The Bible Says What? Did Vashti appear naked before her husband?
Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers takes a controversial topic from Jewish texts and looks at a progressive response
I was told the story about Abraham smashing up his father’s idol shop so many times as a child that I was 23 before I realised this isn’t actually in the Genesis narrative. It’s Midrash.
Aged 26, I was teaching Purim at a Christian centre in London, and mentioned that Vashti was invited to appear naked before her husband and his friends.
One of the students disagreed with me; they’d never seen that before. So we went back to the text to prove I was right. I was wrong. The text doesn’t mention Vashti being naked – we just have our minds in the gutter!
The Book of Esther says she was asked to appear wearing her royal crown, in order to show off her beauty. It doesn’t say she was supposed to wear only the crown.
It is a Midrash found in the Talmud (Megillah 12b) that suggests she is in fact asked to appear naked.
Since then, I have tried to comfort myself by checking I wasn’t the only person who had learned Midrash, as if it were in the Tanach. In fact, many of us think that the text says something that it actually doesn’t, which fascinates me!
In this column we often look at the weird, wonderful, and sometimes horrifying things embedded in our text.
But sometimes, we discover that what we thought exists in the text is actually only in a commentary. Our stories as a people are complicated.
We tell them through thousands of years of commentary, and we are still invited to contribute to that ongoing process today.
There are times when I’m surprised by what the Bible says – and others by what it doesn’t say – but the Jewish story really continues by engaging with both ways and telling it anew.
◆ Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers is community educator at Reform Judaism
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
