Rabbi Moshe Reiss
ESTHER THE PROPHETESS
THE BOOK OF ESTHER: THE FEAST, FAST AND BEAUTY BOOK
INTRODUCTION
The book of Esther is a tale of court intrigue, of lethal danger to the
diasporian Jewish community and is a tale of an orphan who becomes a
beauty Queen and becomes one the most powerful women in the world. The
book has two Jewish heroes. One Esther who hides her Jewish identity as
God hides Himself in the Book, the other noted as ‘the Jew’, who
endangers the Jewish people by refusal to obey the King’s law. Esther,
one the other hand disobeys the King’s law to save the Jewish people.
Prior to Mordecai’s disobedience of the law this ancient Jewish
community in Persia has good relations with its Persian compatriots. 1
In fact approximately fifty years earlier Cyrus (this assumes the
Emperor of Persia is Xerxes and the event is historically valid, a huge
leap of faith) had allowed the Jews to return to their land; Mordecai
among many others preferred to remain in Persia. 2 When Haman’s
edict of destruction is promulgated the people of Sousa were perplexed
(3:15). When the edict is reversed they rejoice (8:15). It is an
action packed romantic drama and almost a comedy as well claiming to be
an historical short story. The drama comes with the genocide against
the Jews and the comedy with ten eating and drinking feasts, three
fasts, the holiday of masquerading and humorous coincidences that
repeatedly occur. There is a sense of anarchy and boundlessness in the
book. The intended genocide, a king who feasts and drinks for 180 days
(and still runs this great Empire), a Jewish hero who endangers the
Jewish people, his niece marries this king and has the villain
hung along with his ten sons can be considered a bit much. The
inaccuracies and implausibilities; an Emperor who administers the
largest Empire in the world until his day and known as the 'King of the
four corners of the world' being a drunken and fickle fool, and
allowing an inane edict to be promulgated and when reversed allows for
massive uncontrolled battles leaving no historical records, make for a
work of legendary fiction.
Jews (in general a non-drinking people) are even commanded to drink
‘until we can no longer distinguish between praising Mordecai or
cursing Haman (B.T. Megilla 7b).( In today’s Israel the Purim parades,
with Mardi Gras type costumes are called ‘ad’lo’yada’; ‘until we do not
know’.)
Are we really intended as a sacred obligation to get drunk; was this
intended as halakha (ritual law) or an haggadic statement? The
Talmud does not always draw a sharp line between the two. Thus
Maimonides says that one ought to drink enough wine so as to become
drowsy and falls asleep; then, while sleeping, one cannot
distinguish between “Cursed is Haman” and 'Blessed is Mordechai'
(Hilkhot Megillah 2.15)
The Talmudic statement following the 'until we can no longer
distinguish' is: 'Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira celebrated the Purim
feast together. They got drunk. Rabbah rose up and
slaughtered Rabbi Zera. The next day he prayed for mercy on his
behalf, and he was resurrected to life. The next year he said to
him: Come and let’s have our Purim feast together. He
replied to him: not every hour do miracles occur.'
The name of God is conspicuously missing from this book. (Given the
nature of this book one might not be surprised.) Is God hiding? God
tells us He will hide his face from His people – ‘hester’
(Deut. 31:17). Esther’s name is almost the same as God hiding; the only
difference in the Hebrew is the ‘heh’ versus the ‘aleph’. Are we
intended to understand that Esther is God’s hidden voice? Or the voice
of a dark comedy of the Shoah?
Some of the Sages of the Talmud rejected the Book, 3 while Maimonides
thought its importance was only preempted by the Pentateuch. 4 From a
Jewish perspective, there are various problems; Esther
marries a Gentile to become Queen of Persia, lives the life of a Harem
Queen, hosts various feasts – with the glaring omissions of dietary
laws (kosher food - this differs from Daniel who explicitly rejects non
kosher food Dan. 1:8-16) 5 and the book seems to have no interest
in Israel or the Temple. No prayers are recorded in the Hebrew;
this differs from the septuagint. 6 It is also a book justifying
violence, nationalism and jingoism. For some of these reasons the
Qumran community apparently rejected the book; it is the only book of
the Bible not included in their library. They also do not list Purim as
a holiday. It is a holiday which celebrates a diasporian savior and a
female one to boot.
