On February 2 we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord.  We read in Luke 2:22-23: “When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord.’”  Luke, who was writing for a Gentile audience, combines two distinct ritual requirements: the purification of the mother after childbirth and the redemption of the firstborn son.  The same duality is seen in the development of the liturgy: prior to the calendar reform, this feast was known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The law regarding the purification is found in Lev. 12.  We read in Lev. 12:1-4:

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites: When a woman has conceived and gives birth to a boy, she shall be unclean for seven days, with the same uncleanness as at her menstrual period. On the eighth day, the flesh of the boy’s foreskin shall be circumcised, and then she shall spend thirty-three days more in becoming purified of her blood; she shall not touch anything sacred nor enter the sanctuary till the days of her purification are fulfilled.

For reasons not fully understood, the period was twice as long if the woman gave birth to a girl.  The reason is not simply that in biblical times a woman was of less social value than a man.  There are other cases in which more valuable objects or persons were subject to more stringent requirements.  In the Mishnah we find, “As is our love for them, so is their impurity.” (Yadaim 4:6).

The law regarding the redemption of the firstborn son is found in Ex. 13:1-3: “The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb among the Israelites, both of man and beast, for it belongs to me.” The reason is given:

If your son should ask you later on, “What does this mean?” you shall tell him, “With a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, that place of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every first-born in the land of Egypt, every first-born of man and of beast. That is why I sacrifice to the Lord everything of the male sex that opens the womb, and why I redeem every first-born of my sons.”

When the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, the Levites, who did not participate in idolatry, became the sanctified priestly class.  Thus they are exempt from the legal requirement of redemption.  The Bible fixes the price of redemption at five silver shekels:

The Lord said to Moses: “Take the Levites in place of all the first-born of the Israelites, and the Levites’ cattle in place of their cattle, that the Levites may belong to me. I am the Lord. As ransom for the two hundred and seventy-three first-born of the Israelites who outnumber the Levites, you shall take five shekels for each individual, according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.       (Num. 3:44-47)

The Sefer haHinnuch, written in thirteenth century Spain and ascribed to Rabbi Aaron haLevi of Barcelona, gives two reasons for the commandment.  The first is “to know everything is His and a man has nothing in the world but what the Eternal Lord allots him in His kindness.”  The second reason is “in order to remember the great miracle that the eternal Lord did for us in relation to the firstborn of Egypt—that He slew them and saved us from their hand.”

 The redemption of the firstborn son, the pidyon haben, is still practiced by Orthodox Jews today, usually on the thirty-first day after the child’s birth.  The simple ritual and short blessing is followed by a festive meal.  Celebrate the feast!

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Yesterday we celebrated Epiphany, and today we commemorate Jesus’ Baptism, concluding the Christmas season.  Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus to all nations, is associated with his first miracle: the wedding feast at Cana.  Jesus asked the servants to fill with water “six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.”  Then he changed the water into wine.  

What does the Gospel refer by “ceremonial washings”?  Num. 19 requires that people purify themselves after contact with the dead or other defiling objects.  Lev. 15 requires immersion for anyone suffering from a discharge, particularly of women after menstruation or giving birth.  Num. 31:22-23 refers to the purification of new vessels and utensils.  Ritual immersion is also required of converts to Judaism.  It is here that we can find a connection with Christian baptism.  The Talmud says of the proselyte “One who became a proselyte is like a child newly born” (Yebamoth 62a).  One’s past is wiped away.  In modern times, ritual immersion has become a sign of spiritual renewal for many, both men and women.

It should be understood that immersion is not simply a ritual or ceremony.  The great philosopher and legal authority Maimonides (1134-1204) considered the Laws of Impurity and Purity to be commandments of the Torah for which no reason is stated.  He concluded: “Thus the immersions which remove our impurity are a part of those imponderable laws. For impurity is not mud that can be removed by water, but it is a divine decree dependent upon the intentions of the heart. Therefore the sages said, ‘He who immerses himself but had no intentions of being purified is as if he had not done the immersion.’”

Those who immerse themselves are purified of sinful thoughts.  They bring their souls “into the waters of pure knowledge.”  Maimonides quotes the prophet Ezekiel, who says: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts” (Ez. 36:25-26).

