an>t’s very hard, I discovered while writing the Forward’s guide to celebrating Purim, to write a straightforward summary of the Purim story. Did the Persian king Ahasuerus command his wife, Vashti, to appear before his friends or dance for them naked (the text relates that he asked her to “display her beauty”)? Did she refuse because she was an early feminist, or because she was vain, and does it even matter what her reasons were? Did Esther become Ahasuerus’s wife or a particularly favored concubine? Was Mordechai, the uncle who put her forward for the king’s inspection, a sex trafficker or an advocate for his people? And when the vindicated Jews killed Haman’s relatives and hundreds of other people, were they defending themselves or engaging in indefensible slaughter? Read Full Article »