Day 28: See-Saw

I have one more transformation story. This one is about an orphan girl in a foreign nation who was recognized (after a year of intensive spa treatments and training in courtly etiquette) as the highest ranking beauty of a powerful and wide-reaching kingdom. And that is only one way to summarize the incredible story of Esther the Queen. This is another prophetic event of Jewish history, like Joseph and his brothers, which to me seems packed full of clues about the way that Kingdom Come and its authentic royalty will emerge into full view of everyone, lowering and raising the proud and the humble, stepping forward in vulnerability and boldness to advocate for the doomed, and capturing Accusers in the traps they had eagerly built for others. I am more intrigued by Esther than ever as I have reflected upon the plot details more intently in the past couple of weeks.

This is a tangent but not really, because it comes as part of my reflections upon the Story of Esther. . .
Was anyone else not allowed to use the word "lucky" as a kid? Lady Luck and the Goddess Fortune are not easily invoked by those folks who are certain that all events, details and outcomes are controlled by the fatherly hand of Providence. I was taught that saying something was "lucky" or "fortunate" or "coincidental" was to participate in a view of reality that seemed to identify certain events as chance or happenstance. Card and dice games, gambling, horoscopes, playing the lottery, drawing straws, casting lots, buying raffle tickets, betting on horse races or athletic matches, filling out a form to win the grocery-store spree, might be seen as a placing of one's hopes in Lady Luck or Madame Fortune and various groups of people have named some such activities as sinful vices or, at the least, a careless use of time and money.

According to mythical and medieval tradition, Goddess Fortune has this wheel, not the flat one on Pat Sajak's show, but an upright one more like on The Price is Right. Or picture a Ferris wheel. I must have seen a drawing of it once with different people tied to it. When the wheel of Fortune is turned, the people who were at the top go down to the bottom and the people who were on the bottom go to the top. Or you could picture a see-saw, where both sides of the plank just can't be up.

Now it seems to me that people who sing "Luck, Be A Lady Tonight", or unfortunate people who are longing for a reversal of Fortune's wheel are not any more believers in randomness than someone who invokes Providence. They are just picturing a different person, but in every case a powerful figure who is pulling strings or turning wheels behind the scenes of visible reality. Even "fate" is a reference to the mythical three Fates, ladies who end your life by taking their scissors to your particular yarn of existence. The difference would be not whether someone had a role in guiding your destiny, but whether it was arbitrary and blind with no personal concern for a human "puppet" or whether the guiding action was purposeful and concerned and relationally involved with a person's destiny.

Back to Esther . . .

The Book of Esther is another one of my favorite delay of recognition stories. I am loving it more than ever as I am discovering many things I never knew or noticed about this story before. First of all, there is a Jewish book of Esther (which is recognized as canonical to Protestants and Jews) and a Greek book of Esther which would be in the Bible of non-Protestant Christians. Every Bible I have read includes the original Jewish book, but my NRSV study Bible also includes, as part of the Apocryphal writings, the expanded Greek Esther which is generally the same as the Jewish Esther with about 5 or 6 extra chunks added to the original story during a later part of Jewish history. One thing that is interesting to me is that the Jewish Esther has no reference to God, and seems to be a generally secular story. But the Greek Esther is much more overtly pious, adding prayers of Esther and Mordecai to God, prophetic dreams and interpretations of a religious tone, an emotional tone and religious description of the scene of Esther's uninvited entry to the king's throne room, and also word-for-word descriptions of the two major Purim day edicts written on behalf of the king by first Haman and then Mordecai.

I also saw an excellent film version of the story of Esther in the last few weeks which made me think more about the story. (Released in 2000 by Lions Gate starring Louise Lombard and F. Murray Abraham.)

Now a few fascinating things about this story, just to get warmed up:
The Jewish religious holiday called "Purim", which is a two-day costumed festival and celebration of the story of Esther saving her people from genocide, gets its name from the word for casting lots. So isn't it kind of like the holiday is called "Roll of the Dice?"

The Hebrew girl Haddasah chose a "stage name" so she could keep her Jewish identity hidden from the court when she was cast as one of the Harem Follies and eventually became the queen. The name she chose, Esther, means hidden, or concealed from recognition. I was so excited when I found this article, which shows me even more how Esther's story is connected to my theme: Delay of Recognition. Rabbi Levy tells us that the Hebrew name for the scroll of Esther is Megillat Esther which means in English: revealing the hidden.

I have lots and lots to cast, I mean say :), about Esther but I need to stop for today, more tomorrow!