason, our sages explain, is that the Purim salvation was partial. The Jews remained in exile under Persian rule. The enemy was defeated but not destroyed. The story was not over.
Perhaps Mordechai and Esther understood that the booty of Persia wasn’t theirs to claim. Their generation had not yet arrived at the moment of final redemption. They left the treasure behind — reserved, as it were, for a future time.
What God Promised Abraham About the Plunder
Here is where the story takes a more expansive turn — one that I believe deserves serious prayerful consideration in light of the extraordinary moment we are living through and the miraculous battles taking place as America and Israel bring the Islamic Regime to its knees in Iran.
Nearly four thousand years ago, in what the Bible calls the Covenant of the Parts, God made a series of promises to the patriarch Abraham. He told him that his descendants would suffer as slaves in a foreign land — but that when God finally rescued them, they would not leave empty-handed, but would depart “with great wealth”
וְגַם אֶת־הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹדוּ דָּן אָנֹכִי וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן יֵצְאוּ בִּרְכֻשׁ גָּדוֹל׃
but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.
Genesis 15:14
The Book of Exodus records the fulfillment: when the Israelites were finally liberated from Egypt, the Egyptians pressed upon them silver and gold and clothing. God’s word proved exact. The wealth of an evil empire was transferred to those it had oppressed.
The ancient sages teach that everything that happened to the Israelites in Egypt is a template — a harbinger — for the final redemption. The prophet Isaiah goes further, promising that the coming deliverance will be so great that it will completely overshadow the Exodus from Egypt (see Jeremiah 16:14–15), so thoroughly and will surpass what came before.
לָכֵן הִנֵּה־יָמִים בָּאִים נְאֻם־יְהֹוָה וְלֹא־יֵאָמֵר עוֹד חַי־יְהֹוָה אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלָה אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃
Assuredly, a time is coming—declares Hashem—when it shall no more be said, “As Hashem lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,”
Jeremiah 16:14
כִּי אִם־חַי־יְהֹוָה אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלָה אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ צָפוֹן וּמִכֹּל הָאֲרָצוֹת אֲשֶׁר הִדִּיחָם שָׁמָּה וַהֲשִׁבֹתִים עַל־אַדְמָתָם אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לַאֲבוֹתָם׃
but rather, “As Hashem lives who brought the Israelites out of the northland, and out of all the lands to which He had banished them.” For I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers.
Jeremiah 16:15
Why did Israel need gold in the wilderness? Because money enables mission. A nation tasked with being, in Isaiah’s words, “a light unto the nations” cannot fulfill that calling from a position of poverty and dependence.
Wealth, when directed toward sacred purpose, becomes a vehicle of divine blessing for the entire world.
Our Purim Moment
We are living through the most consequential Purim in 2,500 years. Once again, a Persian regime — Iran — has openly declared its intention to destroy the Jewish people. Once again, Israel has survived and struck back against what seemed like overwhelming odds. The parallels are not coincidental. They are prophetic.
So what should Israel do with the wealth of its defeated enemies?
The Purim story suggests that restraint can itself be a powerful moral statement — demonstrating to the watching world that this war is about justice, not plunder. Going after Iran’s oil reserves would hand our adversaries a ready-made narrative: that America and Israel were motivated all along by resource acquisition rather than the righteousness of self-defense.
And yet. The other strand of Scripture — the promise to Abraham, the wealth of Egypt, the prophetic vision of final redemption — suggests that there may come a moment when claiming the resources of a defeated evil regime is not only permissible but providential. Not as an act of greed, but as the transfer of resources from those who used wealth to fund global terrorism to those who would use it to build, heal, and illuminate.
Perhaps that time is approaching. Perhaps the pirate’s booty that Mordechai and Esther left unclaimed in Persia 2,500 years ago is still waiting — reserved for the generation that will finally complete what they began.
From Siege Mentality to Mission Mentality
In my book “Universal Zionism”, I argue that Israel is now transitioning from a defensive posture — the centuries-long siege mentality of a people simply trying to survive — to something bolder: a mission mentality, in which the Jewish state steps forward as an active force for good in the world.
This is the moment the prophets envisioned. This is what the return to the land was always meant to enable.
The events since October 7th have accelerated this transition in ways no one predicted. Israel’s resilience, its moral clarity in the face of barbarism, and the global realignment it has catalyzed — with friends and enemies now revealed with startling clarity — all point toward a new chapter in the ancient story.
Whether or not Iran’s oil becomes part of that chapter, one thing seems clear: we are not simply reenacting the Purim of the past. We are writing its sequel. And if the pattern of Scripture holds, the ending will be even more glorious than anything Mordechai or Esther could have imagined.
So this Purim, between the costumes and the noise, it is worth asking: is this the generation that finally goes back to Persia to claim what was left behind?
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