Samuel Sandmel is not the only Jewish commentator to have commented
that “I should not be grieved if the Book of Esther were somehow
dropped out of the Scripture’. 7 The book is full of feasts and
fasts and it is the basis of a Jewish holiday celebrated first by a
fast (the fast of Esther) and then by a masquerading feast (the Holiday
of Purim) in which one is obligated to get drunk, 8 an almost Mardi
Gras type festivity which is followed by a lent-like fast (which under
Judaism follows Passover); some wearing transvestite clothing. It has
been called the most secular book in the Bible. 9 The author was not
writing what he thought would be a sacred book, but a book of history
of fiction. The Jews who wrote the Greek translation (Septuagint) of
this book could not accept that God would not appear in a holy book and
thus inserted long prayers from Mordecai to God, Esther to God, various
other uses of the power of God and the text of the edict and counter
edict. The Targum (Aramaic translation from the Hebrew) also saw this
as a problem and inserted a prayer by Esther. 10 It is a
‘religious book in non-religious language’. 11
REVIEW OF THE BOOK
The King of Persia, Ahashverous hosts a banquet primarily for the elite
and secondarily for the masses in the capital city Shushan. He calls
for his wife Vashti (who is hosting her own banquet for women)
expecting her to parade her beauty to his drunken guests . She was to
wear her golden diadem and perhaps, as Jewish Midrashim state,
nothing else. She refuses to be his sex object. This is undeniably an
act of extraordinary courage and insubordination. The King’s
advisor tells him that all women will disobey their husbands if this
act is not punished. The King is enraged and dethrones Vashti (not
executing her is in this farce not doubt positive). The King then
issues an edict whereby all beautiful virgins are ordered to the harem,
learn to enhance their beauty and the ‘one who pleases the King most’
(Est. 2:4) will be declared Queen. Inasmuch as Ahashverous is a King
who relishes eating and drinking and women’s beauty it is difficult not
to understand this term ‘pleasing’ as being of a sexual nature. Esther,
Mordecai’s adopted daughter is chosen among all the virgins, she
presumably pleased him most. She had held her ethnicity secret per
instructions from Mordecai. Mordecai is noted as being a descendant of
King Saul.
In a critical vignette Mordecai discovers a plot to kill the King, he
informs Esther, who informs the King in Mordecai’s name and the King is
saved. Mordecai is the descendant of Kish, the father of King Saul.
Haman is noted as an Agagite, a descendant of King Agag of Amalek whom
King Saul spared and thus lost his kingdom. As Viceroy he expects all
to bow to him; all do except Mordecai who offers no explanation for his
refusal. But since he is always Mordecai, the Jew, Haman assumed it is
part of his being a Jew. Haman offers the King an enormous bribe to
kill a people - the Jews - who defy royal laws. The King accepts
the bribe and signs Haman’s decree. Thus the spared Agag’s descendant
is to kill the descendant of King Saul for 10,000 talents of silver.
This is only one of many comical ironies; a Viceroy bribing his King to
kill an unspecified – to the king - community. Instead of being
insulted by the bribe the King said keep your money and do what you
want, as if he were too busy to be concerned about such small play.
Mordecai learns of the decree and enters into full mourning and informs
Queen Esther. Mordecai, through intermediators tells her to pray for
the King’s intervention. She Informs him that no one is permitted to
the King’s chamber without an express invitation. Mordecai tells her
that the community will survive despite her lack of intervention
but she and her family (including him?) will perish. She relents and
requests a three day fast at which time she will make her request to
the King. Unstated in the text the date she decides and the ensuing
fast days begin on the 14th or 15th of Nissan, the holiday of Passover.
The holiday and its ritual needs are
not mentioned.
When Queen Esther undertakes the dangerous move and goes to the King he
says to her ‘I will grant you anything you wish up to one half of my
kingdom’ (Est. 5:3). She asks him to attend a banquet and to
bring Haman. The banquet takes place and when the King again offers her
half his kingdom she says she requests another banquet. Haman overjoyed
that the Queen invites him to a second banquet saw Mordecai as he
departed the first banquet. Mordecai refused to bow and Haman became
enraged. Haman’s wife and his friends suggest he have Mordecai killed,
an idea which he readily accepts.
