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ok here's my rant:
the rabbis did vashti dirty. in the pshat of the text, she does nothing wrong - she doesn't have a tail, she isn't evil, she isn't a villainess. the only thing we know about vashti from pshat is that she exercises agency in refusing to go to her husband. (1/9) https://twitter.com/TheTonightSho/status/1355822083020873728
the rabbis did vashti dirty. in the pshat of the text, she does nothing wrong - she doesn't have a tail, she isn't evil, she isn't a villainess. the only thing we know about vashti from pshat is that she exercises agency in refusing to go to her husband. (1/9) https://twitter.com/TheTonightSho/status/1355822083020873728
the rabbis go out of their way to paint vashti as a villain. not just a villain, but *ugly* and un-human. they give her a tail and spots on her face and they paint her as vapid and obsessed with physical appearances despite the fact that... (2/9)
... spontaneously growing a tail and getting a rash are perfectly good reasons for not wanting to leave your chambers. not to mention (per drash) she was refusing to come to achashverosh *totally naked* like he requested, and refused to parade around for him and his cronies.(3/9)
so to recap: the only thing we know about vashti in pshat is that she exercises agency + she is sentenced to death to send a message to the housewives of the kingdom, reminding them to stay subservient to their husbands. thats it. thats all we know about her in the text. (4/9)
the rabbis turn vashti into a treacherous villain to create a foil for esther. to highlight that esther is pure, and innocent and demure in a way that no other woman was. they emphasise this by setting vashti up as the antithesis. (5/9)
in pshat, vashti does nothing wrong other than exist as a secondary named female character in a story that already features a strong woman. (6/9)
there's more to be said (comparing midrashic treatment of hagar/sarai and chana/penina to this situation that i might post later) but for now all i wanna say is that a much more interesting take for mefarshim to take would be (7/9)
to focus on achashverosh's despicable treatment of women (not only vashti's death, but also the fact that he condemns an entire generation of women to be his concubines and not have families/lives of their own) and then look at how esther... (8/9)
uses her 'womanly wiles' to manipulate him into saving the jews. he is tricked and coerced by the very thing that he tries to conquer in the first perek: his wife.
so yeah. tell that story instead of how vashti is gross and has a tail. (9/8)
so yeah. tell that story instead of how vashti is gross and has a tail. (9/8)
goddamn i did so good and then wrote (9/8) instead of (9/9). is god punishing me for not paying attention in class????
to clarify - midrash is an important part of our cultural storytelling. but stop quoting/treating drash as being as important as the pshat itself. create your own readings of the text, free from the opinions and agendas of the mefarshim.
also i don’t think this reading makes vashti a feminist icon, nor a hero. it makes her a victim of domestic violence and gives us a new way to read/understand the story.
