ANOTHER COSMIC SYNCHRONICITY:
Queen Esther meets Estée Lauder
By OZZIE NOGG 20.MAR.08 [Jewish Herald Voice)
A Purim spoof
Researchers at the Jewish Oddities Studies Headquarters have determined that Queen Esther and cosmetics queen, Estée Lauder, are related. According to Professor Gonapull Yerleg, “The staff at JOSH now can say, definitively, that these two Jewish women both of whom saved our skin share the same spiritual, philosophical gene pool. Skeptics may pooh-pooh the discovery, but personally, this finding, revealed so close to Purim, gives me gooseflesh.”
Similarities between the two women are irrefutable, Yerleg explained. “Queen Esther, née Hadassah, was mentored by her uncle, Mordechai, who wound up on a horse from the royal stable. Estée Lauder, née Josephine Esther Mentzer, was mentored by her uncle, John Schotz, who mixed up face creams in a horse stable behind the family house. Amazing, no? And get this: Estée’s family house was in the New York borough of Queens. Queens! That fact alone should satisfy any doubting Thomas.”
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And while Esther is getting all this attention, let's not forget her predecessor:
Queen Vashti - from disobedient wife to religious feminist role model
By Tamar Rotem, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Vashti, Feminist, Esther
Queen Esther is the religious girl's superhero. There is no prettier Purim costume than a pale blue dress tinged with gold. But it isn't just because of Esther's glamorous dress that she outnumbers Vashti at the Purim parade. Esther is the undisputed heroine of Jewish mythology. She represents the ultimate observant woman; her beauty and righteousness is hailed in Jewish literature.
In contrast, Vashti, who did not obey her husband King Ahasuerus, was excluded from the scroll and from Jewish history. However, despite the ridicule heaped on her, for the past several years the religious feminist movement has adopted the intriguing figure as a role model for women.
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"This is an ancient patriarchal society," says Dr. Yaakov Maoz of the Israel Association of Community Centers' Jewish Studies Department. "The advisers warn the king against a trend of contempt for husbands in the kingdom, nipping the Vashti feminist revolution in the bud."
In a modern, feminist reading of the scroll, the heroines Vashti and Esther are diametric opposites. Vashti is strong, does not agree to showcase her beauty, does not agree to be a sex object; while Esther uses her beauty and her sexuality.
According to Hanna Kahat, founder of religious feminist forum Kolech, the selection of Vashti as the new female model by religious women in the U.S. in the 1980s, followed by religious women in Israel, is an expression of rebellion against the religious establishment. As such, it suited early Orthodox feminists to adopt Vashti, as women sought models of women leaders with whom to identify. In this way, they began to revive and redeem marginal characters who had been excluded from mainstream interpretations because they threatened the male establishment.
"This is also what happened to Lilith," Kahat explains. "She became more popular than Eve." According to talmudic literature, Lilith was Adam's first wife and his equal. The feminists love the egalitarian aspect.
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Sounds like a first wives club in the making.