That night the King suffers from insomnia and requests a servant to
read from his annals and he discovers that Mordecai had never been
rewarded for having saved the King’s life. Haman who is waiting to ask
permission to kill Mordecai is called in and the king asks what reward
the King can grant a very special person. With comic irony Haman,
believing himself to be the recipient he says dress him like the King,
wearing royal garb and riding the King’s horse. The King then tells Him
to do so to Mordecai. He, of course is required to follow the King’s
orders.
He feels humiliated and goes home and his wife Zerash tells him that if
Mordecai is Jewish, they will never overcome him, but be instead
destroyed. This is, no doubt the most humorous vignette in the book.
The reversal of Mordecai who is to be killed to being becoming a
surrogate King and Haman’s wife telling him that if Mordecai is Jewish
they will all die. Of course Haman knew Mordecai was Jewish, that is
why he decreed death to all the Jews. Are we to believe his wife who
made the suggestion to kill Mordecai did not know what he knew?
A wonderful midrash tells humorously of Haman’s daughter not knowing of
the events saw her the parade of a surrogate King led by a servant and
assumed the ‘king’ was her father and the servant Mordecai dumped
garbage of the servant who was of course her father.
Then follows Esther’s second banquet. She said to the King ‘grant me my
life’ for I and my people are doomed to die. The King asks ‘who is he
and where is he’ (Est. 7:5) and she says Haman. Enraged the King goes
into the garden and Haman begging Esther for his life is lying on her
couch. The King coming in at that moment said, ‘ Is he going to rape
the Queen in my own palace?’ Immediately one of the Palace eunuchs said
‘there is a fifty cubit gallows which Haman had built to hang
Mordecai’. Hang him on it said the King.
The King awards Haman’s estate to Esther, makes Mordecai the new
Viceroy and issues a counter-decree allowing the Jews to defend
themselves. When the day comes most Gentiles did not fight Jews, but
75,000 who did were killed, including Haman’s ten sons. The Holiday of
Purim is then proclaimed by Mordecai.
BANQUETS
A major theme of the Book is ‘mishta’ Hebrew for feasts or banquets;
the word appear twenty times in the book and only twenty four times in
the Bible outside the Book of Esther. 12 The story begins with three
banquets, one for the elite of all the Empire, lasting 180 days, one
for the people of Shushan, the capital city for seven days and one for
the women (we are not told the number of days for this women’s banquet)
and that drinking was de rigueur. The Book ends with two banquets, for
Purim; one for the all Jews in the world (the 14th day of the month of
Adar) and one for Shushan which in current terminology is Jerusalem and
other walled cities in Israel (the 15th of the month of Adar). When
Esther is to inform the King of her enemy she holds two banquets. Why
she cannot fulfill the requirement of telling the King at the first
banquet is unclear? But perhaps it relates to there being two fasts,
one by the all Jews when informed of the potential genocide and then
for the Jews in Shusan in honor of Esther’s going to the King. Then the
first banquet is in honor of the king and the second in honor of the
King and Haman. In between these series of banquets the king holds a
banquet called ‘Esther’s banquet’ (2:18) for her coronation.
VASHTI
Vashti, the Queen who precedes Esther is a woman of integrity refusing
her husband’s demand to display her beauty before the King’s drunken
subordinates. Concubines and whores appear before drunken feasts,
not Queens. The first time we hear of Vashti (1:9) it is after a verse
in which an odd Hebrew word is used to describe drinking being
according to the law, not compelled; ‘v’hashtiya’ (1:8), which is
related to her name. Does this suggest she was also a drunk? 13 One
scholar called her refusal ‘sheer foolhardiness which makes Vashti a
suitable companion for the foolish Ahasverous’. 14 Did the author
of the Book intend her to appear dignified? Jewish Midrashim find her
refusal courageous and consequently proffered explanations for her
refusal; she was to appear naked or her skin was blemished due to an
illness. It appears plausible that the author’s intention was to make
the ‘Queen-ship’ available for Esther. Chapter 2 tells us that
after the king’s anger was lessened ‘he remembered Vashti and what she
used to do’ (2:1). What are we to understand from that? Having a Queen
had some value - it could not have been sex that she offered - he had
plenty of concubines. Was it love he remembered and sought again?
