RE: Esther
Nancy, I think you are very badly confused on this beautiful story.Esther was not Mordecai's niece, but his first cousin, daughter of his uncle Abihail. There is no suggestion anywhere in the story that Mordecai refused to bow to Haman because he was a Jew or that there was any discrimination against Jews before he repeatedly (and unnecessarily) insulted Haman in defiance of the King's orders. There was, of course, no reason to hang out day after day at the king's gate except to seek his well-earned recognition or to continue to spy on officials, even though his pertinacious insulting behavior endangered all Jews. If Mordecai was forbidden by his piety from bowing to the king or public officials, he must have somehow been able to justify his persuading Esther to engage in extramarital sex with a gentile to whom she would have by the customs of the day been required to bow to Xerxes among other degradations. Mordecai's telling the officials at the gate that he was a Jew could hardly have been in an attempt to gain exemption (because Darius son of Xerxes was not yet king), but must be considered race betrayal, as was his sacrifice of Esther to the king's lusts simply to be a stepping stone to his personal advancement. |
