Purim teaches us to unite and pray for hostages, prominent rabbi says at rally

Rabbi David Stav, the city rabbi of Shoham and the head of the Tzohar rabbinical group, likens Queen Esther to the hostages in Gaza in a sermon he delivers on Hostages Square on Purim night.

Esther, the heroine of the Book of Esther that recounts the story behind the holiday, “was a queen, but really she was a hostage in the palace of Ahasuerus,” Stav tells thousands of people gathered for the weekly rally for the release of hostages.

Esther, who was Jewish, had told her father to gather all the Jews after hearing that the king’s advisor was plotting to kill the Jews of Persia, Stav recalls of the story. “She also asks him to pray and fast for her,” he adds.

The story of Purim, which ends with rescue of the Jews and the demise of their persecutors, “shows that this is holiday capable of miracles – if we pray and if we unite,” says Stav.

He proceeds to read the Book of Esther with Rabbi Yoni Lavih.

Nadav Rudaeff, the son of 61-year-old Lior Rudaeff, whom Hamas terrorists abducted to Gaza on October 7 from Nir Yitzhak, recalls seeing his father at Purim parties in their kibbutz.

“Purim is my favorite holiday to celebrate in the kibbutz. But not this year,” Rudaeff says. He, too, references Esther. “Just as rescuing the Jewish people was in Esther’s hands, rescuing the hostages now is in our hands, and the hands of our leadership,” he says.