Vashti: The Queen Who Kept Her Clothes On

[kyel]

http://www.jewishjournal.com/purim/article/purims_other_woman_vashti_the_queen_who_kept_her_clothes_on

What is wrong with Reformists?!

In the Book of Esther, Vashti is a brave woman who risked her life for her beliefs. She was a woman who did pick her battles — and this was not a small matter of a single party. By refusing the king’s summons, Vashti was taking a stand for women’s rights.

The unflattering descriptions of Vashti’s character originate not in the actual Book of Esther but from later commentary. Talmudic scholars came up with a host of theories and explanations about Vashti and her fate, theories that ranged from unfounded to absurd:


 But if Vashti is a feminist role model, does that mean Esther, who — dare I put it this way? — slept her way to the top and was obedient and subservient to the king, is not? Especially since Esther’s strategy for saving the Jewish people involved not just praying and fasting but also getting the king drunk and deliberately arousing his jealousy.

The short — and feminist — answer is that Esther didn’t have a choice. Today, thanks to centuries of women (and men) who have fought for women’s rights, women occupy positions of power across all different fields. Today, sleeping your way to the top is far more likely to land you in the middle (at best) than working your way there.

[muman613]

Vashti was a wicked woman who deserved what she got... The revisionists are the ones who should be shamed.

The deformed are the ones who do not hold by the Talmud which explain that Vashti was so wicked that she would make Jewish women work on Shabbat without clothes... Rabbinic/Orthodox Judaism holds the Talmud as the Oral Law which goes hand in hand with the Written Law (both were given at Sinai).

http://www.aish.com/h/pur/t/48951881.html

We learn more about her from the Talmud (in Megillah 12). It tells us Vashti would have Jewish women brought before her, force them to undress and coerce them into working for her on Shabbat. The Talmud then asks why did she refuse to come before Achashverosh (not being known as a modest woman)? The Talmud gives two answers: 1) because tzaraat (a skin ailment resembling leprosy) erupted on her body; or 2) because she had grown a tail.