JVO: Esther

Jewish Values Online (jewishvaluesonline.org) is a website that asks the Jewish view on a variety of issues, some specifically Jewish and some from the world around us -- and then presents answers from each of the dominations of Judaism. Nishmablog's Blogmaster Rabbi Wolpoe and Nishma's Founding Director, Rabbi Hecht, both serve as Orthodox members of their Panel of Scholars.

This post continues the weekly series on the Nishmablog that features responses on JVO by one of our two Nishma Scholars who are on this panel. This week's presentation is to one of the questions to which Rabbi Hecht responded.

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Question: In the story of Purim, why was Esther willing to marry a non-Jewish king? What do we learn from this?

Rabbi Hecht's answer

Who says she was? There is no indication in the text that she had any type of choice in accepting Achashveirosh as her husband. The clear implication is that it was in fact solely Achashveirosh’s choice as to whom he wished to marry – with the girl chosen not having any say in the matter, that is whether she would like to or not. The verses in Esther, Chapter 2 speak of the officers of the king collecting girls to present to the king with Esther 2:14 indicating the sad fate and any girl not chosen, i.e. to be part of the king’s guarded harem. There is really no indication of choice.

 

Reading between the lines, one could perhaps still maintain that there may be some indication that a woman would still want to have been chosen. In the preparation time before meeting the king, the women were given anything they wished to highlight their beauty (Esther 2:13). In making such a request, a woman was obviously hoping to be picked. In regard to Esther, though, Esther 2:15 states that she emphatically did not request anything. The actual indication, as such, regardless of what may have been the case with the other women, is that Esther did everything she could to avoid actually being chosen.

 

This is all from the simple reading of the text. The Rabbinic literature on the subject clearly further indicate that Esther had no desire to marry Achashveirosh and that her participation in the marriage was solely because of the fear that otherwise she would be killed. From a halachic perspective, her relations with Achashveirosh were deemed to be akin to rape. See, for example, T.B. Sanhedrin 74b. Simply, she did not want to be Achashveirosh’s wife; she was forced to become the queen under the threat of death.

 

This actually forces us to recognize the personal tragedy of Esther’s life and how much she sacrificed herself for the benefit of the nation. This recognition is specifically noted in the manner in which the ending words of Esther 4:16 are read in the synagogue. The tune that is used is not the regular tune for the reading of the Megilla but rather the tune for the reading of the Book of Eicha (Lamentations) on Tisha B’Av. She sacrificed her personal and spiritual quality of life for her nation.

 

The reason that these few words are particularly singled out is because up until this point, Esther only came to the king when she was summoned. Any sexual relations with Achashveirosh were, thus, clearly initiated by him, effectively against Esther’s desire. In this case, she would be the the one initiating contact with the king which, invariably would include sexual relations. This yields a major discussion in Jewish Law about how Esther could do this, however a powerful mitigating factor was the fact that this was undertaken to save the nation. Nevertheless, we recognize Esther’s specific personal tragedy of having to undertake this action – even to save the nation – by reciting these words in the sad tune that marks the tragedies of our history. See, further, T.B. Megilla 15a.

 

So in answer to your question – there really is no question because Esther did not want to marry a non-Jewish king.

One final note, though, it is also understandable that you may have thought that she did because that is clearly the way the story is presented in its fairy tale rendition found in the general market place. I recently saw a Hanna-Barbera cartoon on the Book of Esther and it clearly presented Esther as wanting to be queen. It should be noted, though, that this cartoon series about Bible stories was actually developed by Christians and presents the text with that slant. (I really noticed this in a cartoon from the same series about Moshe that had a cross in the hat worn by the cartoon Moshe.) It is important to recognize that presentations on the Bible in the general media do not necessarily present a Jewish perspective and, even more so, that the difference between a Jewish and a Christian perspective – even on the stories that both religions may share – can be vastly different. This case of Esther is but one example of this.