Today, the 12th of Adar, is my birthday.

It is also the month of Purim — when Jews around the world read the Book of Esther and remember how a people were nearly destroyed because they were described in a certain way.

My name is Yaakov Moshe Levine.

Yaakov — the patriarch who wrestled through exile and became Israel. Moshe — who stood before Pharaoh and declared that power answers to a higher law. Levine — from Levi, a tribe dispersed among the people, entrusted with memory more than territory.

Your name, Tucker Carlson’s name, carries Scandinavian roots, migration, settlement, and colonisation in North America.

Mine carries Middle Eastern origin, Roman expulsion, dispersion across continents, survival under empires, and eventual return to my homeland

Both names tell stories.

Neither requires a DNA test to validate belonging.

The Route of the Megillah

The Book of Esther begins not with violence, but with a sentence:

“There is one people, scattered and dispersed among the nations, whose laws are different.”

Haman did not begin by calling Jews evil.

He began by calling them different.

The progression is........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)