Content warning: sexual assault

This year, Megillat Esther feels extraordinarily relevant – and not just because we are at war with Iran.

And when each girl’s turn arrived to come to King Ahashverosh, at the end of …six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women’s ointments….In the evening she would come, and in the morning she would return to the second royal harem, into the hands of Sha’ashgaz the king’s eunuch, keeper of the concubines; she would not come again to the king unless the king desired her and she was called by name. (Esther 2:12,14)

The king’s officials had collected beautiful virgin girls from all the many provinces of his kingdom. The word ne’arot probably means exactly what it means in modern Hebrew. Girls. Teenagers? Maybe even a bit younger?

In the royal harem, each girl spent a year of preparation with oils, perfumes, and ointments – until she entered the king’s chambers one evening and returned in the morning as a concubine.

The Megilla does not spell out for us what happened during that night with the king. When we first heard this story as little children, and even when we were a little older and had learned to read the words for ourselves, we had no idea.

Perhaps even as adults, we give little thought to those nights quickly mentioned in the Megilla, reading them as an introduction the glorious coronation of beautiful Queen Esther, placing her in exactly the right position to save the Jewish people from extermination.

This year, let’s slow down and notice that King Ahashverosh spent each night with a different young girl, who had been carefully spiced and marinated as if she were a delicacy for his consumption. The girl had no choice at all in what happened to her that night. She would do her best to please the king, though, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she would be chosen as the new Queen of Persia.

She had no choice, either, in what happened to her the next morning, when she was one of the hundreds of girls not chosen. No longer a virgin, she would spend her life as a concubine in the royal harem. Perhaps the king would occasionally summon her by name – if he remembered her name.

We ourselves do not remember these girls’ names, because the Megilla does not name them. We know the names of the king’s advisors and eunuchs. But the unchosen girls fade into the background and are forgotten. After enduring that night with the king, they remained secluded in luxury for the rest of their lives. They did not return to their families, or marry and raise their own families, although some of them probably had a child with the king.

This year, let’s remember those girls – along with all the girls throughout history, until today, “collected” by men of enormous wealth and power.

And the king and Haman sat down to drink, and the city of Shushan was in consternation. (Esther 3:15)

Perhaps we should not be surprised that a king who treated young girls as commodities provided endlessly for his enjoyment could also casually agree to exterminate an entire nation within his realm, young and old, little children and women.

May this Purim be one of deliverance from the power of such men.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)