- Share This Post
- submit
- 5
-
Sparkle (0)
The three days before Esther went to speak to King Ahasuerus, she and her handmaidens fasted. Requesting an audience with her husband was tricky business, after all, her predecessor, Queen Vashti, had been executed for refusing to attend her husband's party ("attend" seems to be a child-friendly way of saying that the king wanted her to entertain his friends with an ancient, Persian-style pole dance). What would happen to Esther when she went before him to admit that she was (1) Jewish and that (2) his right-hand man intended to slaughter the entire Jewish population of Persia?
She fasted, an action that is meant to shut out all external impulses and focus the person inward. She looked for internal strength, found it, and went before the king to plead her case. And even though Vashti was expendable as all get-out, Jewish Esther turned out to be his one-true-love and the king executed his right-hand man, Haman, instead of the Jews.
And we all lived happily ever after.
Every year, usually one day before Purim except during times when Purim falls right before Shabbat, women and men refrain from eating on a day commonly known as the Fast of Esther or Ta'anit Ester. This year, due to Shabbat, the fast falls on Thursday, February 25th while Purim falls on February 27th. It's the ultimate feminist holiday, honouring a kick-ass Jewish woman who saved an enormous community from extinction.
That story about Esther is the reason I always heard growing up about why we fast, and like much of the Purim story, it celebrates Jewish Esther and shunts Persian Vashti off to the side. Of course, it's a Jewish holiday so it makes sense to celebrate the Jewish heroine who saved all the Persian Jews, but what about poor Vashti, who stuck to her guns and didn't let her husband push her around? Who was in an abusive relationship and lost her life due to the lack of options given to women during that time period? Who has the story that women living today can relate to in the here and now? Because while few of us will be married to an all-powerful and remote king, many more will be unfortunately affected by abusive relationships where their thoughts and needs aren't heard.
Jewish groups on college campuses often have programs focusing on woman's rights before Purim. They use the time to educate women:
Every year Kolot plans a program for The Fast of Esther that focuses on the struggles of women around the world. Ta’anit Esther events have included an awareness program on Afghan women, a performance piece on violence against women, a program on body awareness, and a performance of The Vagina Monologues on behalf of the V-Day fund. The program takes place during lunchtime, and Kolot honors the fast by collecting students’ lunch money to support an appropriate charitable organization.
JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, also uses the Fast of Esther as International Agunah Day. In Judaism, unless the couple is married with special wording in the marriage contract (or a similar prenuptial agreement), the man does not have to grant the woman a divorce, leaving her in a limbo state where she is forever tied to her former husband and not allowed to marry again (a state which affects any future children). Women denied the ability to divorce (either due to the fact that the husband will not or cannot grant her a divorce) are called agunah, which means "chained." JOFA uses the day as a reminder for the need of marital equality--an idea that extends well past the boundaries of divorce--but utilizes this base inequality in marriage as a jumping board to discuss all forms of equality.
As much as I counted myself a feminist when I was younger, I never fasted until my first miscarriage, which occurred in the early morning hours on the Fast of Esther. I fasted because I was in too much pain to eat--physically and emotionally. The next day, Purim, seemed so loud and happy and out-of-place on my internal landscape. I still fast every year, both to mark my own personal loss, and to stand in solidarity with other women. But in the same vein as why Jews stomp on a glass at the end of a wedding, some say the commemorative fasts were always meant to counterbalance the partying that goes on the next day during