 This year, since Christmas fell on a Sunday, there is no “Week after Epiphany.”  But still we can observe this week as one of spiritual renewal.  We meditated by the crib; now Jesus, as an adult, begins his ministry.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Before the reform of the Catholic liturgical calendar after Vatican II, New Year’s Day was not celebrated as the Solemnity of the Mother of God.  Rather, it was celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision.  According to Lk. 2:21, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, as was every Jewish boy: “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”  By this ritual, Jesus was incorporated into the Jewish people, as John had been before him (Lk. 1:57-66). 

Circumcision is an obligation of the covenant that God made with Abraham:: “God also said to Abraham: ‘On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.  This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.  Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the mark of the covenant between you and me’” (Gen. 17:9-11). Nevertheless, in the Talmud while a failure to circumcise oneself or one’s children is considered a transgression, a Jewish man is considered Jewish even if he has not been circumcised (Sanhedrin 44a).

The requirement that a male infant be circumcised on the eighth day is found in Lev. 12:3: “On the eighth day, the flesh of the boy’s foreskin shall be circumcised.”  The child was given a name when he was circumcised.  The next verse refers to the purification of the mother after childbirth: “and then she shall spend thirty-three days more in becoming purified of her blood; she shall not touch anything sacred nor enter the sanctuary till the days of her purification are fulfilled.”  For forty days, then, the mother could not touch anything sacred or to enter the Temple area.  The period was twice as long if she had given birth to a girl.  Most likely this time became a period of rest for the mother, allowing her female relatives to fuss over her. 

St. Luke, a Gentile, combines the purification with the presentation of the firstborn male, found in Ex. 13:2: “Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb among the Israelites, both of man and beast, for it belongs to me.”  But there was no requirement that a child be presented in the Temple.  Catholics observe the Presentation of Jesus on Feb. 2, and it is often considered the real close of the Christmas season.

When St. Paul taught that Gentiles did not need to follow the precepts of the Law of Moses, he included the requirement of circumcision.  We read in Gal. 5:6: “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”  Similarly, in Jewish tradition, circumcision has no value except as a mark of faith.  The great philosopher and legal authority, Maimonides, said in his Guide for the Perplexed, “No one should circumcise himself or his son for any other reason but pure faith” (Part III, chapt. 49).

Even if we no longer celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision as such, we can reflect on the meaning of faith in our lives, and how our faith makes us part of the entire people of God.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Last week our bible class discussed the phrase “on the third day” that is found in Hos. 6:2: “He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.”  We mentioned the frequent usage of this phrase in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as its significance of this phrase in the New Testament, where it is used in reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Let’s look now a second phrase found in the same verse, “in his presence.” 

The phrase “in his presence” is capable of a number of translations.  Literally it may be rendered “face to face.” In Ex. 33:10, God tells Moses “my face you cannot see, for no one sees me and still lives.” Moses is permitted to see only God’s back.  On Mount Sinai, God sets Moses in the hollow of a rock, covers Moses with his hand, and passes before him.  At that moment, the Lord reveals his personal name to Moses and reveals his mercy and compassion: “Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with him there and proclaimed his name, ‘Lord.’  Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity’” (Ex. 34:5-6).  However, we have already been told that “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another” (Ex. 33:11).

There are, in fact, a number of places where God does show his face.  In Gen. 32:31, after wrestling with the angel, “Jacob named the place Peniel, ‘Because I have seen God face to face,’ he said, ‘yet my life has been spared.’”  In Judges 6:22-23, Gideon encounters an angel: Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the Lord, said, ‘Alas, Lord God, that I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!’ The Lord answered him, ‘Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die.’” In his temple vision, the prophet Isaiah says “my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Is. 6:5).

What does it mean to see God’s face? We know that God does not have a body, that God is incorporeal.  In the Jewish tradition, the midrash gives us an answer:

Rabbi Luliani said in the name of Rabbi Isaac: it is written (Ex. 19:19): “Moses spoke and God replied with a voice; God spoke and Moses replied with a voice”? No. It states only that “Moses spoke and God replied with a voice”; that is God talked to Moses with Moses’ own voice.” (Numbers Rabbah 13:3).