AHASHVEROS
The king of the most powerful Empire in the world appears in this Book
as an impulsive, fickle fool, who pursues life via eating, drinking and
sexually activity. He is presumably directly related to Cyrus, the
conquerer of the largest Empire in the world until his time, he was
praised ‘as a warrior and as a statesman, his benevolence, tolerance,
justice and righteousness, his sympathy for the oppressed’ 15 and as a
result liberated and repatriated many peoples. Isaiah says
of him ‘I [God] have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct
his ways’ (Is. 45:13). Cuniform records attest that there was a vast
difference between Cyrus and the kings of Assyria and Babylon in the
treatment of conquered people. 16
When his Queen Vashti refuses to appear before his drunken compatriots
his advisors declare this behavior a precursor of rebellion by all
wives in the kingdom. (1:16-18) He obeyed his advisors and orders all
wives in the kingdom to ‘honor’ and be ruled by their husbands
(1:20,22). This scenario appears humorous even 2,500 years ago, when
one realizes how ineffectual and unassertive was this ‘King of Kings’.
He is unable to say no to anyone (to Menuchan 1:21; to Haman 3:8-11; to
Esther 5:3, to Mordecai 8:7-12). He does not remember to honor the man
(Mordecai) who saved his life the subject of the edict when Esther
brought it up.
HAMAN
He is the Agagite, the descendent of King Agag, who was spared by
King Saul generations earlier. Mordecai is the ‘Jew’ descendant of
Kish, Saul’s father. Thus we have a clear replay of Samuel, Saul and
Agag with the difference that this time the ‘Jew Mordecai’ is
successful. Mordecai is associated with Samuel and is a successful
destroyer of the ‘anti-Semite’. Haman is a schemer and deceiver who
apparently deceived the King. Haman offered to pay the treasury
‘l’abdam’ (with an ayin) for the Jews who did not bring any profit into
the treasury (3:8-9). If ‘l’abdan’ means to enslave (with an ‘ayin’)
rather than lose or possible kill, and Haman, in fact intended to kill
them. Esther in her statement to the King says ‘If we are
to be slaves (l’abdadim - with a ayin), I and my people, I would not
bother my King, but we are scheduled to be killed (Abad with an aleph)
(7:4) 17 There is a clear word play (in Hebrew) that suggests that
Haman was deceiving the king by paying to enslave the Jews, but he then
revised the kings edict to kill them. Does this resemble the ironic
statement outside Auschwitz ‘work will make you free”?
We are told when Haman is angry and impetuous towards Mordecai (3:5-6),
happy and angry and then happy again (5:9,14), impetuous in dealing
with the King (6:6), dejected after honoring Mordecai (6:12) and in
terror (7:6). When his wife and friends suggest hanging Mordecai he is
delighted (5:14). He is insecure needing to control events. He thrives
on instant gratification. Compare this to Mordecai ‘the Jew’ dignified,
quiet, a man of few words (speaks only thirty three words in the entire
book - 4:13-14)) whose thoughts and emotions are totally unknown to us.
Haman is a devious schemer whose emotions rule him. As a result of his
personal honor being aggrieved he seeks revenge against the whole
Jewish people. He is transparently evil and the author wanted to
construct a metaphor of good and evil. But Haman is much too flat
and underdeveloped; a caricature of an anti-Semite.
MORDECAI
Mordecai hears of the King’s rule for all beautiful virgins to come to
the harem of the King. Why does Mordecai allow his cousin Esther to be
brought to the harem. Assuming he could not claim she was not a virgin,
why not marry her off to an appropriate Jewess? The midrash that claims
Esther was Mordecai’s wife seems oddly inconsistent with the text.
Unless of course he inuites the forthcoming danger to the Jewish
peoople and is planning on putting Esther in the government a secret
agent. This is actually suggested by the Septuagint as a result of a
dream Mordecai has fortelling the danger (2:10).
