<strong>Kosher Adultery?</strong> The Mordecai-Esther-Ahasuerus Triangle in Midrash and Exegesis

Abstract

T he Book of Esther presented a challenge for Jewish religious leaders in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods. Its lack of religious sentiment, mention of religious practices, or any reference to God raised serious questions about its suitability for inclusion in the biblical canon.1 Indeed it has been suggested by some that its unreligious nature is the very reason why a copy of the book has never been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.2 In order to make the book more religiously acceptable, authors of various communities undertook to rewrite it, making appropriate additions which make explicit God's intervening hand in orchestrating the events of the story, and which present Mordecai and Esther as pious Jews who fast, pray, and observe the commandments. This tendency is especially prevalent in the Greek version of Esther, but is also manifest in various midrashic treatments of the story. Bearing in mind this tendency of the Sages to judaicize the Esther story, in this essay I would like to deal with one remarkable aspect of the rabbinic treatment of Esther's union with Ahasuerus, which I believe has not received the attention it deservesÐthe tradition that Esther was married to Mordecai before being taken to the king's palace and becoming queen. After analyzing the rabbinic material surrounding this tradition, we will see how it was treated in the Middle Ages and beyond, focussing especially on two very di2erent post-rabbinic treatmentsÐthose of Rashi, the famous eleventh-century exegete, and Solomon Halevi Alkabetz, the sixteenth-century Safed kabbalist. One of the most troubling issues for the Sages was the idea that Esther, presumably a nice Jewish girl, married a gentile and had sexual relations with him.3