西畫中的《圣經》故事：那個拯救猶太人的女性后來怎么了？

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加拿大英文教練（原溫哥華英文教練），致力于地道英文表達

猶太人滅國之后，曾在波斯王朝的統治之下。在波斯國王居魯士的統治時期，居魯士對猶太人相當寬容和友好，到波斯國王亞達薛西（亞哈隨魯Ahasuerus）統治時期，亞達薛西在全國范圍選王后，選上了猶太人以斯帖。以斯帖本是一個孤兒，被末底改撫養成人。當上皇后之后，本就有一定財富和社會地位的末底改更是水漲船高，父隨女貴，在宮廷里逐漸得勢，這樣就與另一位權臣，阿拉伯人哈曼結了梁子。權斗中，哈曼先發制人，在亞達薛西面前讒言說猶太人的種種不是。亞達薛西本就是個喜怒無常的人，以至于后來有人把他比作英國國王亨利八世，他下了一道命令，要在二月的某天，將境內的猶太人全部吊死。得知消息之后，以斯帖緊急面見亞達薛西，向其陳述冤情，最終，亞達薛西收回成名，并將準備好的絞刑架用在了始作俑者哈曼的頭上。

上圖：以斯帖去見亞達薛西

在《圣經》中敘述猶太人的歷史時，專門留出一章給以斯帖這位女英雄，還設立普珥節以紀念她對猶太民族的貢獻。下面這篇文章叫做《今天怎么來紀念普珥節》，我們來導讀一下，以便對這個故事的社會背景和歷史影響做深入的思考。

A perplexing paradox lies at the heart of Purim（普珥節，猶太人為紀念躲過哈曼之害，也紀念以斯帖的功勞而設定的節日）, the holiday celebrated this week by Jews around the world. No day is more associated with Jewish joy; yet rightly understood the scriptural source of our celebration — the biblical book of Esther — proclaims a terrifying teaching.

Let us briefly review the plot. The Persian king Ahasuerus — the character in the Bible most akin to Henry VIII — is overcome by drunken rage and rids himself of his wife. In a contest eerily akin to reality shows today, he conducts a search for a new queen, ultimately choosing a beautiful Jewish woman named Esther, who is advised by her cousin Mordecai not to disclose her religious identity. Haman, the high-ranking minister to Ahasuerus, convinces the king to decree a genocide of the Jews. Urged into action by her cousin, Esther plays on the king’s paranoia, engaging in court intrigue to turn him against Haman, who is hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. At Esther’s initiative, and with Ahasuerus’ encouragement, Jews across the empire wage war against Haman’s allies, and Mordecai is given the political position once held by Haman. The central ritual of Purim is the reading of this biblical book aloud in synagogue as a celebration of Jewish salvation and the defeat of anti-Semitism.

這一段將末底改說成是以斯帖的cousin，嚴格講也對，因為《以斯帖記》是這么寫的，He (Mordecai) was bringing up Hadassha, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother…Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 從這里我們可以看出，末底改和以斯帖本是cousin的關系，因為以斯帖沒了父母，所以末底改將其做為養女養大，可能二人之間的年齡懸殊也比較大，所以，表兄就成了養父。

Yet as the final words are read, and joyous song erupts in the sanctuary, the careful reader realizes that the security of Persian Jewry, and of Mordecai and Esther, is anything other than assured, and that even the swift nature of Haman’s fall is a reflection of terrifying political instability. In such a society, with such an unbalanced and capricious king, could not another Haman easily arise?

上圖：以斯帖向亞達薛西陳情

簡述了這段故事之后，本段話鋒一轉，提出疑問說，哈曼雖然被絞死了，但是對亞達薛西這樣反復無常的國王來說，猶太人的命運并不能assured。這里，我們就要提到亞達薛西的另一個故事，也就是為什么有人把他比作亨利八世的理由，因為二人都有心血來潮反復換老婆的歷史。亞達薛西之前的王后Vashti本是一個非常漂亮、有德行的女人，亞達薛西倒是“慷慨大方”，不想獨占王后的美色，要王后打扮好，在自己的群臣面前露露臉。而王后以女人不能隨便拋頭露面為由，拒絕了亞達薛西的不合理要求。這就讓國王覺得自己在大臣，甚至國民面前丟了面子，于是一氣之下，將王后休了。正因為亞達薛西的心性反復無常；他先聽從哈曼的建議，后來又殺掉哈曼，也證明他沒有主見，那么，誰能保證，今天他免了猶太人一死，要明天出現另外一個哈曼，不會說動他又再次朝令夕改？

The disquieting conclusion of Esther’s tale was eloquently described by my great-uncle, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. “If a prime minister who just yesterday enjoyed the full confidence and trust of the king was suddenly convicted and executed,” he reflected, “then who is wise and clairvoyant enough to assure us that the same unreasonable, absurd, neurotic change of mood and mind will not repeat itself?” The Purim tale reminds us that a government, and the society it oversees, can turn against its most vulnerable in a matter of moments. This is why, he argued, Esther’s story is no triumphal tale; on the contrary, it is “the book of the vulnerability of man in general and specifically of the vulnerability of the Jew.”

