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about
A new interpretation to the traditional Purim story of Megillat Esther.
We are indoctrinated from an early age that Vashti is the "bad" queen, Esther the "good", and rivalry is the supposed relationship between the two. Condemned for refusing to appear at the Great Achashverosh's male-only banquet, Queen Vashti is sentenced to an immediate execution. The justification for this being "For word of the queen's deed will reach all the women and it will belittle their husbands in their eyes." (Esther 1:17). Death seemed a reasonable punishment to all that threatened patriarchy, and under the same patriarchal rule Esther paves her unique way into the palace, from one man's custody to another. But does she really ever stop being a slave?
With a Persian kick in the rhythm section, a Klezmer timbre in the melody, and a pentatonic touch in the bridge, "Esther" is about the pain and sacrifice women in religious history are subjugated to, and how all of us are connected at heart.
lyrics
Esther
Now it came to pass in Achasverosh’s reign
In Shushan the capital city,
Where the great king’s provinces from India to Ethiopia
A hundred and seven and twenty, so mighty.
In the third year of his reign he held
A feast - Oh, so glorious and grand!
But the king is ferocious; his wrath flares within him
His wife Vashti has been summoned and refuses, she refuses to attend.
Vashti, you are right to be bold,
The king's blinding the people with goblets of gold,
You’re a woman of protest; you’re the patriarch’s foe
So your days at the kingdom have been counted to go.
Thus came Esther to the court of the women
Not revealing her identity or state,
For the king has requested some new virgin maidens
And Mordecai has sworn her that her nation is the secret of her fate.
And so Mordecai paces, back and forth the courtyard
Worried, and anxious for her health
For Esther is his cousin, with no father and no mother
Yet when weighed against Israel, what exactly is a woman's worth
- what is she worth?
Esther, Esther, Esther,
She will be sold, and taken hold,
She’ll have a tiara made of gold
And yet she will remain controlled,
A slave, with a queen’s royal crown,
And great shame will fill the town, great shame will fill the town…
Vashti- Do not feel regret
Whilst Sons pay for their father’s deeds; you we won't forget
You devoted your lives, Esther and thee
At some point in time, women will be free.
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