Belonging and Becoming in the Book of Esther
Esther - Kristin Joachimsen
Anne-Mareike Schol-Wetter [+]
Dutch Bible Society
Description
Is Esther a Jewish book? Is it a book about Jewish identity? If so, is this a predominantly religious or ethnic concept, or neither, or both, and how helpful are contemporary conceptualizations of identity in the first place? The absence of God, as well as other identity markers known to be significant in the Persian era, has led some scholars to argue that Judaism in the Hebrew version of Esther is “ethnic and "no more” (Larkin 1996) or even that Esther is a narrative about how not to be a Jew (Korpel 2008). After some preliminary thoughts on the usefulness of contemporary theories on ethnicity and religion, this article will investigate how the author plays with different forms of belonging that are difficult to capture in conventional approaches to “Jewish identity.” While the addition of prayers and references to food laws make Greek Esther more obviously “Jewish’,” the Hebrew version sketches a more mobile and resilient form of “Jewishness,” one that is hidden between the lines and thus can survive in circumstances that demand a great measure of adaptation. After looking at how the portrayal of Mordecai, the fast in ch. 4, and the institution of Purim contribute to how the book deals with identity and belonging, I close with some remarks about Esther as an example of “becoming,” a concept put forward by feminist scholar Rosi Braidotti.