Female Supremacy Articles - Page 28

Screen 35 of 43

According to Kahat, the sages did not like Vashti. "She is so prominent in her determination that it surprises me she wasn't identified as a positive character. For them, she represents the foreigner, the stranger, and is virtually satanic. There is no compassion or understanding for her."

Kahat points out that Vashti becomes a fantasy "sex symbol." Why, she asks, isn't Esther who acts in a blatantly sexual manner, held up to that kind of characterization by the commentators?

Ruhama Weiss, an instructor of Talmud at Hebrew Union College, believes the sages were in conflict regarding the fact that "Vashti fights for her modesty and her honor, while our heroine Esther is willing to work through the bedroom."

However, it was important for them to show the different fates of she who is willing to integrate into the patriarchal system and obey its rules, and she who fights it, which is why Weiss says the sages blackened Vashti's name. Why didn't she show up when the king summoned her?

Some commentators say she developed leprosy, others that she grew a tail. In other words, because her beauty faded on the day in question. Other interpretations argue that her fate was retribution for mistreating Jewish women.

Vashti may be the new heroine of feminist women, but Kahat says in recent years there has been a return to Esther, as well as to the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.