The immediate precipitating event of the potential genocide of the Jews
is Mordecai’s outright refusal to bow to Viceroy Haman. One needs to
question what motive might have precipitated such behavior ultimately
endangering his own people. We are informed as an epithet and
identifier that he is a Jew (several times, 2:5, 5:13, 6:10, 8:7, 9:29,
31 10:3). That itself is a Diaspora designation as opposed to ‘Mordecai
ben’ or ‘Mordecai the Israelite’ or the ‘Hebrew’. Nehemiah, another
Persian court official is never called the ‘Jew’. Daniel is never
called a Jew and yet when he prays he faces Jerusalem. Mordecai in the
Masoretic text does not pray. (In the Septuagint text both he and
Esther pray. It would seem those writers did not think it likely that a
Jew like Mordecai or Esther would not pray.)
It is the statement that Mordecai is a Jew that endangers the Jewish
people. From various Biblical texts one can easily glean that in fact
Jewish law does not forbid bowing to a monarch or Viceroy. In the Book
of Genesis Joseph’s brothers bowed to him when he was unknown to them,
but was Viceroy of Egypt. The question is posed by the Talmud. The
Sages answer that Haman had an idol on his neck, thus making the bowing
idolatry.18 However given the inherent danger to the people this
response is quite weak and there is nothing in the text to justify it.
Esther in the Targum tells Mordecai not to create ‘stir up strife with
Haman’ 19 When Esther raises the edict to her husband she
bows to him (8:3).
A more plausible explanation appears to be Mordecai attempt to finish
unfinished family business. The text is very specific that he is a
descendent of Kish, the father of the tragic King Saul. His ancient
ancestor Saul lost his kingdom by not killing King Agag. Haman is
specifically noted as a descendent of Agag. Mordecai appears to reverse
the family shame by refusing to bow to Haman regardless of the
consequences. This would fit in better with legendary nature of the
entire story.
Zerash, Haman’s wife seems to know that God will intervene. She says to
him that if Mordecai is Jewish ‘you[r] fall is certain’ (6:13). (That
is after she suggested hanging him on a six story high gallows – 5:14.)
The oddity is that everyone knows that Mordecai is a Jew (he is
consistently identified as such) since Haman’s proclamation is what
endangered the Jews.
Mordecai is depicted as a diasporian ‘court Jew’, similar in status to
Joseph and Daniel. He is depicted as wise, proud, courageous and
loyal to the King he served and the Jewish people. His leadership is
not based on his being a descendant of David, a priest or a prophet; he
is not depicted as a Rabbi but as a wise leader, even as model to be
compared to Ezra. 20
ESTHER AS A PROPHETESS: 21
Esther, the heroine, is the most fully developed character in the Book.
She emerges from being a compliant maiden to being
Mordecai’s partner and an authoritative leader. Esther originally
appears as a compliant young girl and respectful to her adoptive father
Mordecai. She is equally compliant in the hands of Hegai, the custodian
of the harem. She graciously accepts his beautifying lessons for
herself (2:9). The women spend six months being purified with oil of
myrrh and six additional months being purified with sweet perfumes
(2:12). Do they learn the role of the women in that
society? Did she learn the king’s sexual preferences? Esther went to
the king for her one night. The norm was a night with the King and then
back into the harem as a concubine. There is no mention in this very
gourmet food and drink oriented environment she asked for kosher
food. In fact we are told that ‘she did not ask for anything
beyond what had been assigned her by Hegai’ (2:15). This is stark
contrast to Daniel in Babylon where the book clearly informs of his
need for kosher food (1:8).
Mordecai instructed Esther not to reveal her Jewish parentage (2:10).
She is once referred to as Hadassah (2:7), her Hebrew name, otherwise
she is addressed as Esther, her Persian name. It is unclear why
Mordecai insists that she is to withhold her religion. Other than Haman
there does not appear in the book a general feeling of gentile
anti-Semitism, and even Haman’s anger may be based on Mordecai’s
refusal to bow to him. There is no suggestion that her being Jewish
disqualified her for being in the contest for Queen. In fact the
suggestion is that all virgins needed to be available to the
Court. Intermarriage was opposed by Ezra and Nehemiah in
Jerusalem, but was not considered a tragedy in Persia (or in the
monotheistic religion of the Empire – Zoroasterism, well known to the
Talmud).
