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An interesting thread weaves its way between the lines
of the Purim story, which at first may go unnoticed. If you look
carefully, the theme of cloth and
clothing appears ten times in the Megillah (the first and last of which
refer to tekhelet!):
The Megillah opens with a lavish description of the
tapestries and materials used in decorating Ahashverosh's
courtyard for his royal festival. Included in the list
are hangings of white, fine cotton, tekhelet, fine linen and purple.
Mordechai
rips his clothes and dons sackcloth and ashes upon hearing of
Haman's evil decree to destroy the Jews.
As the rest of the Jews start to hear
the news, they also dress in sackcloth.
Queen Esther sends some decent
clothing to Mordechai to wear which he promptly
refuses.
Mordechai convinces Queen Esther to appear before
the King on behalf of her fellow Jews. She appears
uninvited before the King dressed in her
royal vestments.
Haman recommends that the man Ahashverosh
wishes to honor be dressed
in royal garments which the King himself had
worn and be pranced around the streets on the royal horse.
Haman is commanded to outfit Mordechai accordingly
as a reward
for Mordechai having once saved the King's life.
After this
public humiliation,
Haman returns to his house in mourning, with his head covered.
Queen Esther charges Haman, and his face is covered for execution.
Mordechai joins royal ranks and gets a new wardrobe of tekhelet,
fine linen, purple and a golden crown.
Megillat Esther is known as being the epitome of The Hidden Face of G-d
("Hester Panim"). Not once is the name of G-d mentioned in the
Megillah, and yet Divine intervention is obvious throughout.
Clothing - a covering which hides what is beneath it - fits in nicely
with this theme. Hence, the Purim costume-custom!
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