Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A Question to Ponder

Purim. It is now over. It was so exhausting to live through it - in a "baruch Hashem" kind of way, but still - that I cannot possibly rehash it without having to take a nap in the middle.

So I leave you with this question:

Why is the death of Vashti not actually mentioned in the megillah?

Never does it say, "And lo, Ahaseaurus [or something] killedeth his wife, Vashti, for she listened to him not. No, ye, she verily did not listen to Ahaseurus. And soeth, he said thusly to her, 'Vashti, my wifeth, I shall slay you now.' 'Oh yeah?' did Vashti respond to the king, 'That's what you thinketh, Aha--' And so Vashti died, and is it not recorded thisly in the Chronicles?" *

We've got a whole bloodbath later on - Hangings! Mass killings! Dead bad guys! - but the death that was the catalyst for the entire story? It's just "implied?" How do I know she was really killed and not just voted off the castle? I need closure!

So why is this so, oh Learned Loyal Readers?

* I know what you're thinking - King James totally would have hired me!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am proud to tell you, Loyal Readers, that if you Google "was vashti killed" the FIRST thing that comes up is ALIYAH BY ACCIDENT!

And think of this - if Achasverosh would have asked Haman to parade around at the party nude (aka "wear your crown, baby"), he might have been killed immediately and then - we might never have a chance to collect millions of little bottles of grape juice.

Cheryl said...

Gila - I don't have a response to your Vashti question although it is an interesting 1 to ponder. I just wanted to say hello and tell you the good news that apparently my boss unblocked blogs and facebook! Not sure why or if it was an accident or if it's temporary.
Hope you had a chag sameach even if it seems like an eternity ago!

Gila Rose said...

cheryl - welcome back!