When the edict is proclaimed we begun to see Esther, the compliant
maid, take a leadership role. When informed by Mordecai of the danger
to the Jewish people and his request that she intervene, she noted to
him the danger to herself, that anyone coming into the Court not called
for by the King is liable to death. Given that the King did not kill
Vashti when she disobeyed a direct order it is somewhat unlikely that
he would kill his Queen simply for coming into his room. Mordecai
responds that she herself would be in danger as a Jew. ‘If you
remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the
Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will
perish . . Perhaps you have come to the throne for just
such a time’ (4:13,14). This is the only direct statement by Mordecai
in the entire book. Why does Mordecai actually threaten Esther that the
Jews will be saved but she herself and her family will die? To whom is
he referring? Who is her family - her father and mother are dead
- and presumably she has no siblings. Was Mordecai threatening Esther,
the Queen? 22 It was Mordecai who told Esther to hide her
Judaism. Mordecai created the problem for the Jewish people
and for Esther. Whatever the reason Esther accepts the responsibility
for the Jewish people saying ‘If I perish I perish’ (4:16).
Mordecai recognizing that his surrogate daughter had matured no longer
treats her as a compliant maid but as a partner. She responds in the
imperative commanding Mordecai ‘Go and assemble all the Jews of Shushan
and fast for me . . . Mordecai went away and carried out Esther’s
command’ (4:16). She had established her position as the national
leader. As the last prophetess and being in a world of chaos and
arbitrariness she feels abandoned by God 'My God! My God! Why have you
abandoned me' (Ps. 22:2) 23 While God may not be seen in the text He
hears the voice of his prophetess and responds. Perhaps that is why
Maimonides was so impressed by this book.
She then developed a strategy of how to deal with her husband the King
and executes them with superp skill. Haman had plotted against the
Jews; Esther far more clever and cunning, plots against him. She enters
into the King’s presence despite the danger to her. He responds by
‘tell me what you want, even if it half of my kingdom, I will grant it
to you’ (5:3). In lieu of raising the issue of the dangers of her
people she invites the King and Haman to a feast. At the feast the King
reiterates his response and she responds ‘If I have found favor in the
King’s eyes . . .come to tomorrow’s feast’ (5:8). The first part
of that verse means in colloquial English ‘if you love me I will tell
you tomorrow’. Given the King’s impetuous ‘yes’ response to everything
asked of him, the logic would have been for Esther to respond
immediately. But the author needs to insert the vignette about Mordecai
being rewarded. Haman’s misjudgment and his wife’s knowledge about
Jewish survival are guaranteed (6:13) as also noted by Mordecai (4:14).
By the second feast with the King she has become the leader in
destroying Haman. She has a strategy she executed to perfection. Her
words terrorize Haman so that he falls on her couch and is executed on
the gallows he had constructed for Mordecai. 24 Why does he touch her
since it is publicly known that anyone touching the Queen will be
executed? Did Esther entice him to fall on her fully knowing that in
his terror he would obey?
CONCLUSION:
Esther is immediately given Haman’s wealth and presumably his powerful
position. Esther develops further becoming authoritative, when she
introduces Mordecai to the King and he is appointed Viceroy replacing
of Haman. Esther then turns over Haman’s wealth to Mordecai. The once
compliant Queen bestows wealth and power on the Jew. Esther then
approaches the King regarding the edict of destruction and Mordecai
dictates the counter edict. Esther establishes the holiday of Purim
(9:29).
Schellekens argues that it was created it to commemorate the accession
of Mordecai and can be compared to Passover celebrating Moses, with
Haman playing the role the Pharaoh and Esther of Aaron, the
spokesperson. 25 The book ends on a note about Mordecai's seed (Est.
10:3); previously Haman's male children, his male heirs are hung.
