Purim 5786 finds me on a cruise ship sailing the beautiful blues seas of the western Caribbean off the coast of Mexico. A very odd place to experience the beginning of The War to End the Evil Regime as well as to celebrate Purim, no doubt. Never really on vacation, this morning, on the Rhapsody of the Seas, the answer came to me. The question I’ve been asking myself with respect to Our Modern Purim Story is this:  Who is the Queen Esther in Our Story? Clearly, Trump is the foolish, simple sex crazed leader with too much power, i.e. King Ahasheveraus. Clearly, Bibi is Mordechai, the one who is ultimately going to save the Jews, i.e. modern day Israel, from the evil Hamas, of course the Islamic Regime represented by Khamanei. But who is Queen Esther? Rather, who are the Queen Esthers of Today? I suggest that those brave women who have come forward to demand accountability and responsibility for the crimes against them, i.e., the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, are ultimately responsible for the wrong man (Trump), doing the right thing (using military might to support the Iranian people in toppling a toxic regime) for the wrong reasons (to change the story because we know for a fact he was closely associated with Jeffrey Epstein). But here’s the Purim Irony for me, this tortured Levite, on this Purim 5786, exactly 20 years to the day in Jewish time, that I buried my father, Merle Gordon,  z”l, who was a very proud member of Sigma Alpha Mu. As was my brother Barry and my Uncle Stu and Leslie Wexner. Yup, Leslie Wexner who made a lot of money selling lingerie. No wonder Epstein cozied up to him. But over time Les’s wife Abigail smelled a rat and they severed ties. Unlike others who continued to associate with Epstein even after it was known how immoral and disgusting he was. So, the Purim joke for me is that the ability to understand sacred geopolitics the way I do is based on the gift I received from Leslie Wexner. Yup, that Leslie Wexner who made a lot of money selling lingerie at Victoria’s Secret. And, while I don’t know for a fact if any of those models were abused by Epstein, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to put A & B together, does it ladies? So, to those of us who are disgusted by the who and the why but thrilled by the what, perhaps Frannie’s Purim Analogy, connecting brave Queen Esther (and Vashti and all women used over time for their bodies) to the Epstein Victims, can help ease some of the pain. Perhaps that is Victoria’s Secret. Am Yisrael Chai. G-d Bless America. Power to the Iranian People.

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