[Avodah] Vashti's tail redux

[herb basser]

So I wrote Segal (he is the academic expert on Midrash Esther as I mentioned
earlier) about Vashti's tail and here is the tail end of my question and his
reply.

>So what did you say in your commentary about VAshti's tail? I guess it
wasnt an inyan of >znius just embarrasment about the tail-- is there a remez
in the pasuk here?

What, you don't own the book!? Following are some relevant, but abridged,
passages from my discussion of the text (with the notes removed):

 The Talmud's objection is not directed towards a specific feature of the
text, but to an apparent inconsistency in the plot as embellished by the
midrash. Having taken such pains to vilify Vashti  and paint her as a
sluttish and immoral creature, how are we to account for the fact that she
does not in the end agree to exhibit herself before the royal guests? This
would appear to be an act of mod­esty and propriety. The two answers that
the Talmud produces both state that she had been stricken with a
humiliat­ing blemish, leprosy or the "tail."
It is not obvious why these particular blemishes were chosen. Rashi tries to
show that they were inspired by gezerah shavah "s {...} The "tail  "
interpretation, according to Rashi  , was deduced by analogy to 1 Samuel
9:24: "And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon it, and
set it before Saul, etc." "That which was upon it" is designated in Hebrew
as the 'aleha, using the same word that in Esther 2:1 means "(decreed)
against her." R. Johanan  in TB 'Avodah zarah 25b identifies the 'aleha of 1
Samuel with the 'aliyah, the fat-tail of the sheep. Hence the extension of
the identification of Vashti 's "decree" with the growth of a tail .
Rashi's explanation, though ingenious, does not seem warranted by the actual
wording of the passage. It is entirely likely that R. Yose bar Hanina "q:
and the author of the baraita  had simple chosen two examples of bodily
afflictions that would be likely to cause humiliation, especially to a naked
woman.  {...} The significance of the tradition about Gabriel  giving her a
"tail is not as clear-cut. The commentators are not in agreement about what
precisely is being referred to. A persistent tradition reads this tail as a
euphemism for a penis,  while others insist that the text means what it
says. In either case we have a graphic (and comical) image that serves to
contradict {...} her femininity, including the very ideal of female beauty
for which Vashti was prided by Ahasuerus and which initially gave rise to
his command to exhibit her be­fore his guests.








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