Thoughts from a Rabbi

One of the fantastic things about the Book of Esther is that there is an entire holiday devoted to it! I actually knew nothing about Purim before I started working on this project, despite it being a major Jewish celebration, and I've really loved getting to learn more about it.

Jewish culture website Aish.com has a whole section devoted to Purim, and I found a lot of them to be really thought-provoking. I had been thinking about how Esther's marriage to Xerxes crossed culture barriers and what kind of conflict that would have produced in the Jewish community, so I was quite interested to read this article about intermarriage as it relates to Purim. I was surprised to see that it comes down quite hard against intermarriage, considering that Esther's union with a Persian man was integral in the Jew's salvation in the Book of Esther.

I wrote to that site asking why Esther's marriage was not condemned, and got this prompt reply from a Rabbi:

Actually there was a problem (with the marriage) - but there were two mitigating factors: 1) it was a capital offense to refuse the king and 2) Esther was only a passive participant in the physical intimacy. For that level there is no requirement to give up ones life.

I suppose that makes sense ... although the Book of Esther doesn't say that she was a passive participant in the physical intimacy, it also doesn't say that she was active in it. That interpretation of the scripture won't work for our take on the story, which is designed as a romance, but I'm glad to have another point of view if nothing else.