Evil Woman? — BT Megillah 12b — #28

Rava says: The seventh day was shabbat on which, when Jews eat and drink they begin to [discuss] words of Torah and words of praise [for God]. But when idolators eat and drink, they begin [to discuss] only indecent matters.So it was at the feast of the wicked one [Ahasuerus]: some would say that Median women are beautiful and others would say that Persian women are beautiful. Ahasuerus said them: “My vessel that I use [i.e., my wife, who is the most beautiful of all women] is neither Median nor Persian nor Chaldean. Would you like to see her?” They said: “Yes, provided that she will be naked.” For the way a person behaves is how [heaven] behaves toward them. This teaches that the wicked Vashti used to bring Jewish girls and strip them naked and force them to work on shabbat. Thus it is written: After these things, when the anger of Kng Ahasuerus subsided, he thought of Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her (Esther 2:1)—as she had done [to Jewish girls] so it was done to her.

INTRODUCTION

In addition to being an ancient tale of the attempted genocide of the Jewish people, the Megillat Esther (the Scroll of Esther) is a social, political satire in which wine and sex play leading roles. Esther opens with a description of a lavish, six month long banquet hosted by King Ahasuerus of Persia for the purpose of showing off his vast wealth. The drunken men in attendance argue about who the most beautiful women in the world are. (Cue first the Beach Boys’ “California Girls,” then the Beatles’ parody, “Back in the U.S.S.R.”) Esther records that, On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he ordered [the eunuchs guarding his haram] to bring Queen Vashti before the king wearing a crown, to display her beauty to the peoples and the officials…But Vashti refused to come at the king’s command…The king was greatly incensed, and his fury burned within him (Esther 1:10-12). Harriet Beecher Stowe dubbed Vashti’s refusal the “first stand for women’s rights.” Unfortunately, the Talmud does not concur.

COMMENTARY

The Talmud provides a backstory and between-scenes glimpse of the wine banquet that connects some dots we might not have ever thought needed connecting. The Rabbis notice that the discussion about who are the most beautiful women in the world takes place on “the seventh day.” In context, this is the seventh day of the last week of Ahasuerus’ extended banquet, but the Rabbis understand it to be shabbat. They fashion from this nugget a story that vilifies Vashti even  in the minds of readers who might be inclined to view her compassionately: Vashti would force Jewish girls, presumably servants in the palace, to work naked on shabbat, compelling them to both violate their religious commitments and humiliate themselves. That is sufficient to paint Vashti cruelly masochistic and merit being ordered to appear naked (wearing a crown in 1:11 is now read as “wearing only a crown”). Where the biblical account sees Vashti as a victim of Ahasuerus, the Rabbis create a backstory that conforms to the principle of middah k’neged middah (“measure for measure”): Vashti’s fate resulted from her own cruelty. When the Rabbis evoke middah k’neged middah, it is as much as to say, “it served her right.” The Rabbis transform Vashti from victim to villain.

Vashti added new glory to [her] day and generation… by her disobedience; for “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.” (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Women’s Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective, p. 83)

Vashti’s treatment of Jewish girls, as told by the Rabbis explains why, in a middah k’neged middah universe, she was commanded to appear before Ahasuerus and his guests naked, but it does not explain why she refused to appear. The Rabbis supply two possible explanations on the same daf  (folio 12b) of Talmud: R. Yose bar Chanina says that Vashti had a sudden outbreak of skin disease; the second explanation is that the angel Gabriel made her grow a hideous tail. 

The Scroll of Esther paints Vashti as an independent woman who is, minimally, morally neutral. The king, a malleable and impressionable buffoon, is easily convinced by his advisor Memucan that, the queen’s behavior will make all wives despise their husbands (1:16) and refuse to acquiesce to their every wish and command. Could it be that in the same way that the original story of Esther doesn’t allow us to draw our own conclusion about Vashti—telling us that her behavior threatens the Persian social family social order—the Rabbis do much the same thing, trying to insure that we don’t admire Vashti’s independence or view her as a victim of the evil Ahasuerus, but rather as a woman who was, herself, deeply immoral (especially to Jews) and deserving of her fate?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS

1. Do you view Vashti as a hero or as a villain? What messages do we convey  to our daughters when we recount stories about Vashti?
2.     If we view Vashti as a strong and independent woman who refused to cooperate with the immoral behavior of her husband, what do we do with the Rabbis’ commentary? Even more importantly: How do use stories, and commentaries on stories day in and day out to reinforce social mores and values?
3.     Artist Deena Ackerman generously provides downloaded and printable drawings of the characters in the Purim story for children to color. Vashti is depicted twice: once with arms crossed over her chest and a large serpent’s tail emerging from beneath her dress (based on the Talmudic passage cited above) and, in response to people’s objections, without the tail. How would you characterize Vashti’s expression in the picture with the tail, and the one without the tail? Does the tail, signaling her “evil nature,” influence the viewer’s interpretation of her expression? (www.denaackerman.com/2013/02/purim-coloring-pages)