Important Plot Details
We know of NO Persian queen named Esther.
Persian queens did not accede to the throne by winning beauty pageants.
Mordechai supposedly was brought to Shushan by way of the exile (in 587 BCE), however that would make him approximately 103 years old at the start of our story (Esther 2:6).
A decree to annihilate the Jews would not have been consistent with the way the Persians handled their minority communities.
Our whole story plot hinges on "suspension of disbelief" regarding Mordechai's outward identity as 'the Jew' (2:5) and the identity of his niece/cousin/daughter/wife, Esther, which ultimately remains hidden (2:10).
Hamman initiates this ridiculous plot to annihilate all the Jews based on a personal vendetta because Mordecai wouldn't bow down to him.
Historical Context to keep in mind...
Persian king Achaemenid issued a decree in 539 BCE allowing all the Jews to return home to Judah to rebuild their temple.
Additional Thoughts
In actuality Esther is most likely a 'historicized fiction' in the genre of parody, which relies on comedic hyperbole (exaggerations), flat characters (we are not given any motivations for our character's decisions), and reversal of fate (Hamman being hung instead of Mordecai).
Discussion
As we are reading through Esther 1, can you pick out any of the comedic exaggerations?
Basic Plot Outline
Based on Jon Levenson, Esther: A Commentary (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press 1997), p. 8. 2
1. Introduction – Ashashverosh's kingdom; The Greatness of Achashverosh (1:1-8)
2. Two Banquets– one for the princes of the provinces (180 days), and the other, a special feast for the inhabitants of Shushan (seven days) (1:1-8)
3. Esther is chosen as queen; She is identified as a gentile (2:10-20)
4. Description of Haman's stature: "…King Achashverosh promoted Haman, son of Hamedata, the Agagite, and advanced him" (3:1)
5. Casting of the lot: War on the 13th of Adar; Anti-Jewish Edict (3:12-15)
6. Fateful Exchange of Mordechai and Esther (ch. 4)
7. Esther's first feast, the ‘tryst’ (threesome) between Haman, the king and queen (5:6-8)
8. Haman's consultation with his associates (5:10-14); Zeresh recommends the building of a gallows 50 cubits high.
9. THE KING CANNOT SLEEP; EPISODE OF THE HORSE
8’. Haman's consultation with his associates; Zeresh predicts Haman’s downfall (6:13)
7’. Esther's second feast of the threesome (7:1-6)
6’. Fateful Exchange between Esther and Achashverosh (7:1-6)
5’. Pro-Jewish Edict (8:9-14)
4’. The Public elevation of Mordechai (8:15). Description of the stature of the Jews and of Mordecai: "All the princes of the provinces… showed deference to the Jews… for the man Mordechai was becoming increasingly powerful" (9:3)
3’. Gentiles identify as Jews (8:17); Esther comes before the king to request an additional day of battle in Shushan (chapter 9:11-14) – recalls her more tremulous visit in chapter 5.
2’. Two banquets for the Jews: one for the Jews of all the provinces (14th of Adar), and the other, a special feast for the Jews of Shushan (15th of Adar) (9:20-32)
1’. Conclusion – Greatness of Achashverosh and Mordechai (ch. 10)
Mordechai: Deference or Defiance?
Why won't Mordecai bow down?
(Esther 3)
Idolatry:
The Ibn Ezra brings a view that is suggested by the Midrash (Esther Rabba 7,6):
Mordechai would not bow - The opinion of our Rabbis is well known and correct, that Haman had an image of idolatry on his clothes or his hat. (4) He told them that he was a Jew – and that this was forbidden to him. We should ask the question, why did Mordechai put himself and the Jewish people into such danger? Could he have not spoken to Esther to get transferred away from the "Gate of the King" so that he wouldn't agitate Haman especially as he saw that Haman had particular good fortune at this time? The answer is that he couldn't move from the Gate by a Royal order at pain of death.
In other words what was at stake here was the question of classic idolatry. Mordechai's perplexing obstinacy is an expression of the severity of the sin that he is facing. The point at stake is not whether Mordechai will bow to Haman but rather whether he will bow to the image emblazoned upon Haman's clothing.
Jewish Pride:
But a second approach views Mordechai's refusal as unrelated to the narrow prohibition of idol worship. Instead it frames the problem as a wider issue of identity and national pride. The Midrash imagines the conversation that takes places when Mordechai was presented with the question: 'Why do you defy the Royal Edict?' What might Mordechai have answered?
Rabbi Levi said – He told them: Moshe Rabbeinu warned us in the Torah: 'Cursed is the man who makes an idol or molten image.' And this rasha (evildoer) has made himself into a source of worship! Has Isaiah not warned us: 'Refrain from (the honour of) the breathing man, for what is he worth?' Furthermore, I am the noble representative of the Almighty seeing that all the Tribes were born outside Israel, whereas my ancestor (Binyamin) was born in Eretz Yisrael…Haman sent a message back to him: But did your father (Yaakov) not bow to my father (Esav)? (as is states in Bereshit ch.33:3). He (Mordechai) responded: But (at that point when Yaakov bowed down to Esav) Binyamin was not yet born! (Esther Rabba 7:8)
The Midrash, however, casts this upon a deeper, historic precedent; upon the backdrop of the family history. This rivalry is not new, but merely an increment of an ancient rivalry. The confrontation between Mordechai and Haman is merely a resurgence of the ancient friction between Jacob-Esau. Haman asserts that Mordechai should be able to bow down to him seeing that Jacob bowed to Esau. Mordechai – from the tribe of Benjamin - responds that his father did not bow to Esau. And the Midrash seems to be suggesting that in Mordechai's mind, Binyamin, Mordechai's ancestor, was born in his own land, free and proud. He will not be controlled by another person. He refuses to view himself as a subject of the Persian Empire and prefers to see himself as an heir to the royal tradition of his forebears.
There is also the possibility is that Mordecai “the Jew” is the embodiment of Israel in our story, and refusing to bow down to Haman, the Aggagite, who might just be the embodiment of Amalek. This tradition is inscribed in liturgical practice on Shabbat before Purim, when we read the injunction “Remember what Amalek did to you,” attacking the old and the weary that straggled behind the desert sojourn out of Egypt. And so we are urged, paradoxically, to “wipe out the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 25:17-19; cf. Exod. 17:8-16). We also read of King Saul’s failure to fulfill God’s decree when he preserves the life of Agag, the Amalekite king (1 Sam. 15 as the Haftorah). Mordecai, a descendant of Saul’s line, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, must then finish off the job, so to speak. In the Masoretic Text of the Esther scroll, the genealogical associations point to an ethnic vendetta that will be played out between these two characters. The Rabbinic tradition, based on the MT, cannot help but hear the trumpets of warning at the opening of chapter 3: “And after these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Aggagite…..”, resonant throughout the Megillah, with the added epithet “enemy of the Jews” (3:10, 7:6, 9:10 and 24).
Evaluating Mordechai
Traditionally we view Mordechai as correct in his actions in the Megillah. From a young age, we have been trained to perceive Haman as evil and dangerous and Mordechai as acting correctly. (It is certainly difficult to deny that Haman is the aggressor, and the Jews, the victim) But how do we really perceive Mordechai's persistent refusal to honor Haman? After all, his actions lead directly to Haman's scheme of annihilating the Jews!