Community Magazine March 2019

The Wine Banquet “And the drinking was according to law, with no coercion” (Esther 1:8). This means that the king enacted a law that no person would be forced or pressured to drink. A contemporary person reads this verse and wonders: Is it necessary to legislate a special law against forcing someone to drink wine? The Midrash explains that before this great banquet, in which King Ahasuerus sought to reach out to the citizens of his kingdom, the king repealed an ancient royal practice that had been such an integral feature of the palace banquets that the king had to enact a new law to annul it. According to the conventional protocol, at the beginning of the banquet a giant golden cup filled with strong, unprocessed wine was brought to enhance the merriment of the ministers and courtiers. The chief butler was authorized by law to choose several guests from among the kingdom’s dignitaries, and force them to drink a full glass. The goal was to get these guests to act mindlessly at the banquet, so everyone else would laugh at them and make them the butt of their jokes. The unfortunate individual who was chosen could not refuse, and he had to drink the entire glass even if he would become sick or even die as a result. In the words of the Midrash ( Midrash Esther , 1; Yalkut Shimoni , Esther, 1048): This was a custom in Persia: They had a huge cup that held 30 shmatziyot [a Persian volume measurement], which was called a pitka. Each person had to drink from it even if he would die or lose his sanity as a result. The one who was the chief butler would be made rich by the attending Persian dignitaries, who would hint to him [not to face them with the large cup during the banquet] and give him several dinars of gold so he would not offer them the drink. Ahasuerus did not bring this cup to his banquet, and said instead that whoever wants to drink can drink. The meaning of the words in the Megillah , “And the drinking was according to law,withnocoercion” is that thedrinkingwas inaccordance with the new law, such that no one was coerced to drink. Archeological excavations conducted in the Achaemenid Empire palaces have unearthed huge gold goblets in strange shapes, and everyone who saw them wondered, what kind of person drinks from such a giant wine goblet? And even if there was a strange person who would do this, he certainly would not be a prominent figure – so why would it bemade fromgold? It appears that these gobletswere used for the cruel practice of Persian kings in their parties, with the exception of this one banquet hosted by Ahasuerus, as our sages report. TheGreekwriter Aristophanes, who lived sometime after the end of the Persian era, describes the Persian banquets as follows: “They would force the guests to drink unprocessed, sweet wine from gold cups.” He does not specify the huge size of the gold cupswhichhave recently been unearthed and can be seen by our very eyes. Most likely, as many years had passed since the downfall Persian kingdom, he was not aware of this detail. Remains of Ahasuerus’ palace in ancient Shushan, built on a high plateau that still exists today. Enormous royal cups and bowls made from gold and silver, used for drinking at the feasts of Persian kings. Bulls made from marble adorned the pillars of Ahasuerus’ palaces, and were found in Shushan. 38 Community Magazine