Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mesechta Megillah 12b - Class 1

The wine at the party. What was Vashti's agenda? Why did Gavriel give her a tail?
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  1. UnknownMarch 18, 2010 at 9:13 AM

    Ironically, it was Vashti's agenda that was easy - Achashverosh's agenda was political. Vashti just wanted to have a good time - a private party for her and her friends. It was her resistance to being drawn in to her husband's schemes, since she needed no political legitimacy and he did (which he would get by displaying her and her royal heritage), that got her in to trouble in the first place. The tail is a metaphor (as the Rambam interprets Midrash, it may not have been an actual tail, but it works either way - and either way, it was a symbol of something). A tail provides balance and contrast on the back end, enabling consistency and stability throughout the body. Achashverosh could have used some of this - one of the affects of wine is specifically the removal of stability and balance. The tail was a message to him - get your balance back, you're going too far over the deep end. But the message didn't get through. The tail was also a symbol of ugliness (the Midrash mentions ugly marks on her face as well), meaning that the beauty of Vashti was balanced by the ugliness in her character (a reflection of Achashverosh's desires - he neither needed nor wanted any of Vashti's positive attributes, assuming she had any). Essentially, the message is that the wine reveals the imbalance, and Vashti does as well. Once you're drunk, you are left with the reality of her "other side" - the ugly side - revealed to you. Vashti was vapid, shallow, and ugly where it counted - when revealed by the wine. She couldn't even understand the politics of the situation or the risk she took offending her husband - and she was the one with the political experience! Esther, on the other hand, used wine to reveal as well - to reveal Achashverosh's poorly thought out alliance with Haman by pointing out the flaws in Haman's plan and its damaging effects on the kingdom (killing the Jews rather than enslaving them), while the malach steps in one more time to reveal Haman's attack (however Achashverosh interpreted it) as a symbol of his desire to kill or conquer even Achashverosh's own queen, as he wanted to kill Achashverosh's own savior (Mordechai). Nichnas Yayin, Yitzei Sod, indeed.

    - Moshe Glasser

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