[Avodah] Vashti's tail

[Shoshana L. Boublil]

> Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 14:12:08 +0200
> From: "Michael Kopinsky" <mkopinsky at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Avodah] Vashti's tail etc...
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> <c1b3e2ee0703050412n4983a71bldb77254e9d15211b at mail.gmail.com>
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 We, as
> ma'aminim can see these things as miracles, but historians could see them
> otherwise.  Vashti's tail, even if seen only by herself, would have been
> seen as a nes nigleh (or at least a bizzare deviation from normal life).
> Thus it's difficult to understand Vashti's tail as being literal among the
> other events of the megilla.

Here is another take on Vashti's tail (posted originally to Areivim):

IS wrote:
> we automatically think of Vashti as a vain woman who would have been happy
> to display herself before Ahashverosh's guests, had it not been for a
> sudden
> miraculous disfigurement that revealed her true animal nature.

But mabye this is doing a disservice to Chazal.

Another way to view things is through a semi-historical view.

If you take the whole string of midrashim of Chazal as they go through the
first part of the Megilla, they describe how Axhashverosh became a king.  A
king who only in this 3rd year of reign felt sufficiently safe on his chair
to go to the next step and have a giant party, to more-or-less bribe the
nobility (and many in the capital and close by) to support him.

Remember that according to Chazal, Vashti was the actual queen and heiress.
Achashverosh was an upstart who married the queen.  In many places in the
world, depending on local custom and law, this would have made Achashverosh
the Prince Consort (see the current queen of England...). Not the King.

Achashverosh wanted to be a King.

So, he sent for Vashti -- not Queen Vashti, but rather Vashti the Queen.  He
was attempting to show, and gain the support of the people for his claim 
that he was
actually the King, and not just the consort.

And Vashti grew a tail.  Or more accurately -- instead of being the head of
the ruling couple, she became the tail of the ruling couple.  She lost her
rank as Queen and became the Consort herself, the "tail" of the couple.

At this point, she attempted to make the point that she was actually the
Queen, but she lost - not just "growing a tail" -but actually losing her
head.  [Chazal do have ma'amarim where they connect "tail" and "head" in the
same sentence when discussing leadership].

And Achashverosh was free to nominate a new queen - someone who wasn't Davka
from the nobility, so that it would be clear that he was King Achashverosh,
ruling in his own right.


Shushan Purim Sameach
Shoshana L. Boublil