Why Were the Persians Not French????

         This week in Megillot we finally looked at the text of Esther. We open on the wealthy kingdom of Persia, where the foolish king Achashverosh sits on the throne. Achaschaverosh ruled in Shushan Habirah, an underlying reference to Yerushalayim, as Yerushalayim was referred to as "Habirah." In these first few pasukim, before even actually seeing the story, we can already understand that there are parallel levels of Esther. There is the superficial outer layer of just the plot and then the underlying layer, the "latent content" of the megillah, where much more significant themes are explained. For instance, since Shushan is slyly referring to Yerushalayim, it is most probably implying that the Jews should have returned to Yerushalayim by that time, but they had decided to stay in Shushan.

         So now that we've got the background, we can look at what was actually taking place. In the beginning of the Purim story, we hear that Achashverosh through a huge party for all of the diplomats and officers of Shushan. For the last 7 days, he invites all the people of Shushan to come. Again, this would be the basic plot. The underlying assumption here would be that Achashverosh was trying to show off his wealth, glory, and power so that the people would know that he was not one to be messed with. Later on, we see that all of this power was actually nonexistent and that Achashverosh had a lot of issues as a king.

         So, Achashverosh is throwing a huge party. Great! For the last 7 days, when all the people were invited, it says that Achashverosh had issued a law that allowed the people to drink however much they wanted. Hmm...a little strange. Why would they need a law that allows them to drink however much they wanted? We could assume from this that Achashverosh wanted so much to believe that he had great power that he issued hundreds of laws that dictated every aspect of Persian life. He was afraid that if he didn't, the people would rise up and the entire empire would be in chaos. The people couldn't even drink however much they wanted to without consent from the king.

           Ironically, the king couldn't do anything without consent from his advisers. Throughout the text, it's quite obvious that Achashverosh was only what one would call a nincompoop. He simply couldn't do anything by himself! Even problems with his own wife were consulted with the advisers. When Vashti refused to come to the party, Achashverosh immediately called up his advisers to see what to do with here, and lo and behold, what do they suggest? Pass another law! Surprise, surprise! Now a law has been passed that says all women must listen to their husbands. Fantastic.

         One could only guess that from so much restriction rebellion would rise. However, it seems to me like no one in Shushan was questioning the laws that were enforced upon them. They simply allowed the king to do whatever he wanted. Basically any futuristic-colony book, like The Hunger Games or Divergent, could be called into reference here, but I really thought of world history. In the late 19th century, revolutions broke out all over Europe. People rebelled against the absolute monarchs who ruled them with cruelty and harsh laws. Many people wanted to abolish monarchy and establish constitutions and republic governments. For instance, Les Misérables is the story of the French revolutions in 1830 and 1848. The French would no longer take their insane rulers and they rebelled. Though in the play it doesn't turn out so grand, some revolutions, in and outside of France, were successful.

         This made me wonder why the Persians weren't upset with the restricting laws that Achashverosh was pushing on them. Were they okay with being restricted in everything they did? What was going on???? Why didn't they pull a French-revolution and rebel to get a better lifestyle??? Anyone????