Last night, I completed the seventh of ten musical compositions honoring many of the prominent women of the Hebrew Scriptures. The music and the poem is influenced by the story of Esther (the Book of Esther). The Jewish holiday, Purim, is celebrated remembering the courage of this woman in salvation history.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF ESTHER’S STORY
Esther, an orphan adopted by her Uncle Mordecai, lived in the diaspora during the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. The king of Persia seeking a new wife gathered all eligible, beautiful virgins of his kingdom into his harem. Esther was one of those virgins in his harem. Not revealing her Jewish heritage, she offers herself to the king, who, apparently pleased with her made her his queen. Within the royal court, there was a power struggle between Esther’s Uncle Mordecai and Haman, a official of the Persian empire. Haman, seeking more and more power, seeks to eliminate Mordecai and all the Jews exiled to Persia. Haman’s plan to begin a war of genocide on the Jewish people is sanctioned by the king. Mordecai warns Esther of Haman’s treachery and plan. To go unsummoned to the king’s bedchamber was a crime punishable by death. Esther is a woman of great courage who places the lives of her people before her own. As she leaves, she says that if she perishes, she perishes, but nothing will deter from pleading her cause before the king. Esther enters the king’s bedchamber uninvited. Instead of having her executed, the king welcomes her and accepts her invitation to two massive banquets to which Esther’s enemies were also invited. Beguiled by her charms during the second banquet, the king listens in earnest as she reveals the intent and the treachery of Haman. Haman and his family end up executed, the Jewish people in exile are saved from genocide, and Mordecai is elevated to a position of power. Esther’s influence grows daily in the Persian Empire as its queen.
While Esther is celebrated as a heroine within the Jewish faith, not all like her story. The overly pietistic/righteous consider her behavior immoral. Esther did not give a second thought about losing her virginity to the king prior to marriage. Also, Esther had no trouble following the rules and lifestyle of women living in a harem. There are Rabbi’s that are upset that the presence of God is implicit rather than explicit in the story. No where within the story is God called by name. Also, the requirement of following Mosaic Law is largely ignored by Esther, who disregards the dietary laws of the Jewish faith. On top of this, Esther enters into marriage with a Gentile.
In spite of all the objections from the religiously rigid segment of the Jewish faith, the story of Esther is celebrated by most of the Jewish faithful. The story is consistent with the Canticles of both Hannah and Mary, in which God lowers to servitude the rich, powerful and mighty, and raises to prominence the poor, the powerless, and the vulnerable. The Catholic Church would call this “God’s preferential option for the poor.” God’s love is always with the most vulnerable, e.g. the widows and orphans. God never abandons those who are devoted to God.
THE MUSIC
ABOUT THE MUSIC
There are three main sections of music in the song. The first section is in C minor. There is a repeating motif (musical theme) representing Esther, the strong melody and chords meant to represent her strength as a woman of action. The second section, modulating to the key of Eb major, and more gentle in sound, represents her vulnerability as a Jewish woman in exile, prepared to sacrifice her life for her people. The third section is a recap of the first, with a Coda (ending).
THE POEM
The function of divine mediation
to which we assign our religions,
can impede rather than aid
our connection to God,
obstructing our pathway to holiness.
Jewish, exiled, and a woman,
in the shadows of Persia,
living among the enslaved,
the marginalized and powerless.
you make your own path to God.
Your virginity and beauty,
highly regarded, sought after assets
in a royal harem, you sacrifice
on the royal altar/bed of the king,
so that your people’s voices
may speak through your voice.
You close your ears to the
pietistic wagging of tongues,
and religious condemnation
arising from rigid fundamentalism,
and enter the king’s bedchamber.
Ancient and modern politicians
in the pursuit of power and wealth
feed on fear and persecution
of the powerless and vulnerable,
breeding massacres of the innocent
and mass genocide of peoples.
The murderous contempt for your people,
the planned destruction of your family
planned by political enemies
and sanctioned by the king,
lead you unsummoned, uninvited
to the bedchamber of the king.
Your voice, the sole defense
of your people, finds you at his door.
To enter uninvited is a death sentence.
It is far better to perish,
your voice stopped forever
by the executioner’s axe
than to remain silent.
Armed only with justice and courage,
you enter to confront your fate.
Death did not greet you that night.
Was it your beauty, your charm,
your political intelligence that
inspired the king to welcome
your presence and your invitation
to plead your cause?
Was it your eloquent discourse
that unmasked the treachery
of your enemies?
Or, was it God that guided you
to the king’s harem,
to the bedchamber of the king,
placing your body, your virginity,
your life at the disposal of the king?
Our pathway to God is littered
by human, institutional constructs,
less divinely influenced, and
more often twisted by human reason.
These constructs wish to reveal
only one true way, one true path
to the Divine, refusing to acknowledge
the many pathways open to God.
Though you were Jewish,
God led you by a different path,
the only one by which you were able
to save yourself and your people.
It is often that the way to God
is not through the powerful
and the mighty of the earth,
but through the most vulnerable,
the widows and orphans,
to whom God always listens
and whom God never abandons.
© 2021, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE POEM
I am thinking of the poem/reflections in this collection of Canticles as a form of the epic poem, essentially telling the story of a person in poetic form. However, these stories also contain a moral or a teaching directly related to the story. In the case of Esther, I find two morals or lessons. 1) There is not just one path only to God, but many paths upon which God guides us to holiness. This requires us at times, to purposely choose differently from what is taught by our particular religion in order to grow into a deeper relationship with God and others. 2) Throughout both Hebrew and Christian scriptures, we find God often works not through the powerful and the mighty but through the most vulnerable, insignificant, and most powerless. Those whom God loves, God will never abandon.