作者以其叔叔--一個猶太的拉比的話--發問，如果一個高官，昨天還得到國王的完全信任今天就突然被定罪被絞死，那誰能保證這個unreasonable, absurd, neurotic的國王的mind和mood不會重復呢？

That it was Rabbi Soloveitchik who understood this isn’t a coincidence. As a young man in the 1920s, he had traveled from Eastern Europe to study philosophy in the University of Berlin. The city was then a center of Jewish intellectual and cultural achievement; Rabbi Soloveitchik would have met coreligionists who saw themselves as both German and Jewish, who had served the kaiser in the First World War and were patriotically committed to their country’s future. They would have spoken of the Enlightenment, and progress, and religious acceptance in their society. Then that very same society embraced a Haman-figure, and the lives Jews knew in Europe disappeared forever. Small wonder, then, that a rabbi who escaped this inferno would recognize the frightening implications of Jewish vulnerability inherent in Esther’s tale.

正是這位拉比，1920年代從東歐來到柏林學習哲學，而那時的柏林，云集了相當多的猶太知識分子和文化精英，他也曾接觸過許多有德國和猶太雙重身份的人，那些人在一戰時為德國皇帝效命。他們在一起談論啟蒙運動、進步和宗教寬容，而正是那樣的一個社會，突然間就擁抱了另一個“哈曼”，猶太人在歐洲被連根拔起。這說明，寄人籬下，不管你一時間過得再舒坦，都是vulnerable的。

Why, then, is Purim marked as a holiday? If the conclusion of Esther is more nerve-racking than is often thought, what is the source of our joy? The answer, in part, is that it is this very vulnerability that makes Jewish heroism possible, and that is why, on Purim, we focus on the woman that gave this biblical book her name: it is Esther whom we celebrate. Precisely because of the constancy of Jewish vulnerability, we glorify Esther’s initiative, courage, and wisdom to inculcate these same virtues in our posterity.

作者拷問在當代過普珥節的意義。他認為，正是猶太人的這種脆弱性，讓猶太英雄主義成為可能：This very vulnerability that makes Jewish heroism possible. 正因為這種脆弱性，我們才要讓后人繼承以斯帖的initiative, courage and wisdom.既生于憂患，就必須要靠自發的智慧和勇氣。

Here we must understand how different the Book of Esther is from every other book in the Hebrew Bible. In this tale no mention is made of the divine; the Jews inhabit a world devoid of revelation. Whereas in every other scriptural tale political engagements are under prophetic instruction, in the Persian court God gives no guidance to the Jews facing a terrible danger. Esther, Rabbi Soloveitchik wrote, faced an unprecedented question: “How can the Jew triumph over his adversaries and enemies if God has stopped speaking to him, if the cryptic messages he receives remain unintelligible and incomprehensible?”

作者的第二個觀點更有深度：從整本《圣經》來看，《以斯帖記》是非常不一般的一章。為何？因為這是唯一一篇沒有天啟的章節！(no mention is made of the divine…devoid of revelation)，在《圣經》的其他章節中，要么有上帝的話語，要么有先知的話語，這就對猶太人乃至所有的信徒提出一個沒有遇到過的挑戰，“在上帝沉默時，你該如何勝過敵人？”

In this sense, Esther is the first biblical figure, male or female, to engage instatesmanship. Previous heroes — Moses and Elijah, Samuel and Deborah — are prophets who are guided and guarded by the Divine, but Esther operates on instinct, reflecting a mastery of realpolitik. As Isaiah Berlin wrote in his essay “On Political Judgment,” great leaders practice affairs of state not as a science but an art; they are, more akin to orchestra conductors than chemists. Facing a crisis, they “grasp the unique combination of characteristics that constitute this particular situation — this and no other.” Esther is the first scriptural figure to embody this description, emerging as a woman for all seasons, a hero celebrated year after year.

在這里，以斯帖顯示出來的是statesmanship, 靠的是instinct和realpolitik以及在以賽亞柏林的語中的 political judgement。簡單說，就是政治能力、權術！

上圖：哈曼向以斯帖求饒

Purim thus marks the fragility of Jewish security, but also the possibility of heroism in the face of this vulnerability. It is therefore a holiday for our time. Around the world, and especially in a Europe that should know better, anti-Semitism has made itself manifest once again. As Esther’s example is celebrated, and Jews gather in synagogue to study her terrifying tale, we are reminded why, in the face of hate, we remain vigilant — and why we continue to joyously celebrate all the same.

最后，作者認為，普珥節不單純是慶典，慶祝猶太人活下來了，更是警戒，居安思危的警戒。我這里稍作引申，當下發生在以色列的戰爭，恰好就是猶太人放松警戒的結果，而這個教訓不單是對猶太人有意義的。