Purim III — What Would Esther Do — Today??
by Arlene Goldbard
Arlene Goldbard was President of the Shalom Center Board for a decade. She’s a writer, painter, consultant, and cultural activist based in New Mexico. Her newest book is In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does It Mean To Be Educated?, a book of portraits and words to know the ”angels” of freedom in her life.
— AW, ed.
Purim is on 23-24 March. You may know it as a celebration where Jews gather to read the Purim story from Megillat Esther/The Book of Esther, often dressing in costume as on Halloween. Some people follow the Talmudic directive "to drink on Purim until he does not know the difference between 'cursed be Haman' (the story's great villain) and 'blessed be Mordecai'” (the hero behind Esther, my personal heroine). People exchange gifts of food, often including hamantaschen (Haman's pouches), three-cornered filled pastries.
This year, The Shalom Center has something different in store. Wonderful storytellers have been invited to rewrite Chapter Nine of Megillat Esther, a deeply problematic section. The Jews escape extermination by the Persians, then kill more than 75,000 Persians in revenge. The previous eight chapters evoke laughter as turnabout after turnabout pops up. Many communities skip over the blood-soaked Chapter Nine, treating it as a bummer that would ruin the party.
But this year the resonances of Israel-Gaza are too strong to ignore. As storytellers imagine new endings to the Purim story, the hope is that the creativity surfaced through this project can spark new possibilities and inspire engagement in seeking peace and justice.
My version of Chapter Nine will be published first, with a whole collection of alternatives to follow. You’ll be able to read them in a free downloadable publication, also featuring ideas and tools for individuals and communities to integrate these new endings in their own observance. I haven’t yet seen the other Chapter Nines, but sight unseen, I can say with confidence that each will offer its own distinctive voice and vision. They will not be fantasies of peace effortlessly fulfilled; our tradition teaches us to collaborate with the Divine to set things right, which takes steady work.
Queen Esther is the star of my Chapter Nine. My prompt is “What would Esther do?” I got the idea from the Christian meme “What Would Jesus Do?” It appears on coffee mugs and T-shirts, sometimes as the acronym “WWJD?” I think Queen Esther deserves the same. Why? I’ll explain what Esther means to me.
Artwork: Arlene Goldbard, 2024. Used with permission.
Years ago, I took a midrash workshop where our assignment was writing something inspired by part of the Book of Esther. A midrash is a story based on a biblical text, an imaginative account expanding a point that may only be hinted at in the text itself. The workshop leader dismissed my heroine as a "beauty queen," since she’d joined King Ahasuerus’ harem by winning a beauty contest. I was insulted on Esther's behalf. Her skillfulness greatly impressed me. I saw her as a natural tactical mastermind.
Judge for yourself: Esther is an orphan. Her foster father Mordecai keeps a close watch once she enters the king's harem. He advises her not to reveal her Jewish identity. The king comes to love Esther best and makes her queen.
In the meantime Mordecai warns the king of a plot against him, thus thwarting it. He also watches Haman, appointed by the king to a high position. Ultra-arrogant Haman demands that everyone kneel and bow to him, but Mordecai refuses, enraging Haman, who then plots to kill all the Jews of Persia on a single day, convincing the king they are disloyal. When this edict goes out, Jews fast, weep, and mourn. Esther learns of this, but doubts her ability to intervene, even to approach the king. That's when Mordecai says something deeply true and wise:
“Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace.... And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.”
The king summons Esther and offers her anything she desires. She asks only to invite Haman and the king to a feast. Haman swells with ego at the honors the king has bestowed on him, but he’s torn with bitterness each time he sees Mordecai fasting in sackcloth at the palace gates. Not knowing Mordecai had thwarted a plot against the king, Haman decides to ask the king to allow him to do away with this annoying and ever-present Jew.
The king is thinking about something else, though. He poses a hypothetical: “What should be done for a man whom the king desires to honor?” Haman assumes this man is himself, then is horrified to learn Mordecai is to be rewarded. Humiliated, Haman is forced to parade Mordecai through the streets on a fine horse, proclaiming the king's honor. Then he is brought to Esther's feast. On the second day of the feast, Esther asks the king's help to overturn a plot against the Jews. Only after the king agrees does Esther disclose that the plotter is Haman. A royal edict rescues the Jews.
Why do I call Esther a natural mastermind? Esther has a book of her own, so she isn’t one of the anonymous or ignored women of the bible. But she is deeply underestimated. I celebrate her skill as a power analyst. Without training and experience in strategic thinking, she shrewdly assesses the situation and her own position. She understands that she must create the conditions for the right things to happen, not force them; she waits until the king invites her to his chamber, then behaves so delightfully that he offers anything she wants. She knows that she must first ask for very little, biding her time until the king wishes to give more. She knows the king can sometimes be influenced to do cruel things, but she sees his fullness, including his great capacity for love and compassion. She knows that greed can doom itself: exploiting his appetites, she renders Haman vulnerable with food and drink, then steps back, allowing others to expose the full extent of his evil.
Just a beauty queen? Preposterous! I’ve learned much by asking "What would Esther do?" I can’t wait to see what others learn from her too.