We Are Commanded to Remember Women on Shabbat Zachor: Parshat Tetzaveh

REMEMBER
This Shabbat is Shabbat Zachor. The reason it is called that is because we read a passage from Deuteronomy and also the haftarah from 1 Samuel 15:1-34. The two texts relate to the necessity of remembering Amalek and never forgetting what he did to us.

Remember—זכור— what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when your God יהוה grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that your God יהוה is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget—לא תשכח ! (Deuteronomy 25:17-19).

Since this is also Women’s history month, I should point out that Miriam appears in the previous chapter: “Remember what your God יהוה did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt” (Deut 24: 9), which is a reminder of her punishment of leprosy in Numbers 12.

COMMANDMENTS
When we come to this week’s parsha which is called tetzaveh, which means Command, we find that Moses’s name is not mentioned once, in contrast to his mention in the previous parsha of teruma, which began with God telling Moses what to do — וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר –and Moses’s name is mentioned over and over. This week’s parsha is full of commandments, but it simply begins with “You — וְאַתָּ֞ה — shall further instruct– תְּצַוֶּ֣ה — the Israelites”. Much has been mentioned about the fact that Moses name is not mentioned here and the fact that his brother Aaron gets the priesthood and not him. While on the topic of commandments, when we look at the Megillah, we see that in the early chapters, Mordecai commands Esther, telling her what to do. But when she is convinced that she has to act, she becomes the boss and issues the commands. Thus in Chapter 2: “Esther did not reveal her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had commanded– צִוָּ֥ה— her not to reveal it” (vs.10). “Esther still did not reveal her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai’s bidding, as she had done when she was under his tutelage” (vs. 20).

In Chapter 4: “[Mordecai bade the eunuch] to command her– וּלְצַוּ֣וֹת עָלֶ֗יהָ –to go to the king and to appeal to him and to plead with him for her people” (vs.14). And only after Mordecai tells her that if she doesn’t act, a catastrophe will happen and that perhaps she has been placed into this situation for just such a crisis. At that point, it is she who issues the commands. She orders him around and “so Mordecai went about [the city] and did just as Esther had commanded him–וַיַּ֕עַשׂ כְּכֹ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־צִוְּתָ֥ה עָלָ֖יו אֶסְתֵּֽר (vs.17).

VASHTI
But we have jumped ahead to chapters two and four without paying attention to Chapter One. It is actually the irony and sarcasm of this chapter that sets us up for the rest of the book. It is a brilliant move on the part of the narrator. In this chapter we see that women’s initiative is dangerous to the patriarchy. Vashti refuses to go along with her husband Achashverosh’s demands.

On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he told his seven eunuchs in attendance on King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king wearing a royal diadem, to display her beauty to the peoples and the officials; for she was a beautiful woman. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. The king was greatly incensed, and his fury burned within him (Esther 1:10-12).

But rather than find out why she refused, he consulted his advisors who gave him ridiculous advice. Basically, it was don’t let her get away with this, because if she gets away, all the women in the kingdom will be influenced by her:

“What,” [he asked,] “shall be done, according to law, to Queen Vashti for failing to obey the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?” Thereupon Memucan declared in the presence of the king and the ministers: “Queen Vashti has committed an offense not only against Your Majesty but also against all the officials and against all the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen’s behavior will make all wives despise their husbands, as they reflect that King Ahasuerus himself ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. This very day the ladies of Persia and Media, who have heard of the queen’s behavior, will cite it to all Your Majesty’s officials, and there will be no end of scorn and provocation! (vs. 15-18).

And as a result of this advice:

“Dispatches were sent to all the provinces of the king, to every province in its own script and to every nation in its own language, that every man should wield authority in his home and speak the language of his own people” (vs. 22).

IRONY: WOMEN’S INITIATIVE IS DANGEROUS TO PATRIARCHY
What the narrator of the megillah makes clear is that when women get power, they know what to do with it. And our rabbis were aware of this. So rather than sympathize with Vashti’s refusal to obey her husband’s crude demands, and commend her for her modesty and common sense, they demonized her in the midrash. It is clear that they were threatened by her as well. And it is possible that Esther learns her lesson from this, because she understands how volatile a person Achashverosh is and she can manipulate him to cause Haman’s downfall.

TODAY’S BACKLASH AGAINST STRONG WOMEN
Today when patriarchy is again taking over, there is a real lesson to be learned from the stories of Vashti and Esther. Just the other day I read an article entitled “Republican Men and Women Are Changing Their Minds About How Women Should Behave.”

The 2024 election felt like more than just a victory for President Trump. It felt like a victory for a traditional view of gender roles. …It appeared that what Mark Zuckerberg lauded as “masculine energy” was on the rise — fueled by a “manosphere” of podcasters and a subculture of women, the so-called tradwives, who have embraced homemaking and domesticity.

We need strong women as a counterpoint to the patriarchy, and so I’ll end with some excerpts from the classic poem by the early feminist writer, Marge Piercy (b. 1936) entitled For strong women.

A strong woman is a woman who is straining
A strong woman is a woman standing…
A strong woman is a woman at work
cleaning out the cesspool of the ages,
and while she shovels, she talks about
how she doesn’t mind crying, it opens
the ducts of the eyes, and throwing up
develops the stomach muscles, and
she goes on shoveling with tears in her nose.
A strong woman is a woman in whose head
a voice is repeating, I told you so,
ugly, bad girl, bitch, nag, shrill, witch,
ballbuster, nobody will ever love you back,
Why aren’t you feminine, why aren’t you soft,
why aren’t you quiet, why aren’t you dead?
A strong woman is a woman determined
to do something others are determined
not be done. She is pushing up on the bottom
of a lead coffin lid. She is trying to raise
a manhole cover with her head, she is trying
to butt her way through a steel wall.
Her head hurts. People waiting for the hole
to be made say, hurry, you’re so strong.
A strong woman is a woman bleeding
inside. A strong woman is a woman making
herself strong every morning while her teeth
loosen and her back throbs. Every baby,
a tooth, midwives used to say, and now
every battle a scar. …
A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf
suckling her young. …
Strong is what we make
each other. Until we are all strong together,
a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.

Hag Purim Sameach! I command you NOT to get so drunk that you cannot differentiate between Mordecai and Haman.