Today is Ta’anit Ester, a half-day fast in solidarity with the biblical Esther who orchestrated a three-day hunger strike to boost her chance of success in approaching the king without having been summoned, potentially a capital offense.

This morning, one of the regular minyan attendees texted that he had to leave at 8:00, likely before the usual service ending time. I responded, “We’ll have to davven faster.”

Pun aside, a few words about Ester.

Koleich, Women’s Religious Forum, is an Israeli organization about Orthodox Jewish feminism and religious Zionism. In 2009, Koleich published a 10th anniversary anthology of writings on the cycle of the Jewish year and Torah portions. (All but four of the 123 contributions were written by women.)

In a piece relating to Purim, Prof. Margalit Shilo (Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Department, Bar Ilan University) writes that early in the tale of Ester is a reinforcement of the patriarchy in Persia. That Queen Vashti refuses an order of King Achashevirosh is seized upon as an opportunity for an edict demanding “that all wives, at every stratum of society, shall honor their husbands.…”

Vashti is dethroned, though not explicitly banished or otherwise punished, except, perhaps, by being sequestered in the harem. She thus serves as an object lesson for other uppity wives.

At her uncle Mordechai’s behest, Ester enters the beauty pageant to determine the next queen. She follows the protocol of a year’s worth of preparatory spa treatments, and wins! When existential trouble arises in the form of Haman, Ester accedes to Modechai’s charge that she step up to save the Jews of Persia — and herself. (Cue the fast.)

In due course, Ester eschews the king’s offer of up to 49% of the kingdom, instead exposing the treachery of Haman. She then appoints Mordechai to manage Haman’s estate, persuades the king to issue a prescriptive edict to address the earlier one (“Kill the Jews!”). And, Haman and his ten sons are executed and impaled — literally sticking it to the patriarchy!

Prof. Shilo notes that, even to our ancient sages, Ester is a paragon of feminist awareness, initiative and assertiveness. Therefore the megila is named after her rather than, say, after Mordechai, the male protagonist.

It is too easy to imagine a different outcome had Ester accepted the regressive expectations of the patriarchy. A lesson for our time, for any time, which is why we read our sacred texts over and over and over….

Happy Purim!