That is, Moses heard God interiorly, in a sort of monologue.  The Hebrew word for “face” or “presence” can mean not only that which is in front of you, but also that which is inside, interior, innermost.  Moses had such an intimate relationship with God that he heard God within his own being when he stood within in the cloud on the top of Mount Sinai.  Later he listened to God when he entered into the silence of the Tent of Meeting.

What does this mean for us?  In Ex. 33:7, the Tent of Meeting is outside the camp: “The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the Lord would go to this meeting tent outside the camp.”  We, too, need to go apart from time to time, to listen to God in the silence of our hearts. That this experience can be ours we know from the priestly blessing found in Num. 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!”

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Even if Hosea did not expect the people to repent, he preached repentance.  The Hebrew term for repentance, teshuvah, comes from a root meaning “to return.”  In a familiar passage, Hosea said:

In their affliction, they shall look for me: “Come, let us return to the Lord, For it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence. Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord; as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like the light of day! He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.”

There are a number of references to “the third day” in the Hebrew Scriptures.  In Gen. 22:4, Abraham sights the place where he was to sacrifice Isaac from afar “on the third day.”  In Ex. 19:10-11, the people are to prepare themselves for God’s revelation on Sinai; they are to “be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai before the eyes of all the people.  In Joshua 1:11, Joshua commands the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and instruct the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for three days from now you shall cross the Jordan here, to march in and take possession of the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you.’”  The best known example is, perhaps, the prophet Jonah, who is in the belly of the whale (the “big fish”) for three days: “The Lord sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah; and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 2:1).

The New Testament writers picked up the biblical motif of the third day. “The sign of Jonah” refers to Jesus: “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Mt. 11:40). Jesus applies the phrase to his death and resurrection in John 2:19-21, after he chased the money changers out of the Temple precincts: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ The people said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?’  But he was speaking about the temple of his body. In Matthew 16:21, Jesus teaches his disciples “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” After his death, “the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said, ‘After three days I will be raised up.’ Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal him and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead’” (Mt. 27:63-64).

The phrase “the third day” does not indicate a precise time period.  In the Bible, a day can refer to an age or a period to time.  The phrase indicates that within a certain period of time something will be done or accomplished.  But as we near the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of Advent, we can take it as a reminder to be ready, to be prepared for the Lord’s coming for we do not know the day or the hour when he might come.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The weekly Bible class has shifted course and we are now discussing the prophet Hosea.  Unlike Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, Hosea did not experience a divine vision.  Isaiah had had a vision of the divine throne and angels surrounding it:

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.  “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” they cried one to the other. “All the earth is filled with his glory!” (Is. 6:1-3)

The Lord places words in Jeremiah’s mouth, and the prophet sees visions: a watching-tree (Jer. 1:11) and a boiling cauldron (Jer. 1:13).  Ezekiel has amazing visions:

As I looked, a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire (enveloped in brightness), from the midst of which (the midst of the fire) something gleamed like electrum. Within it were figures resembling four living creatures that looked like this: their form was human, but each had four faces and four wings, and their legs went straight down; the soles of their feet were round. They sparkled with a gleam like burnished bronze.  (Ez. 1:4-7)

But Hosea is simply told to marry a prostitute:  “In the beginning of the Lord’s speaking to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take a harlot wife and harlot’s children, for the land gives itself to harlotry, turning away from the Lord”  (Hos. 1:2).

Hosea’s life with Gomer becomes his message.  We do not know whether Gomer was a cult prostitute, or an ordinary streetwalker, or whether she was promiscuous before or after her marriage.  She becomes a symbol of Israel’s infidelity to the covenant.  Gomer’s children are given symbolic names.  The first-born son is named Jezreel “for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel, And bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel” (Hos. 1:4-5).  A daughter is named Lo-ruhama, “not pitied” for, the Lord says, “I no longer feel pity for the house of Israel: rather, I abhor them utterly” (Hos. 1:6). The second son is named Lo-ammi, “not my people”: “for you are not my people, and I will not be your God” (Hos. 1: 9).  Hosea loved his wife despite her behavior, just as the Lord loves Israel.  Hosea preached repentance, but he did not expect the people to repent.

