[Avodah] Vashti's tail

[Zev Sero]

saul mashbaum wrote:
> RZS:

>> That's very nice, and fits well with the Malbim's take on what was going
>> on behind the scenes (which IMHO was meant more as a commentary on 19th
>> century German politics than on what he thought the megillah really means).

> I find this statement extraordinary. Why do you think this is the case? 
> I'm certainly willing to be convinced, but on the face of it I am *very* 
> skeptical of the accuracy of this statement.

My opinion is based merely on looking at what the Malbim wrote, and
at what was going on in Germany at the time that he wrote it.  I don't
think it derogates from the Malbim's kavod to suggest that he was not
above engaging in a bit of "Purim Torah".

 
> I find perfectly plausible that, for example, Shakespeare's Macbeth 
> contains references to contemporary British politics (the ascension of 
> James I to the throne). Macbeth is, after all, a dramatic work meant to 
> entertain his contemporary audience. Why would the Malbim base his 
> commentary on a book of the Tanach on a transient political situation? 

For one thing, he wasn't writing for us.  He had no way of knowing
that his works would survive the test of time, and still be learned
more than a century later.  He was writing for his own time, and for
his own countrymen.  And the topic is Purim, after all.

I wonder, though, why it's hard to accept that the Malbim didn't
really think the authors of the megillah meant what he wrote, but
easy to accept the very same thing about Chazal.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas