Book of Esther:

Megilla (festal scroll) read atPurim, 14th(-15th) Adar (Feb/Mar).

Main purpose is to explain origins offestival

Slaughter of Jews’ enemies on 13th Adar, socelebration on 14th-15th

Origins of name: Esth. 9: 24-28. Haman haspur (“lot,” pl. purim) cast to chooseday to massacre Jews

Setting: Persian empire, during reign ofXerxes (Ahasuerus, r. 485-65 BC).5th-4th c. BC was period when Jews inHoly Land but not in charge there

Story prob. dates from Hellenistic period,when (originally) Greek rulers controlledLevant after death of Alexander theGreat (323 BC), prob. 2nd c. BC

Written to entertain and instruct. Readings atsynagogue recall British pantomime

Dilemma of maintaining public Jewish ID whiledealing pragmatically with non-Jewishrulers (Esth. 4: 16). Esther as pivotalfigure in story

Laying out practices of Purim festival that arepublic expression of Jewishness: listeningto story, almsgiving, gifts of food, drinking,(forgiving minor crimes, fasting on 13thAdar)

Story as lesson in how to lead life in thediaspora. Stories of Esther, Danieland Joseph addressing how to dealwith endlessly negotiated social statusin foreign, often unfriendly society

The power of a hidden Jewish ID?(Esth. 2: 10-11 and 7: 3-7)

Absence of God in narrative

“The Jews have become, as it were, God’sex-wife now responsible for her own debtsonly, God’s former client now representingherself, God’s grown-up child moved outof the house.”

Jack Miles, God: A Biography (London: Simon and Schuster,1995), 361-62.

History as human enterprise where Jews,rather than their God, make decisivedifference

Changing roles, ambiguities, dissimulations:

Esther and Mordecai rising in social status

Persians converting or pretending to do so(Esth. 8: 17)

Expressing or hiding Jewish ID

Esther as example of woman rising inmale-dominated society, but isMordecai really calling the shots?