In Jewish tradition, God had to teach Hosea to be compassionate. The Talmud recounts:

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Hosea, “Your children have sinned,” to which he should have replied. “They are Thy children, they are the children of Thy favored ones they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; extend Thy mercy to them.” Not enough that he did not say thus, but he said to Him: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! The whole world is Thine; exchange them for a different nation.

 And so God asks himself, “What shall I do with this old man?”  God orders Hosea to marry a harlot.  After Hosea’s two sons and daughter are born, Hosea cannot expel or divorce his wife. Neither can God divorce his children, the people of Israel.  When Hosea realizes his sin, he pleads mercy for himself.  God replies, “Instead of supplicating mercy for thyself, supplicate mercy for Israel.” (Pesahim 87-a-87b).

The Lord, always ready to forgive, teaches the old man Hosea a lesson about compassion.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The villain of the Book of Esther, Haman, was never satisfied.  He was fabulously wealthy and a favorite of the king.  Yet when Mordecai did not bow before him, he was filled with fury.  He did what any strong, domineering man would do: he consulted his wife. And she was a type of wicked witch.

The Book of Esther tells us (Est. 5:9-13):

That day Haman left happy and in good spirits. But when he saw that Mordecai at the royal gate did not rise, and showed no fear of him, he was filled with anger toward him. Haman restrained himself, however, and went home, where he summoned his friends and his wife Zeresh.  He recounted the greatness of his riches, the large number of his sons, and just how the king had promoted him and placed him above the officials and royal servants.  ”Moreover,” Haman added, “Queen Esther invited no one but me to the banquet with the king; again tomorrow I am to be her guest, with the king. Yet none of this satisfies me as long as I continue to see the Jew Mordecai sitting at the royal gate.”

His wife, who even more wicked than her husband, advised him: “Have a gibbet set up, fifty cubits in height, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go to the banquet with the king in good cheer” (Est. 5:14).  In the Midrash, Zeresh suggests that Haman be hanged because the three young men were saved from the fiery furnace, of Daniel emerged unharmed from the lions’ den, Joseph left prison, and the blinded Samson killed many Philistines.  But no Jew was known to have been saved from hanging (Esther Rabbah 9:2).  Actually, in those days hanging was not a punishment.  People were first impaled, and then hung.  That’s why he can be compared to Dracula.

That night, however, the king could not fall asleep, and he had the chronicles read to him.  The record of events would be boring enough to put him to sleep.  He learned that Mordecai had uncovered and reported a plot to kill him, but had not been rewarded for it.  In the morning, he asked Haman, who had come to court early, what should be done to honor such a person.  Haman thought the king was talking about him, and told him: “For the man whom the king wishes to reward there should be brought the royal robe which the king wore and the horse on which the king rode when the royal crown was placed on his head. The robe and the horse should be consigned to one of the noblest of the king’s officials, who must clothe the man the king wishes to reward, have him ride on the horse in the public square of the city, and cry out before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to reward!’ ” (Est. 6:7-9).  And, to his great dismay, this is what Haman had to do for Mordecai.

Grieving, Haman returned home and told his wife all about it.  His wife and friends said to him: “If Mordecai, before whom you are beginning to decline, is of the Jewish race, you will not prevail against him, but will surely be defeated by him” (Est. 6:13). This is, after all, a story written by those who won the victory.

In fact, in the next chapter Queen Esther reveals her Jewish heritage and tells the king of Haman’s plot to destroy all the Jews in the Persian Empire.  Haman is hung (actually impaled first and then hung) on the very gibbet (or stake) on which he had planned to hang Mordecai.

For Jewish children, the holy day of Purim is a time to get into costume and to have parties, sort of like Halloween.  But they do not dress up as ghosts or goblins, but rather as good, cheerful characters such as Mordecai and Esther.  Instead of trick-or-treating, gifts of food are given to the poor.  Purim is fun, not scary.  In 2012, Purim falls on March 8.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Haman, who is the villain in the Book of Esther, plotted the destruction of all the Jews in the Persian Empire.  On the feast of Purim, a joyous holiday that commemorates their deliverance, children shake noisemakers to drown out his name every time it comes up during the reading of the book.  Years ago, when I taught my sixth-grade class the story, we did not have rattles, so I had them stamp their feet or pound their desks at Haman’s name.  The children loved it, although the noise drew some protest from other teachers.

