Thread by @ewzucker

With the joyous holiday of #Purim ending, here’s a THREAD on #Esther to distract us from the apocalypse.

Here’s a key question:

Why in chapter 4 is Esther so afraid of going to Ahasuerus & pleading her people’s case?

Yes she gives a reason but it’s puzzling. After all+

last we heard of Ahasuerus’ feelings about Esther, he was head over heels with her- picking her over multitudes of beautiful, dolled up maidens & making a huge party for her. & now just a short time after (ch.3 opens with “Following these events”) she reports no contact with him+

for a full menstrual cycle (“30 days”)?

Strange!

Moreover, let’s look at the very last interaction between king & queen, around the time of the party (“at that time”): Mordecai & Esther foiled an assassination plot! So you’d think Ahasuerus would really be loving Esther now!

Maybe not!

Turns out there’s strong reason to suspect the king was unhappy about M&E’s after this foiled plot.

How about this for a strange turn of events: the very next verse opens ch3 with “Following these events, King Ahasuerus promoted X... above all other ministers.”

If you hear this story every year, it’s hard to see what’s strange here bc you anticipate Haman’s rise (& are geared up to boo him).

But if the story was new to you, you’d be bewildered. If the king is going to promote anyone, it should be the plot-foiler, not some unknown dude!

So.. it seems the king may not have been so happy with the folks who foiled the plot & he turned to Haman as a substitute. But why? I have a theory but it’s late in Boston. So let’s see if anyone’s reading this (welcoming reactions & ideas) before I continue. Happy #shushanpurim!

OK, so at least four ppl out there (@aubreyclayton, @Dr_Mitch_Smith, @piechartking, @pindaricus) out there are liking this (thx!), so here's installment 2, which develops the core of the theory:

Again, the key is to consider the question: Why might Ahaseuerus react *negatively* to M&E's foiling the assassination plot??

Think about it!

Turns out there are (at least?) three important reasons & then there's the broader context, which help what comes next:

1. There’s the question of how the plot "became known" to Mordecai. That’s mighty suspicious, isn't it? How exactly did Mordecai hear about it? The obvious thing to worry about is that he was in on it & now is trying to curry favor by ratting out his fellow conspirators!

2. A natural question for Ahasuerus when he hears Esther's report on the plot in "Mordecai's name" is:

What's E's relationship with M??

Only later, in ch9, does she tell A what M “is to her” but what does A think now? (Maybe he asked & she was evasive?) Pretty suspicious!

3. There are huge political downsides to A if he elevates M to reward him for foiling the plot: it broadcasts the fact that people are plotting against him & that he needed a M & E to save his skin. This the king look weak & gives tremendous power to M (& E)!

Now, 3 pieces of context.
A) From ch1, we meet a king who's comically insecure in his throne (show off riches & babe of a wife! drinking contest!) &

B) who's highly sensitive to being challenged by his queen (ridiculously seeing it as a challenge to patriarchy more generally)

C) From ch2, we learn that Jewish identity is risky. Twice the text tells us that Esther wouldn't reveal her "nation & homeland" (you might think that people would be sympathetic to a orphaned refugee, but...). But apparently Jewishness was problematic (more on that soon...)

On the flip side, it's possible that E's lack of identity was part of her appeal to A-- a midrashic idea (sefaria.org/Megillah.13a.2…) is that this identitylessness allowed various nationalities/provinces to see her as their own.

But this is threatened by her link to M!!

Even if this didn't breed suspicion of her Jewishness
(it's ambiguous when it became known that M was a Jew; if you just read ch2, the implication is that it's known; if you read ch3, it seems at least some courtiers didn't know), it certainly threatened her "everywoman" appeal.

In short, E's tie to M establishes her with someone who has connections to specific interests in the empire rather than having no interest at all. And then her past-identityless might start to look like a ruse (which, in essence, it *was*!)

Now back to our opening question:

There's in fact ample reason for Esther to be terrified of approaching A, especially if it means stressing her Jewishness &/or her link to M.

& her worries are deeply intertwined with the key turning point that led to the genocidal decree:

The elevation of Haman when it should have been Mordecai.

But what does this mean for the larger plot & message of the story?

More on that soon...

@threadreaderapp unroll