Mordechai

Mordechai learns of a secret plot to assassinate King Ahasuerus. He also knows that in a private meeting, Haman tried to bribe the king to kill the Jews. At the same time, Mordechai is able to keep his relationship with Esther a secret.

Although Judea is one of the provinces of the multicultural empire of Persia, the book of Esther never mentions it. Rather, it grapples with the precarious position of Jews scattered throughout Persia, outside their ancestral homeland, and who stand out among the non-Jews in their insistence on keeping to their cultural rules and norms.

A political strategy and a religious wakeup call to Jews in the Diaspora.

Personal agency and consent—granted or withheld—pervade the book of Esther, and are inextricably related to pre-existing power structures such as gender and social status.

Contemporary abuse of a once popular biblical hero.

Why the rabbis came to imagine Ahasuerus as a usurper who halted the rebuilding of the Temple and his wife Vashti as a wicked and grotesque Babylonian princess, who lived as a libertine and persecuted Jews.

How do the names in Megillat Esther correlate with those we know from Persian history? Do some of them refer to the historical personages described in the Greek sources of Herodotus and Ctesias?^[1]

Biblical, Traditional, and Not-So-Traditional Interpretations

One of the main themes in Megillat Esther is the death of Haman, the descendent of Agag, last king of Amalek, at the hands of Mordecai and Esther, Benjaminites from the family of King Saul. Is this just a coincidence?

The reason for Mordecai’s defiance is not explained in the book of Esther. The midrash, the targum, and the Greek versions of Esther fill in the gaps.

A close literary reading reveals the seams of two independent stories: the Harem Intrigue (Esther) and the Court Intrigue (Mordechai) and how they were connected to the festival of Purim.^[1]