Gerald Honigman writes:
Some things change, some don’t. Thus, long before the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Persia and Babylonia were fighting over the same real estate in the 6th century B.C.E. when Cyrus (559-530 B.C.E.) conquered Babylon. And while the Jewish holiday of Passover is fast approaching, with Egypt’s Pharaoh as the primary villain, another Jewish holiday which occurs earlier in springtime, Purim, recorded in the Book of Esther, deals with yet another leader who had genocidal ideas towards Jews–ancient Persia’s Haman.
Unfortunately, Jews have had to deal with many of such Hamans over the course of their long history–including those who now rule the same place where Haman lived.
Unlike the mindset and ruthless machinations of Iran’s intolerant leaders today, please check out, in these following excerpts from the Kurash Prism, how a mighty–but humane and benevolent–Persian ruler dealt with the diverse peoples he encountered some twenty-five centuries ago…
Read the article: The Cyrus Cylinder: A Testimony To What A Human Leader Could Be