We noted earlier the connection between Haman and Agag of the Samuel
era. Could there have been a pro-Saulide movement in Babylon opposed to
the Davidic monarchists or at least as exilarchs. 26 Mordecai is noted
as a descendant of Shimei (a relative of Saul (2 Sam. 16:5) and of Kish
Saul's father (Est. 2:5). Alternatively Loader considered the
book a commemoration with Esther as the Moses figure. 27 (It is
unneccesary to note the obvious that the Pharaoh of Exodus condemned
all Jewish male children to death.) Moses is the adopted son of Pharaoh
and Esther the adopted daughter of Mordecai. The Targum states that
Esther’s had a son with Ahashverous, he was Cyrus, who allowed the Jews
to rebuilt the Temple. 28
The edict promulgated by Haman was not to out rightly kill the Jews,
but to make them outlaws, ie. killing them and taking their property
would not be a crime. They are no longer protected by the government
and by its laws; a rule of chaos would prevail. Thus the
counter-edict allowed them to protect themselves with equal right;
those that attack them also become unprotected by the law. In city of
Shushan Jews killed 500 men presumably in self defense as well as the
ten children of Haman. When Esther returns to the King for a second day
to kill their enemies it has been viewed by some as vindictiveness and
anti-Gentile. The Jews killed 300 men that second day ‘but took no
plunder’ (9:15). On the second day the edict no longer applied and the
law itself would have applied. The ‘taking of no plunder’, not stated
for the first day seems like an addition to make the vindictiveness
less blemishing. It is particularly disturbing because Gentiles are not
seen in the book as being anti-Semites. The Gentiles of Shushan are
outraged by the edict (3:15) and rejoice at the counter edict
(8:17). The death count themselves seem like a blemish to an
event otherwise favorable to the Jews.
1 Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire was
tolerant, benevolent, a monotheist and God's anointed, servant and
friend (Isa. 44:28-45:1).
2 One wonders why Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple
are never discussed in this book. One scholar, Stephanie Dalley,
believes the events in the book did not take place in Cyrian based
Persia but earlier when Babylonian and Akkadian (and Aramaic) where the
language of the people and that the books period was seventh century
Assyrian. The Hebrew used in this book has more loanwords from Akkadian
through Aramaic than any other Hebrew book (P. Mankowski, 'Akkadian
Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew', Harvard Semitic Studies, 47 (Winoka
Lake, Eisenbrauns, 2000) pg. 174) quoted in Dalley, Stephanie,
'Esther's Revenge at Susa' (Oxford, Oxford university Press, 2007) pg.
166. These include the word 'pur' from which the holiday Purim is
derived which is an Assyrian word (Dalley, pg. 168); the Hebrew word is
'goral'. Hadassah (2:7) - the name of Esther in the book is another
Akkadian word (pgs. 168-169); the name Haman comes from families in
Susa in the late Assyrian Empire (pg. 170), Tebet, Nisan and Adar, the
Hebrew months are Akkadian names. She believes the Holiday of Purim
came from a festival celebrated by Israelites living in Assyria in 721
following Marduk and Ishtar of Nineveh. Dalley also discussed the
Assyrian background as being Samaritan which has some Josephus
recounting (pgs. 219-224). While it is well known that the Book of
Esther does not appear in the Deas Sea Scrolls, variations of similar
type narratives have been found. See S. White Crawford, 'Has Esther
been found at Qumran?, Revue de Qumran, 1996, Pgs. 307-325, quoted in
Dalley, pg. 224. Not many scholars agree with Dalley, see Michael Fox
another important scholar on the Book of Esther 'Character and Ideology
of the Book of Esther' (Grand Rapids, Mich, Eerdman, 2001) pg.
140; He believes the period for the book is third century (pg.
140) See also an earlier edition (Columbia, S.C. : University of South
Carolina Press, 1991).
3 BT Meg. 7a and Sanhed. 100a.
4 A comparison has been made between the Book of
Exodus and Esther. Moses and Esther are adopted and both hide their
Jewish identities in a foreign court. Esther is Mordecai’s spokesman as
Aaron is of Moses. The Midrash Rabba makes that clear by telling us
that the three days of fasting proclaimed by Esther including the first
day of Passover - 15th day of Nissan. (Midrash Esther Rabbah, Soncino
Press, London, 1961, Pg. 106.) The villain Haman is a descendant of the
archenemy of the Jews in Exodus, the Amalakites. Esther like Moses
appears several before the monarch to intervene for her people and the
enemies are dramatically destroyed, from Gillis Gerleman quoted
in Berg, Sandra B. 'The Book of Esther: Motifs, Themes and
Structure', (Scholars Press, Missoula, Minn, 1979) pg. 6. The
major difference is that the Jews are freed from Egypt and in the Book
of Esther, no one is concerned about leaving from Persia to Israel,
just for peace in the land of the Diaspora.
