[Avodah] vashti

[Eli Turkel]

Chana writes

<<My instinct is that it is because they understood the megila, in
totality, as being about everybody getting their just desserts (ie good
triumphing over evil). However, unless you understand Vashti in the way
Chazal do, then what happened to her does (and probably should) lead to
some moral discomfort.  - so I think one does need to conclude that Vashti
must have, in some way, been evil.>>

I agree with the thrust of Chana's remarks. Clearly Vashti even in pshat was
not a tzadekkes. However, simple pshat (and probably the way a historian
would see it at the time) was that Vashti was killed because of palace intrigues
which in fact is quite common. Hence we need not feel sorry for Vashti
but she is
still not an evil and immoral person.

The way I imagine things is what would have happened if a NY Times reporter
was present at the time what would he have said? In line with the nes nistar it
is hard to believe that the headlines would have been "Queen Vashti
grows a tail".
My proposal is that the headline would have been "Queen Vashti loses in
power struggle and is executed by the King"

-- 
Eli Turkel