Megillah, Daf Yod Bet, Part 4
ותמאן המלכה ושתי, מכדי פריצתא הואי, דאמר מר: שניהן לדבר עבירה נתכוונו, מאי טעמא לא אתאי?
אמר רבי יוסי בר חנינא: מלמד שפרחה בה צרעת.
במתניתא תנא: [בא גבריאל ועשה לה זנב].
"And the queen Vashti refused" (Esther 1:12). Let us see. She was immodest, as the Master said above, that both of them had licentious intention.
Why then would she not come? R. Yose b. Hanina said: This teaches that leprosy broke out on her. In a Baraitha it was taught that Gabriel came and fixed a tail on her.
Having said that both Vashti and Ahashverosh intended to commit acts of licentiousness, the rabbis are forced to explain why she refused to come when he summoned her. There are two versions as to why. The first is that she got a scale disease on her skin. The rabbis considered leprosy to be a punishment from God, which makes it appropriate for their perception of Vashti. That she was given a tail is a bit stranger. Perhaps we might surmise that being given a tail is a sign of her becoming like the serpent, wily. Tails are one of the things that distinguish humans from another mammals. In essence we are the tail-less mammal (although we do really all have tails, they’re just very small).
ויקצף המלך מאד, אמאי דלקה ביה כולי האי? אמר רבא: שלחה ליה: בר אהורייריה דאבא! אבא לקבל אלפא חמרא שתי ולא רוי, וההוא גברא אשתטי בחמריה.
מיד וחמתו בערה בו.
"And the king was very angry": Why was he so angry?
Rava said: She sent back to him: Son of my father’s stable master, my father drank wine in the presence of a thousand, and did not get drunk, and that man has become senseless with his wine.
Straightway, his wrath burned within him.
Why did Ahashverosh get so angry with Vashti? The Talmud ascribes a curse that Vashti made against Ahashverosh he was the son of her father’s stable master. I have read some research noting that this was a Persian type of curse. Interestingly, the rabbis while denigrating the old Persian king, are influenced by Persian culture itself.
ויאמר המלך לחכמים, מאן חכמים – רבנן, ידעי העתים – שיודעין לעבר שנים ולקבוע חדשים.
אמר להו: דיינוה לי! – אמרו: היכי נעביד? נימא ליה: קטלה – למחר פסיק ליה חמריה ובעי לה מינן. נימא ליה: שבקה – קא מזלזלה במלכותא. אמרו לו: מיום שחרב בית המקדש וגלינו מארצנו ניטלה עצה ממנו, ואין אנו יודעין לדון דיני נפשות. זיל לגבי עמון ומואב, דיתבי בדוכתייהו כחמרא דיתיב על דורדייה.
וטעמא אמרו ליה: דכתיב +ירמיהו מח+ שאנן מואב מנעוריו ושקט הוא אל שמריו ולא הורק מכלי אל כלי ובגולה לא הלך על כן עמד טעמו בו וריחו לא נמר.
And the king said to the wise men. Who are the wise men? The rabbis.
"Who knew the times": that is, who knew how to intercalate years and fix new moons.
He said to them: Try her for me.
They said [to themselves]: What shall we do? If we tell him to put her to death, tomorrow he will become sober again and he will require her from us. Shall we tell him to let her go? She disrespected royalty. So they said to him: From the day when the Temple was destroyed and we were exiled from our land, counsel has been taken from us and we do not know how to judge capital cases. Go to Ammon and Moab who have remained in their places like wine that has settled on its lees. They spoke to him thus with good reason, since it is written, "Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed" (Jeremiah 48:11).
The king turns to the sages who are identified as rabbis for they know how to intercalate years and months. He wants them to put Vashti on trial for disobeying the king. They wisely avoid the matter, sending him to other nationalities to do the dirty work. There is even a pun here in the midrash. Moab has "settled on his lees" unlike Ahashverosh whose lees were just shook up by getting so drunk.