“But Vashti refused to come”: a feminist view of Vashti in Jewish American women midrashic poetry

The book of Esther features three named women—Queen Esther, her predecessor Queen Vashti, and Zeresh, Haman’s wife. This article analyzes midrashic poems by contemporary Jewish American women who reinterpret Vashti through feminist hermeneutics. Unlike rabbinic midrashim and traditional exegesis, which depict Vashti negatively, these poets transform her into a rebel against patriarchal society who defies the objectifying male gaze. Applying Ostriker’s “hermeneutics of indeterminacy” and Zierler’s “hermeneutics of identification,” the analysis reveals how poets across three decades have reimagined Vashti both as an autonomous subject reclaiming her voice and as a feminist foremother whose ancient “no” resonates with contemporary feminist movements, culminating in her explicit integration into #MeToo discourse.