Esther, Seriously

Purim 5782

Dr. Patrice Fischer, Congregation Ohr Chadash, Clearwater, FL

Let’s face it, for modern Jews, Purim is the “funnest” holiday of the Jewish year.

Hamantaschen (Haman’s pockets) are delicious. Even their name is funny.

Purim Plays have the whole family guffawing. Children, who spend half their waking lives listening to authority figures tell them to be quiet, are encouraged to shake their groggers and yell out loud right in the middle of a public presentation, “YAY!” and “BOO!” (at the appropriate times, of course).

The Rabbis encourage adults to get so tipsy that they shouldn’t be able to tell the statements “Hooray for Mordechai!” and “Down with Haman!” apart.

They also say that men should feel free to dress up as women, and the women can dress as men. A topsy-turvy, inside-out world is so much fun for us nowadays, isn’t it?

Such a fun holiday!

There is definitely enjoyment to be had at a good Purim party, but perhaps not at the expense of the seriousness of the story. Unless people nowadays understand the bravery of Mordechai and Esther within their own times, the silly skit may be all they take away from the book of Esther.

 Esther is a true hero, both for ancient times, and for us today. And yet well-meaning modern interpreters make fun of her problems, and may even try to shame her for her actions—or what they perceive as her lack of actions. Let’s briefly go over some of their spurious charges.

 1)      “She hid her Jewish identity.”

 Indeed she did; the text tells us so several times. However, the text also says, “She did this since Mordechai told her to, and she continued to follow Mordechai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up” (Est 2:20). Esther was an obedient child who was brought up as a faithful Jew and continued on as an obedient young woman.

2)      “She ate unclean (non-kosher) food.”

The Biblical text in Daniel makes a special point to show Daniel was keeping kosher while being forcibly kept in Babylon, but we see nothing in the text about Esther’s eating habits. Therefore, should we assume she followed the Persians’ ways? It’s interesting that there is a whole midrash about Esther also eating only fruit and vegetables. By the way, the Apocryphal version of Esther (written in Greek as part of the Septuagint) says that “she avoided drinking forbidden wine and eating forbidden foods.”

3)       “She married a gentile.”

This is a major plot point in the story. However, this may be a problem more for modern and/or non-Jewish readers, since the text is clear on how this should be interpreted. She was taken (2:8-9) by the king’s guards (i.e., she was rounded up with other women like they were a herd of cattle). She had no choice in the matter. (Heb: taken=laqach: The same verb as what happens to Sarai in Gen 12:15). To deny the king’s will meant imprisonment and/or death (see earlier: Vashti). To please the king puts you in rarefied territory indeed. She is a prisoner, subject to the whims of the king.

•  A note about life in a harem

The term “prisoner” here is not an exaggeration. When a woman is taken for the king, she is in the harem for life. She placed under the supervision of a harem administrator (in Est 2:3 it is the king’s eunuch, Hegai) and a trusted group of older harem women. She is never allowed to leave the palace grounds, except, perhaps, after menopause.

She cannot talk to any people outside the harem. Any males above the age of ~12 in direct contact with the harem women are required to be eunuchs: servants, messengers, tradespeople.

 A woman does not choose to be in a harem. She is taken by soldiers and put into the harem if and when the king says so. The governors of the various Persian satrapies were ordered to bring “all the beautiful virgins into the harem at Susa and then they will all be given beauty treatments” (Est 2:4) for months at a time. The king will have sex with any or all of them. No marriage is necessary because he is the king. If or when the king will ever set eyes on a particular woman again is totally up to his tastes.

Any children the king and these women may have are taken from the mothers at birth and raised with the other children of the king. The sons will be trained for military/ambassadorial work, and the daughters will be sold as brides to eligible men inside and outside of the kingdom.

When Esther was kidnapped and taken to the harem, any part of the Jewish community that would have been part of her growing-up years was thereafter cut out of her life. She is alone in a hostile environment with her secret Jewish identity that might be revealed at any moment. She is forced to undergo beauty regimes and taught exactly how to physically please the king over the course of many years. She has no one speaking to the king on her behalf. Other women in the harem might have male relatives who speak to the king regularly (and drink with him at numerous banquets and parties he held—see especially Est 1). She, however, is alone in a bastion of male power and wealth. Fear for her life is central in her considerations about what she should and should not do.

 4)       “She was able to leave the old impoverished Jewish life behind, but now her past has caught up to her, now she is being asked to own the identity she worked so hard to escape…”

In this charge against Esther, she is portrayed as someone who wanted to get away from her Jewishness so she could lounge around the palace and enjoy its pampering and luxury. There is no indication whatsoever that Esther is trying to escape her Jewishness. It’s a cynical assertion to put a negative spin on her experience and is not found at all in the text. She is not someone who “shut herself up in her palace and hopes that the storm passes her by.” She is in a place and position that she did not choose at any point.

Contrast this cynical take on Esther with what we can read in the text: She’s described as “greatly agitated” (4:4) about Mordechai’s extensive time publicly wearing sackcloth. Once Esther is informed of the death sentence for her people, plus Mordechai’s further encouragement to intervene with the king, she immediately steps up her commitment to the Jewish community by announcing her plan to go to the king (after telling Mordechai to inform the whole Jewish community of her intentions). She is not overstating her case to Mordechai when she says, “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I die, I die” (Est 4:15).

5)      “God is not mentioned in the whole book. Therefore, this story is just a glorified fairy tale.”

Should we consider it wrong, or faulty, or blameworthy, that the book does not overtly name the name of God? If so, that would be the “fault” of the actual writer, not of its main characters. But in fact, the name of God is easily discernable in Esther in several ways, if you know some keys to the code in which this book is written. Just as Esther’s Jewish identity is hidden until the correct point in the story, God is also hidden in the story until he acts. It’s brilliant writing. It’s not something to be ashamed of.

Purim is definitely a good time for celebration. We should eat, drink, laugh, and enjoy the holiday fully. However, we should also appreciate the true story that we read in the Tanakh of the adventures of Esther and her adoptive father, Mordechai. We should appreciate and thank God for his working behind the scenes, which allowed the Jewish people to be saved at a time when their total destruction was all planned out. God gave Esther and Mordechai important qualities: wisdom, obedience, discernment, bravery, and quick-thinking, among others. These qualities were used by our heroes to save their people. There is no higher calling.

Let’s not assume that Esther had a difficult decision concerning losing her position as queen and risking her life, just because she was newly wealthy and there were unlimited beauty products available. This kind of dismissive attitude is incredibly disrespectful to a great hero of our faith. Esther’s willingness to risk her own death in order to save the Jewish community in Persia shows her as following this higher calling by doing her duty in special obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Illustration: Crown Princess Elia – Albanian Royal Family