5 The non-canonized Book of Judith also emphasizes
the problem of Kashrut (Jud. 10:5; 12:1-4, 18-19); the Book of Tobit
notes that he does not eat 'heathen food but his co-religious
did'. The Talmud states that she kept the rules of kashrut, but that is
only to be expected.
6 This is the only Septuagint where the additions are
significant from the Hebrew text. See also Josephus in his Antiquities
of the Jews, book 11. His text differs from the Greek and the Targums
(Dalley, pgs. 209-211.
7 Quoted in Berg, Pg. 12. The twentieth
century Jewish philosopher Yeshahayu Leibowitz, an observant Jew
refused to celebrate the holiday of Purim. Since the holiday is
celebrated in Jerusalem the day after it is celebrated in other cities,
he went outside of Jerusalem on that day and returned when it was
celebrated elsewhere.
8 'Drink wine until you are no longer able to
distinguish between ‘Blessed be Mordecai’ and ‘Curse be Haman’. BT Meg.
7b.
9 For Jews at the time there were no secular books.
We are using a post-enlightenment concept. Secular in this sense means
it is not God-centered - God is hidden.
10 Grossfeld, Targum, pg. 142.
11 Meinhold, quoted in Fox, Michael, V., Character
And Ideology In The Book Of Esther, University of South Carolina,
Durham, 1991) pg. 237.
12 Berg, pg. 31.
13 The Talmudic Sages and the Targum called her the
‘wicked Queen’. Grossfeld, Targum, pg. 40-42.
14 S. Talmon, Wisdom in the Book of Esther, VT 13,
1963, pg. 441.
15 Asher Eder, ‘King Cyrus, Anointed (Messiah) of the
LORD’, JBQ, July 1995, Vol. 23:3 (91) pg. 190. He quotes Herodotus,
Xenephon and Strabo.
16 McKenzie, John, L., ‘Second Isaiah’ Anchor Bible,
(N.Y., Double day, 1968pg. XXIX, see also Cyrus cylinder whose
similarities to Isaiah (or Deutero Isaiah) are astonishing.
17 Berg, Esther, pg. 102-103
18 The Septuagint has an addition known as 'C' in
which Mordecai prays and claims that he can bow only to God.
19 Grossfeld, Targum, pg. 56-57.
20 Eskenazi, Tamara, C., ' In an Age of Prose : A
Literary Approach to Ezra-Nehemiah' (Atlanta, G., Scholars Press, 1988)
pg. 138.
21 In the Talmud Esther is noted as having the 'holy
Spirit' BT Megillah 14b. Despite this the Sages did not name the Book
Esther, but called it 'The Scroll'; it is apparently the Septuagint
that named the book after its heroine Esther (Fox, pg. 196, footnote
1).
22 Price, Ronald, W., The Politics of Esther and
Mordecai, (Bulletin for Biblical Research 2 (1992) pg. 87.
23 BT Megillah 15b and Yalkut Shimoni Psalms 685,22.
24 The Midrashim suggest that the angel Gabriel or
Michael pushed Haman.
25 Jona Schellekens, 'Accession Days and Holidays:
The Origins of the Jewish Festival of Purim', JBL, 128, no. 1, 2009.
26 The authors have written an article suggesting an
anti-Davidic Monarchist movement beginning in the post-exilic age
entitled 'Rejecting the Davidic Dynasty', not yet published.
27 J. A. Loader, 'Esther', De Prediking van her Oude
Testament, (Nijkerk, G.F. Callenbach, 1991) pgs. 148-151.
28 Grossfeld, B. The First Targum To Esther,
(Sepher-Hermon Press, N.Y., 1983) pg. 161. This despite the Persian
Empire was begun by Cyrus. This may partially explain why the Book was
canonized.