Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat Vayikra – Purim (link to original page) Parshat Vayikra- Zachor- Purim PURIM'S UNACCEPTABLE MASK By Mordekhai Beck The desire for revenge is compelling yet just as equally circular, endless and invariably self-defeating. In the Bible, its roots lead us back to Cain's slaughter of Abel. Although the rabbis offer at least three reasons for this first fratricide — economic competition, ideology and sexual jealousy(Bereshit Rabba 22) — in the final resort, nothing really justified it, the reasons coming as an afterthought because we — the readers — cannot accept that such...