Many Jewish kids wear crowns today, pretending to be a Persian-Jewish queen that may likely be mythic. The holiday of purim, including masks and costumes, is based on a biblical fantasy of Jewish power in which the granddaughter of Judean refugees from Jerusalem finds herself on the throne of the empire and saves her people from a massacre.
Or so the story - which is probably no history - goes.
Esther’s crown meets two more crowns in today’s convergence of holy days and sacred stories, as the Jewish calendar and our journey below the bible belt once again collide.
This Purim, mid-war and sorrow, offers us another chance to look behind the masks of some of our cherished narratives and holidays, asking important questions about the limits of power, our historical hurts and future healing and dreams.
What does Zachariah have to do with this? The crowns are where the secrets and the stories meet.
Both Zachariah the prophet and Esther the queen offer narratives that depict the lives of Jewish people under the Persian empire, roughly around the same time, with different choices of where and how to live but with what seems to be similar aspirations to power - a yearning for a Jewish head that will wear a crown. Perhaps this is always the desire of the downtrodden or powerless? Perhaps this is why royalty is still so popular in our culture?
Before getting to the crowns, Zachariah’s latest vision kicks off with four chariots led by galloping horses in four different colors. Each of the chariots represents one of the four directions of dispersal, and what the red, black, white, and spotted horses represent exactly is unclear and has occupied interpreters for generations, but even this rich scene is not as puzzling as what happens next.
Zechariah rushes to the homes of the wealthiest among Jerusalem’s people where he gathers precious gold and silver, given to a smith who then turns those into two crowns.
One of the crowns, possibly the one made of silver, is placed on the head of Joshua, the High Priest, who was already seen in the last vision as the symbolic rise from ashes and the face of Judah’s renewal.
But the second crown is where the mystery and messianic hide-and-seek game begins.
Who will wear this second crown made of gold, the one for royal heirs of King David’s discontinued dynasty? Will this be a person -- or a plant?
Here is what the words tell us about this prophet’s latest version of a vision for the regal times to come:
וְלָקַחְתָּ֥ כֶֽסֶף־וְזָהָ֖ב וְעָשִׂ֣יתָ עֲטָר֑וֹת וְשַׂמְתָּ֗ בְּרֹ֛אשׁ יְהוֹשֻׁ֥עַ בֶּן־יְהוֹצָדָ֖ק הַכֹּהֵ֥ן הַגָּדֽוֹל׃ וְאָמַרְתָּ֤ אֵלָיו֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר כֹּ֥ה אָמַ֛ר יְהֹוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת לֵאמֹ֑ר הִנֵּה־אִ֞ישׁ צֶ֤מַח שְׁמוֹ֙ וּמִתַּחְתָּ֣יו יִצְמָ֔ח וּבָנָ֖ה אֶת־הֵיכַ֥ל יְהֹוָֽה׃וְ֠ה֠וּא יִבְנֶ֞ה אֶת־הֵיכַ֤ל יְהֹוָה֙ וְהֽוּא־יִשָּׂ֣א ה֔וֹד וְיָשַׁ֥ב וּמָשַׁ֖ל עַל־כִּסְא֑וֹ וְהָיָ֤ה כֹהֵן֙ עַל־כִּסְא֔וֹ וַעֲצַ֣ת שָׁל֔וֹם תִּהְיֶ֖ה בֵּ֥ין שְׁנֵיהֶֽם׃
Take silver and gold and make crowns. Place one on the head of High Priest Joshua son of Jehozadak,
And say to him, “Thus said YHWH of Hosts: Behold, a man called the Shoot shall shoot out from the place where he is, and he shall build YHWH’s Temple.
He shall build the Temple and shall assume majesty, and he shall sit on his throne and rule. And there shall also be a priest seated on his own throne, and harmonious peace shall prevail between them.
Zechariah 6:10-12
The Hebrew word translated as ‘shoot’, ‘branch’, or ‘plant’ is ‘Tzemach’ - literally the noun used to denote vegetation that grows from the ground.
Who or what is this plant that wears a crown and seems to personify the future king of Israel?
Zechariah is not making this term up. He’s already borrowing from Jeremiah and Isaiah, prophets who walked in Jerusalem a century and more before him, dreaming of a future messiah who hails from the Davidic line and whom they name Zemach. The image is that of a shoot growing from a fallen tree, or a plant that persists to emerge from scorched ground.
Zechariah uses this familiar pastoral-prophetic trope to deliver a forbidden and dangerous message: One day we will have a king again, not just an appointed governor, and will be able to restore our monarchy and political autonomy.
But at present -- this is the last thing that the Persian empire wants or enables, which is why he’s being so poetic and vague and talking about plants.
The vision of two crowns, two thrones - one for the high priest and one for the king, is the ideal image for a just society, with authority, respect and division between religious and political rule. The prophet is careful to say - or wish -- that ‘peace will prevail among them.’
This is another version of the vision he just saw in the last chapter -- two olive branches flanking the seven branched menorah -- which originally was also inspired by an almond tree.
Clearly, the ancestral imagery is inspired by the natural elements that were the reality of their everyday life and the staples of their economy.
Yet there’s more to this riddle of the man named plant or shoot and whose identity is hidden.
One of the two branches is named - Joshua the High Priest. But is the second branch the man already named by both Haggai and Zechariah - Zerubabbel, the grandson of the last king of Jerusalem, assigned by Persia to be governor - but not the king?
Most scholars think so. But what happened to this royal son of the davidic dynasty who will never be able to wear a crown and restore his lineage? How come he does not become known as a leader?
Zerubabbel vanishes from the page and the political stage. Some historians suggest that he did go a step too far, inspired by these visions, to claim the crown - and was banished by the Persian empire. Others suggest that it was internal feuds that somehow saw to it that he was seen no more. There was no heir to David and in the centuries to come the ones to rule would create their own crowns and start their own short lived dynasties.
The yearning for autonomy and power, a royal presence and eternal home in Jerusalem would continue to be Jewish dreams for many generations. The two crowns would often be depictions of ideal scenarios even in diasporas, worn by the heirs of Zerubabbel and Zechariah’s peers - religious and communal leaders.
There still is a yearning for Jewish power that will wisely govern with both spiritual and political acumen, with justice and love. Few dream today of restoring the Jewish monarchy, although the aspiration for the ‘plant of David’ can be found in every prayer book, part of the messianic yearning.
But it’s only once a year, on Purim, that real Jewish royalty comes out.. A day that’s all about turning things upside down, with dreams of agency and power that also contain the shadow side of cruelty and abuse. These often come along with the glory of a crown.
Who knows what the future holds, but maybe the power of plants will enable us a peek into messianic meaning making in ways we can’t quite get a hold of right now now, but isn’t this the whole point of yearning for whatever waits in the worth-waiting-for-future? Zechariah will keep imagining a better future while trying to make sense of the traumas of history and offering the people - then, now - a way of living more fully, with more harmony in the present.
I hope that this Purim, however celebrated or marked, be peaceful and playful and offer us all a bit of relief and levity, perspective and respect, wishes of healing, joy and peace — to every being and every plant alive.
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