What is the origin of this custom?  Haman is identified as “Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite” (Esther 3:1).  Haman is descendent of Amalek.  Amalek, king of the Amalekites, led his people in war against the Israelites when they were poor, weak slaves escaping from centuries of servitude in Egypt.  So, in Ex. 17:14, it is written: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this down in a document as something to be remembered, and recite it in the ears of Joshua: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.’”  In Deut. 25:19, the command is given: “Therefore, when the Lord, your God, gives you rest from all your enemies round about in the land which he is giving you to occupy as your heritage, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!”

But it gets worse.  In 1 Sam. 15:3, the Lord commands: “Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.’”  This is carrying revenge to an extreme, even if Amalek attacked Israel just for the sake of attacking.  This command is problematic not only for us today; it was problematic for the Talmudic sages and medieval commentators as well.  So the command became an allegory.  We should blot out evil, or the principle of evil, Satan.  It should not be fulfilled by us today, but by God in due time. 

But the command teaches us a powerful lesson.  In Deut. 25:17-18 we read: “Bear in mind what Amalek did to you on the journey after you left Egypt, how without fear of any god he harassed you along the way, weak and weary as you were, and cut off at the rear all those who lagged behind.”  In the Hebrew, Amalek “did not fear God.” He becomes the archetype of the godless, who attack the weak and the stranger.  It is this behavior that we need to blot out our midst.

Let’s take the command to blot out the name of Amalek in positive sense.  How do we today protect those who are weak, those who are strangers in our land, those who seek refuge from conditions of oppression and misery?

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

One of the minor characters in the Book of Esther is Queen Vashti.  Some see Vashti, in her refusal to be demeaned and humiliated by her husband, to be a heroine.  Her story sounds like something out of the Arabian Nights, and perhaps it actually is a harem story attached to a semi-historical account of the Jews in Persia. Whoever wrote the Book of Esther knew of Persian court life, as there are detailed descriptions of the royal court and what took place within it.

The story of Vashti sets the framework for what transpired in the rest of the book, since it is due to her downfall that Esther became queen.  King Ahasuerus (the weekly class still cannot his name) held a banquet for seven days, after he had displayed all the wealth of his empire for one hundred and eighty days.  While the king (we’ll omit his name) entertained “all the people, great and small, who were in the stronghold of Susa” (Est. 1:5), Queen Vashti gave a feast for the women within the royal palace.  By the seventh day, the king was drunk and he instructed the eunuchs who were in charge of the harem “to bring Queen Vashti into his presence wearing the royal crown, that he might display her beauty to the populace and the officials, for she was lovely to behold” (Est.1:11).  Some commentators have suggested that the king wanted Queen Vashti to come wearing only her crown.  In any case, Queen Vashti refused, and the king was filled with fury.

The king, not very bright and dependent on his advisors, asked what he should do. One of his officials answered him: “Queen Vashti has not wronged the king alone, but all the officials and the populace throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus.  For the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women, and they will look with disdain upon their husbands when it is reported, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded that Queen Vashti be ushered into his presence, but she would not come’” (Est. 1:16-17).  The king issued a decree forbidding Vashti to come into the presence of King Ahasuerus and authorizing the king to give her royal dignity to one more worthy than she.  That way “all wives will honor their husbands, from the greatest to the least” (Est. 1:19-20).

Jewish tradition looks negatively on Queen Vashti as a foreign and presumably licentious woman.  Nevertheless, the midrash tells us that Ahasuerus acted improperly when he tried to force Vashti to obey him and when he issued the decree “that every man should be lord in his own home” (Est. 1:22).  A woman acts as she wishes; her husband cannot force his will upon her (Est. Rabbah 4:12).   When Ahasuerus became sober, he regretted what he had done (Est. Rabbah 5:2).

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.